<p>Greetings all. I am a current high school senior who is pretty much set on a pre-med concentration. I am about to bring up the debate between an "easier" school in which you can shine (in terms of GPA) vs. an elite school (will be much more difficult to achieve a high GPA)--however, I was hoping for some more direct opinions for my own situation. </p>
<p>So in short, the following schools will be split into a few categories (based on reputation more or less). Would it be best to pursue a pre-med track at one of the elite schools, a mid-range school, or one of the weaker ones on the list. </p>
<p>1
-Brown
-UPenn
-Duke
-Cornell</p>
<p>2
-WU in St. Louis
-Northwestern
-Vanderbilt
-Johns Hopkins
-UCLA</p>
<p>3
-University of Pittsburgh
-NYU
-Michigan</p>
<p>I know there will be some debate about which schools should be in which categories; however, any opinion will be valued. Would giving up the chance to do pre-med at somewhere in the "1" category to achieve a higher GPA at somewhere in the "3" category be foolish? Any other advice relevant to pre-med is appreciated as well.</p>
<p>Just because you goto a less ranked school doesn’t mean your GPA will be any higher. Maybe I could see it if you were talking about going to “local cardinal direction state university” But I highly doubt UCLA to Michigan will noticeably improve your grade. The one exception is if their program has a strict curve. </p>
<p>So ya find out of the med courses are curved, then just pick the school you are most conformable with.</p>
<p>I support iwbb that any assumption about ANY UG being easier (including the very bottom that nobody checks rankings for them) is not true. I heard from the top caliber kids from very rigorous private HS who for various reasons went to local college that the program is tough everywhere (surprize, many in this category have MD parents who are very familiar with the fact that name of your UG does not matter and what you personally do there is much more important than the place and also the price tag is important if Med. School is in plans). Another aspect to consider is that UG academics is not really preparing you academically for Med. School.
If Med. School is in plans, then choose the UG that mathces your personality and wide range of current and potential interests the best and it is a very good idea if this UG happens to be easer very cheap or free for you because of Merit awards.
And do not expect to slack at ANY place…if will not happen. In fact, if you do not adjust to college requirements (even if you are #1 ranked kid with tons of APs from private HS who went to a local no name UG), you are going to be derailed from you pre-med tracks (which in fact has happened to many Honors kids (mostly valedictorians) in the very first semester when D. was in UG. She commented that adjustment was absolute must, she went to a public state where requirement for Honors was top 2%/ACT=31+</p>
<p>Brown would be my first choice since they gave the students the most freedom to design their own majors, and you only needed 30 credits a year instead of the 33 Yale requires.</p>
<p>At the other end of the spectrum:
I read about Johns Hopkins on other college websites and read numerous postings on the incredible stress level. I advised my D to not apply there since life is stressful enough. Their med school, however, was lauded.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that many UGs give you freedom in regard to your combo of major(s)/minor(s) and in fact my D. and several of her friends have graduated with combo of unrelated major(s)/minor(s) and the ones who I know were able to do it in 4 years without taking summer classes. they just wanted to pursue their personal interests outside of science/medicine like Music, Art, Language,…etc.
As far as I understand, the only majors who would have a problem with that are engineering. This one is so challenging that fitting some unrelated classes might be close to impossible. Another aspect is at D’s UG, engineering majors were not allowed to graduate in less than 5 years, even those who were in combined bs/md program had to be in UG for 5 years. I do not know any other major that would be as restrictive.</p>
<p>Agree with the prior posters here and want to add that if you are looking for schools where you will have an advantage academically, you need to pick schools where your grades and test scores put you in the top 10% of the class. This list doesn’t meet that criteria. (Whether you want to attend a school where you are highly likely to be a top student from day one is a different discussion.)</p>
<p>I would make two additional points: Assuming you have the grades and MCAT score you need, you will also need a strong committee letter from your school (which means knowing profs well enough to get good letters of rec from them). That can be a challenge at large state schools and at schools with strong graduate programs where the faculty are primarily interested in their grad students and research. Take a hard look at some LACs or LAC-like universities to minimize this issue (or be prepared to invest significant thought and effort in getting faculty attention). AND you need to consider your state of residence. If you are from a state that ‘protects’ their medical school seats for in-state residents and the ratios are in your favor, then you are in better shape than if you come from a state that has very few instate seats relative to the number of applicants or doesn’t have a med school. (So if you are from California, you have an uphill battle. If you are from New Mexico or a southern state, congrats.) State of residence matters because it impacts the minimum GPA and MCAT score you will need to ensure that you have a seat.</p>
<p>^Great point. Your goal is to have a college GPA as close to 4.0 as possible. it does not mean that it is not achievable at Harvard. But you have to keep it in mind and evaluate realisticalle based on your own hard working habits and ability to adjust.</p>
<p>??
None of those schools would be “easier” to get a high GPA. The premed classmates would be very strong students. </p>
<p>Any school where the top quartile (where most successful premeds would come from) has high stats would not be a place where it’s easier to get a high GPA.</p>
<p>Pre-med crowd everywhere will have very top kids. No wonder that the department with the most common pre-med major at D’s UG (state public) had cut for Summa Cum Laude at 3.96. Many parents were shocked. ALL othe departments in the whole large state college had this cut much lower. Yep, you are going to compete on a curve with these type of kids (many valedictorians) in pre-med program absolutely everywhere.</p>