<p>All are awesome pointers, but one. I agree, that being as far away as possible is not for everyone and definitely not for one who wants to stay no further than 4.5 hrs away from home and having it as criteria #1 (my D.). Distance criteria has worked very well for my D. for choosing UG as well as Med. School.
So, as another pointer I would add, be very sensitive to your own personal preferences, stick to them, it will work out. Nobody knows you better than you.</p>
<p>*Some schools require students to live on campus. My school requires kids to stay on campus for the first 2 years, which is ridiculous. *</p>
<p>Usually these schools have opt-out exceptions…such as if the family lives in town or for economic reasons. </p>
<p>*If anyone here goes to an enormous school (student body size), could you comment to dealing with that initial overwhelmed feeling and how one can adjust to it? The two schools I’m seriously considering are huge state schools. *</p>
<p>If the school has some “fun days” during the week before classes start, be sure to be on campus during those times. My kids’ school has a Week of Welcome (WOW week) that is filled with ice-breaker events to meet new friends. There are also 2 other things that are offered the week before WOW week which involve canoeing and community service activities to make new friends. It also has a “get on board day” where all the clubs set up booths and kids can find out and join various groups. Other schools have similar things. </p>
<p>So, find out what your schools offer before classes start. (Which schools are they?)</p>
<p>BDM: Basketball and sweet tea? You forgot Bullocks.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids, UT and MSU. UT has ‘Gone to Texas’ which is the night before classes. I will definitely attend that if I attend UT. I will look up what MSU has if I choose to attend.</p>
<p>So I used the 10 criteria steps and I’m still not sure how to evaluate my choices… I find that there are pros and cons for each one of the schools, Cornell, Tufts, CMU.</p>
<p>Suppose I put all of the personal preference and comfort aside( liking the atmosphere, distance etc…) which is the best school for getting into a good medical school and over all success in life?</p>
<p>Cornell, Tufts, CMU?</p>
<p>Please answer the question I’m not gonna choose one because you said so ,but I’d love to hear your opinions on which one in order to gather more information and to see things from a diff perspective.</p>
<p>Colleges, go to Tibet. Plenty of great research going on at Emory.</p>
<p>Also why does Cornell have such a good reputation as a premed school when only 67% of its premeds get accepted into medical schools. </p>
<p>It seems that cornell has a ridiculous grade deflation and its difficulty jeapordizes a lot of bright kids with high mcat scores. </p>
<p>can anyone elaborate on this?</p>
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<p>^^ Thanks Curm. I just didn’t want to be the one of the few kids that doesn’t go to these summer research programs, since a lot of kids participate in them. Then again, the Tibet program, and the UK semester abroad are once in a life time opportunities that I shouldn’t pass up.</p>
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<p>If by “over all success in life” you mean which school would be better for you if you decide to change fields from medicine to something else, then Cornell would be your best choice. If you are pre-med, where you go to school really doesn’t matter, what is more important is what you do at that school. Choose Cornell if you are not absol. sure medicine is what you want to do.</p>
<p>Regardless of what I do at Cornell their premed acceptance rate into medical school is 67%. Whereas the other schools that I am choosing amongst are CMU (85%) Tufts (75%).</p>
<p>The obvious choice seems like CMU, but I see a lot of people on CC recommending Cornell over these schools. I’m just trying to find out why. Personally I have a hard time of choosing CMU over Cornell even though it seems so easy of a decision based on the percentages I just posted. Cornell’s prestige, academic quality, people, and resources lure me in but its med acceptance is too low.</p>
<p>Johny, you’ve obviously missed the point about this post. The spirit of BDM’s is to point out that you shouldn’t focus on stats or numbers or really, even anything related to that monolithic “getting into med school”.</p>
<p>I think that stats definitely matter and I don’t think he is saying to ignore them. I see his 10 criteria as additional ways to measure a successful premed school. But stats are not totally irrelevant. All of his 10 criteria fit to each of those schools I mentioned. I like them all in all of those 10 ways so whats left? Stats!</p>
<p>those acceptance rates dont mean much</p>
<p>Colleges. You are at Emory. CDC is at your doorstep. Research ain’t a problem for you. 
If you were at Grinderswitch University, maybe I’d vote differently. But you’re not. Heck, I’ll go to Tibet. You can can to Dallas and commute from my ranch. You just need to feed the animals for me.</p>
<p>ok so they dont mean much why because they are a little skewed because of screeners? Regardless which one would most of you choose out Cornell, CMU, Tufts for premed? Please don’t give me the “it depends on you and your interests and yada yada yada” crap! I’m looking for a straight answer! How about personally what would you do?</p>
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Do you think we’re withholding information or something? This is the best we can do.</p>
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<p>^^^Curm I sent you a PM. </p>
<p>BDM can I send you a PM as well?</p>
<p>I am having trouble deciding what my plan of action should be for my junior year. If you guys can help that would be great.</p>
<p>Unfortunately I had to disable my PM system due to hostility and whatnot. If curm wants to forward something to me I’d welcome it.</p>
<p>^^^^ Thanks</p>
<p>Curm would it also be possible for you to foreword my message to BDM too?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for the help guys.</p>
<p>** First Get in to the school ** Done, got into Cornell Tufts CMU!</p>
<p>**Second, it has to be affordable. ** Cornell, Tufts, CMU all are very similar in price for me I didnt apply for fin aid. So check to all of these they are affordable!</p>
<p>Third, you have to not hate it. Go on a campus visit. Take a tour. Talk to students. I took a campus visit of all of them and I liked all of them! Cornell I liked that it was huge and in the middle of nowhere it was good scene. Tufts was smaller which I also liked and it was near the city another cool feature. CMU same thing!</p>
<p>Fourth, you have to enjoy it. I enjoyed them all! People there were great but different at each school. I have a good time where ever I am which makes this difficult! or should it?</p>
<p>Fifth, the best school is usually far away from home. Tufts is closer to home, Cornell and CMU are very far! Still I dont mind to be close to home. I dont think the best school has to be far away. It depends on the person. </p>
<p>Sixth, you want to be a good academic match for your program. So BDM said compare median SATs with your own. My SATs are in the 50% if not higher for some schools. Although I don’t know if SAT alone is an accurate way of determining academic match. A lot of people have high SATs but mediocre GPAs and some kids the other way around. </p>
<p>Seventh, you want a reasonably-sized student body. Cornell is huge! CMU and Tufts are around the same. I don’t know where that leaves me. </p>
<p>Eighth, you want a “field-diverse” school. Look at the student body – CMU I’d go to Mellon College of Science which is pretty diverse. Since I won’t be in the engineering there is a lot of diversity I guess. Cornell is very diverse same goes for Tufts.</p>
<p>**Ninth, make sure the school has good advising. ** All three have great advising although I’m not sure how effective cornell’s advising is considering its 67% premed acceptance to med schools.</p>
<p>10th What you like… I like that Cornell is prestigious (ivy league) and the kids there will be very smart and knowledgeable (Same goes for the rest of the schools too although to different degrees). </p>
<p>Tufts: I like that the atmosphere is very mellow and relaxing. </p>
<p>CMU: I like that people there are very passionate about what they are doing. I also like the fact that the cognitive neuroscience major there is top notch!</p>
<p>Now how do I weigh all of these!??! to choose the correct one? </p>
<p>I have no idea! help?</p>