Best PreMed Programs

<p>Stanford = HIGHLY grade inflated, probably a bit sub-par to HYP. I'd say Harvard is most grade inflated, but YPS are easily comparable in terms of grade inflation.</p>

<p>Cornell = NO Grade Inflation, absolutely none. If you go to Cornell and you don't know what you're doing, then be prepared to get a low GPA. I don't mean to discourage you or anything, but from what I heard, you should be prepared. However, Cornell is supposed to have one of the best premed programs in the world, lots of students get mid to high 30s on MCATs.</p>

<p>Stanford = comparable to Harvard grade inflation; Cornell = no grade inflation.</p>

<p>Thanks Rman.</p>

<p>BTW, how are Columbia, Dartmouth, UPenn, Brown, UCLA, and Georgetown in terms of pre-med and grade inflation.</p>

<p>Just rolling out RD possibilities ;)</p>

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I'd say Harvard is most grade inflated, but YPS are easily comparable in terms of grade inflation.

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<p>No way. Harvard is NOT the most grade inflated, and honestly, I think people who say that are suffering from Harvard-envy. Stanford is more inflated than Harvard. Think of it this way. Stanford actually has a lot of engineering students, whereas Harvard has only a few, and engineering is widely understood to be a grade-deflated major. Yet, despite that, Stanford STILL gives out higher average grades than Harvard does. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.gradeinflation.com/harvard.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.gradeinflation.com/harvard.html&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.gradeinflation.com/stanford.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.gradeinflation.com/stanford.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>why do i not trust a site called gradeinflation.com....</p>

<p>Juniata has an extraordinary acceptance rate. The best program is the one that gives you the best shot at getting into Med School.</p>

<p>what do u guys think about U Rochester for premed?</p>

<p>It's a really good school and very selective too. The area may just be a little boring for some who come from cities.</p>

<p>I've heard that Stanford is a bad place to be a premed. Apparently, Stanford doesn't have much grade inflation. I read somewhere that a majority of "premeds" and stanford end up not going to med school at all.</p>

<p>The majority of premeds anywhere don't end up even applying to med school. Stanford is grade-inflated.</p>

<p>Yeah, Stanford has the reputation of being one of the most grade inflated school in the country. But hey, Berkeley has a reputation of being grade deflated, when really, it's above the national average of GPAs, and the humanities and social sciences are going to have more A's and a lot more B's than the sciences and engineering. I bet Stanford is like that, as most schools are, so maybe their pre-med is only slightly more grade inflated than other pre-meds, but it's not as if everyone gets As . . . it might just seem that way:).</p>

<p>I have a friend whos mother's friend taught at Stanford as a lecturer about twenty years ago. The administration told he quite firmly that they don't have C students at Stanford, so she should not give anything equal to or below a C.</p>

<p>I am new to the premed world but my current HS junior daughter is beginning to narrow her list of potential colleges and wants a strong premed program. There are so many references in these threads to the Medical School admittance rates from undergraduate programs. Where do you find this info??? I cannot find such statistics easily on the individual college websites, in fact, I can't find it at all. Is there a central source for this information? If an undergraduate program isn't publishing these statistics is that a bad sign? Is this something that needs to be asked at interviews or directly to admissions counsellors? I understand that these statistics need to be taken with a grain of salt and that there are so many other factors to consider, but I'd like to have this info to compare programs as we begin this journey.</p>

<p>Thanks!!!!</p>

<p>sakky, i have a question:
you have the data and everything to prove ur points... but i am slightly inclined to listen to astrife's comments regarding adcoms at medical school (they use a formula, etc. to find out how hard ur school is), though this mite be because i am going to a major grade deflator school</p>

<p>my question is could there possibly be another explanation for the phenomenon that u keep explaining to us? (i.e. students at schools with grade inflation are getting into med school). also, with the "whizzes" in each class, how can an average student (me obviously lol) come out on top???</p>

<p>caromom:
i have found that most of the schools i've looked at have these statistics published on their websites. They are usually not very easy to find on individual sites (don't know if that JUST a coincidence for all of them). I you can't find a particular one and are really interested in knowing those statistics, contact the school directly. Ask to speak with one of their premed advisors/coordinators. Those people should be able to give that information to you without a problem. Also, I really don't think that it's a bad sign if a school doens't have this info published. Many of them are trying to avoid having people judge their program just on those numbers because just like you've said, there are many other factors to consider. Here's just a couple of the schools i've looked at: </p>

<p><a href="http://web.mit.edu/career/www/infostats/preprof.html#med%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://web.mit.edu/career/www/infostats/preprof.html#med&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.rochester.edu/College/CCAS/health/ApplicationResults04.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.rochester.edu/College/CCAS/health/ApplicationResults04.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>just a helpful link with some good info: <a href="http://www.rochester.edu/College/CCAS/HPHandbook.html#Two%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.rochester.edu/College/CCAS/HPHandbook.html#Two&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.cals.cornell.edu/Percentage.cfm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cals.cornell.edu/Percentage.cfm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>i wouldnt suggest using these stats as a basis for any decision...as u said they should be taken with a grain of salt.</p>

<p>I would just tell ur daughter to go whever she will feel comfortble and where she will do well as a pre med. In the end, as long as u have top notch grades, scores, and EC's u will get in sumwhere.</p>

<p>
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my question is could there possibly be another explanation for the phenomenon that u keep explaining to us? (i.e. students at schools with grade inflation are getting into med school).

