<p>UIC, UIUC, or Bradley....tough choice</p>
<p>major: biological sciences</p>
<p>I don't really care where I go. Just want to to go somewhere where I can succeed the most and get into med school. While UIUC has the slight edge, i'm afraid the 35000 undergrads will mean minimal interaction with professors and less opportunities. Any recommendations? </p>
<p>Also, my AP science GPA in high school would be like a 2.0 since I got really bad grades. Is the possibility of getting a 3.5+ science GPA in college very slim? I worked hard in those classes but just bombed the tests due to, I guess, ineffective study habits.</p>
<p>Size is what you make of it. There plenty of ways to make it smaller.</p>
<p>so you're saying uiuc's size shouldn't matter? oh and also i saw that around 80% of bradley's pre-meds get into med school which seemed like a good percentage to me.</p>
<p>I can't tell you where to go to school, but 80% is a large number to get into medical school. Take it with a grain of salt, though. Make sure you know what that number represents. Does it represent only people who got in during their first application cycle (in which case, it's a huge number) or people who eventually got in? Does it represent people who applied through a pre-med program (i.e., people with lower levels of support likely wouldn't have applied through the pre-med committee or whatever)? Make sure you know what you're looking at.</p>
<p>I'm not saying that size doesn't matter. I'm just saying that I wouldn't let it be the deciding factor because what you do with the size alters it's impact.</p>
<p>For example, I went to a State public with about 19000 undergrads. I OOS and only knew one other person at the school. To make it "smaller" I was in the Honors program and I joined a fraternity. I can't tell you how the honors program worked out b/c I was only in it a year, and I didn't live in honors housing. But the fraternity was a huge plus. The greek system was only about 2800 students and I had 80 some guys in my chapter who became immediate acquaintances/friends and who cared about what I was doing (because it reflected on the fraternity). If I had simply been 1 out of 19000, knowing no one, it might have felt really big. And even with the friends I would have made, I doubt they would have cared as much about my grades as my fraternity brothers did.</p>
<p>The Greek System is not for everyone, and it only represents one possibility. Some people find community in an Honors program, others through activities like music or a club sports team. Others through working a job, or going on outdoor adventure trips organized by the Campus Rec Center. </p>
<p>While being able to make a big place smaller was great, the flip side I was able to use to my advantage as well, benefiting from all the opportunities available on a big Research I campus. So I was able to really adapt well (if I do say so myself) to a situation which could have been disastrous.</p>