I hope to be a pediatrician one day, and I want to find an undergraduate school where I will benefit the most in pre-med, so that I have the best chances of getting into a good medical school. What are some of the best schools to go to for pre-medical?
I live in New Jersey, so right now I’m thinking about schools nearby- does anyone know how these schools are for pre-med and which one would be best fit?
They are all good schools for pre-med. If you can handle the large school with bureaucracy and less personal attention (with the benefit of better research opportunities), Rutgers is the way to go.
Without the gift of clairvoyancy, how would anyone out here know what you’re looking for in terms of college?
The required courses to apply to med school are about a dozen lower-division classes, mostly math and science. Literally any college in the country can adequately teach the material. What is going to matter is how well you learn it, whether you get to know some profs for good recs, whether you prepare for the MCATs (colleges don’t run prep courses for for this, you do it on your own), whether you get patient-care experience (an unofficial admission requirement). None of these are characteristics of colleges, they are characteristics of you.
Asking about “good premed programs” leads many into a trap, since people love to give acceptance numbers in their replies. For med school admissions the acceptance numbers are meaningless. Impressive rates boil down to one of two things, great students or screening. It’s no surprise that kids that can get into elite colleges like Stanford or Middlebury do well in med school admissions 4 years later. Or the school aggresively uses their “committee letter” and only recommends the best kids. A regular poster used to chime in on posts like this to recommend one such school, Holy Cross.
Learn what it takes to get into med school by reading thru the very informative pages at https://www.rhodes.edu/content/health-professions-advising-hpa on the “PreMed Essentials” link. There is also a good handbook at https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/careers/act/gradstudy/health/guide and no doubt many other websites, as well as books.
The real question to address at this point is not what college, but why an M.D? Have you looked into the medical field and considered the alternatives, then decided pediatrics is the best choice out of them all? From the day you start college it will be 11-15 years before you are a practicing doctor. Doctors are far from the only ones in the health field that help people. Physical therapists, radiology techs, nurses, speech pathologists, physician assistants, to name but just a few. Spend a few hours browsing on http://explorehealthcareers.org Unless you’ve considered the alternatives and have spent time actually working in a health care setting it’s better to think of yourself as interested in exploring a career as a doctor rather than someone who has already made the decision.
Lafayette, Muhlenburg—yes and yes
You could read through here:
http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/lists/list/the-experts-choice-colleges-with-great-pre-med-programs/199/
If money is an issue (considering the cost of med school down the road) you may want to consider TCNJ, SUNY Binghamton, SUNY Geneseo as well (NYS schools have good OOS rates).
I can also tell you that my D recently graduated from Lafayette and loved it.