What colleges are on par with Georgetown, Vanderbilt, and WUSTL? I am looking for other colleges with a strong biology/pre-med program, but no Ivy Leagues, and preferably on the East Coast. Thanks in advance!
Undergraduate colleges are not ranked by individual majors or departments, with few exceptions (engineering and business, mainly). There are many reasons - one being that you are not specializing as an undergrad. You may major in biology, but it’s really more like a concentration in undergrad - most of your classes will be in other fields, and you are there to earn a broad education.
That said, most good schools that are on par with Georgetown, Vanderbilt, and Wash U are going to have good pre-med programs and good biology departments.
Might look at Holy Cross-very good pre-med/ science programs.
Pre-med isn’t really a major. Also, in recent years medical schools have said they are looking for applicants with a more broad and diverse academic background. Of course medical school applicants will need to have a substantive foundation in life sciences and math, but med schools today want more. For example, there’s a parent here on CC whose son majored in Chemical Engineering (which is not a life sciences major) and is now in medical school. There are math majors in medical school. There are Geology majors in medical school, science majors with lots of liberal arts courses on their resume, etc.
You will find solid Biology and life sciences programs at too many schools to mention, including the east coast. So find a school that you believe you will be comfortable at, where optimistically you will earn high grades (the main requirement for medical school), and that you can afford.
Biology is a staple major at all universities, so pretty much strong at every known college.
Choose a school where your stats are HIGH and that you can shine. You need to end up with a med-school-worthy GPA. Unless you have tippy top test scores and GPA, I would avoid those tippy top schools…too many super-star premeds there, and your chances of getting the As gets minimized.
I’m NOT saying that it’s easy to get a top GPA at a “lower ranked” school. The premed prereqs are hard everywhere, but at “lesser schools” the classes aren’t filled with 2300 SAT/4.0 students.
I wouldn’t choose Vandy. My nephew was premed there, and he soon didn’t have med school worthy stats. A premed student here on College Confidential had a 4.0 at UTexas-Dallas, transferred to Vandy, and now he doesn’t have med school worthy stats (I’m sure he’s kicking himself big-time).
Pre-med isn’t really a “program”. It’s just a list of regular classes that STEM majors take.
My son is the one mentioned above that was a Chemical Eng’g major who is now in high school. He went to a mid-tier flagship, studied his fanny off, and ended up with a 4.0 BCMP GPA and a 3.99 cum GPA.
Premeds can be any major…music, art history, poly sci, English, etc. As long as they complete the list of prereqs (bio, chem, physics, etc), they can apply to med school.
Since med school is very expensive, and usually requires debt, it’s best to spend as little as possible on undergrad.
What are your stats?
Amherst, Bates, Bucknell, Colgate, Emory, Franklin & Marshall, Hamilton, JHU, Muhlenberg, Tufts, NYU, Wake Forest. Binghamton, Rutgers and the University of South Florida are some good public school options.
William & Mary would be another good state school option.
(Some schools selected from, “The Experts’ Choice: Colleges With Great Pre-med Programs,” available online. This is not a bad source for identifying colleges which may be more successful than average in furthering the goals of their pre-med students, particularly when considered along with other guidance on this thread.)
for premed…muhlenberg college.
they even have two bachelor/MD programs (drexel and temple)
http://muhlenberg.edu/main/admissions/cooperativeprogramdrexel4-4/
http://muhlenberg.edu/main/admissions/templemedprogram/
“Amherst, Bates, Bucknell, Colgate, Emory, Franklin & Marshall, Hamilton, JHU, Muhlenberg, Tufts, NYU, Wake Forest. Binghamton, Rutgers and the University of South Florida are some good public school options.”
I’d substitute Stony Brook for Binghamton since Stony Brook’s science programs have a better reputation than Binghamton’s. And the difference is not a marginal one.
While US news department ratings are most relevant to graduate school, they represent the opinion of people in the field about the quality of that particular department. Attending a school with strong science programs will likely impact on the student’s experience. The choice of Dean of a school often reflects the priorities of the school. The Dean of Arts and Sciences at Binghamton is an expert on 1800s French literature and seems not to be knowledgable about science. In contrast, the Dean of arts and sciences at Stony Brook is an expert in physics although he seems to be knowledge about other areas too. (lists his specialty areas as elementary particles, the basic forces of nature, and the use of laboratory experiments to answer questions about cosmology and the early universe.). Yes this is a difference that matters. Choice of administrators is tied to the upper administration’s vision for that school’s future. At Stony Brook it is about science; At Binghamton, it is about the past in humanities.
The following represent the reputation of each department as rated by experts in the same specialty area: There does not seem to be any area in math or science where Binghamton is rated higher than Stony Brook (lower numbers represent higher ratings):
Ratings
Biology: SB (55 ) vs Binghamton ( 164 )
Chemistry SB ( 56) vs Binghamton ( 148)
Earth Science: SB ( 34 ) vs Binghamton (77)
Physics: SB (23) vs Binghamton (no rating)
Psychology: SB (46) vs Binghamton (67)
Computer Science: SB (40) Binghamton (112)
Economics: SB (58 ) Binghamton (Not rated)
Math: SB ( 25) Binghamton (87)
Political Science: SB ( 32 ) Binghamton (50)
Overall, the two schools are now rated the same. The two schools appear comparably rated in the humanities.
English: SB (63) Binghamton (63)
History: SB (64) Binghamton (56)
In terms of science, the two schools are dissimilar.
@mom2collegekids @LakeWashington I know that pre-med is not a major, however, I wanted to give everyone an idea of my future plans. I will be double majoring in Biology and History, because I am extremely interested in both of those. I have a 4.0 gpa and a 32 act. Thank you!
@merc81 @lostaccount I’ll look into those schools, and thanks for replying! Unfortunately, I wouldn’t get in-state tuition at the public universities, so they aren’t a good option. Stony Brook seems great, but they don’t offer much financial aid for OOS applicants.
I don’t think the SUNYs are great but someone had mentioned one for you. I thought that if you were going to apply to one, it was the wrong one. I’m not advocating for any SUNY!
One of the smaller SUNY campuses might suit you. The sciences at SUNY Plattsburgh, for example, are very good. The sciences building at Plattsburgh is brand new. You could be a big fish in a small pond.