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<p>Yes, there are some other factors, although they tend to be related my general theme.</p>

<p>The first factor I would name is that those who go to grade deflated schools tend not to have those other factors necessary to get into med-school, such as medical-related EC work and the social skills necessarily to ace the interview. </p>

<p>However, I would argue that this is actually highly related to grade deflation for one simple relation. Students at grade deflated schools have no choice but to do little EC work because they have to spend more of their time studying in order to keep their grades up. It should therefore be no surprise that they can't sport the many hours of volunteer hospital time that other candidates do. If they had gone to an easier school, they would have had more free time on their hands to do those things. Similarly, yeah, a lot of these kids have no social skills. But again, that's because they were forced to spend their free time studying as opposed to socializing, so obviously their social skills are going to be stunted. But again, just like med-schools don't really seem to care very much about grade deflation, they also don't seem to care very much about why you don't have EC work or don't have social skills. You either have it or you don't. If you don't have it, they don't care why you don't have it. They just see that you don't have it. </p>

<p>The other aspect is that grade deflated schools also tend to have a strong culture of simply not caring very much about their students in general, and such schools will also tend to offer few support or advising services. Without these support services, students have a harder time in getting into med-school. For example, I don't find it at all a coincidence that out of the 300 reported Berkeley premed applicants who applied to Harvard Medical School in the last 5 years, a grand total of 3 got in. If you want to be getting into a place like HMS, you need all the help you can get, and the truth is, Berkeley is not exactly famous for being helpful to its students.</p>

<p><a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/MedStats/top20.stm#harvard%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://career.berkeley.edu/MedStats/top20.stm#harvard&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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why do i not trust a site called gradeinflation.com

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<p>You don't have to trust the site, you just have to trust the sources, which are usually cited. Granted, some of the sources are hardcopy sources, but I'm fairly sure that if one of those sources is wrong or misattributed, somebody on CC who goes to one of those schools could examine those hardcopy sources and find out what is up.</p>

<p>You seem very knowledgeable about this subject. I have a son who is still in High School who wants to be a Doctor. So, what is your suggestion as to which college/university he go to and then which pre-med school? He is checking into CSU for the 1st 4yrs. Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks!</p>

<p>theres no such thing as a premed school...all premed is is a group of courses that fulfill medical school prerequisites (organic chem, general chem, general bio, physics, math, and usually english)</p>

<p>These classes are done in the undergrad school. </p>

<p>Your son should go to whichever school he likes and whichever school he can do well at and enjoy being there...premed is hard enough, so at least being happy in your enviroment makes it a little easier.</p>

<p>While there are the ivies and schools like hopkins that pride themselves on their strong medical history...i would honestly suggest he stay away from schools like that....just because its hard to make yourself stand out when it comes time to apply to medical school...you gotta go to a school that is competitive but also one where you can do very well. </p>

<p>But if you wanna narrow it down...i would suggest schools that have strong science programs and ones with affiliations or proximity to major hospitals/research opportunities.</p>

<p>Btw, make sure your son knows he doesnt have to major in a science...he can major in whatever he enjoys and still be a premed.</p>

<p>While I agree with what doogie has said, I disagree that you would want to stay away from the Ivies (although staying away from hopkins may be a good idea). The truth is, the Ivies are so grade inflated that you don't really need to stand out in order to get grades that are decent enough to get you into med-school. For example, I believe that the average GPA at Brown is a 3.5, and at Harvard is a 3.4. These grades are good enough to get you in somewhere, presuming that you have the requisite MCAT, EC's, and interview skills.</p>

<p>The best part of all of the Ivies (except perhaps for Cornell) is that you will almost never get a truly bad grade. Even if you have no idea what is happening in a class, put minimal effort in, barely even show up, it is quite unlikely that you will get worse than a C-. Practically nobody ever flunks out of the Ivies (again, except for Cornell). Hence, as long as you do some minimal amount of work, you know you're going to graduate. Maybe not with good grades, but at least you'll graduate. No such assurance is available at most other schools, particularly the public schools. Many of these schools do not hesitate to flunk out vast boatloads of students. I would argue that this is the kind of school you want to avoid most of all.</p>

<p>hmm im still gonna have to stand by my statement, even though you do make an excellent point. </p>

<p>Ive read it is very difficult to get into the medical school of your choice from an ivy, just because you have kids who are basically carbon copies of yourself from the same ivy. Its difficult to make yourself known.</p>