<p>Columbia, Dartmouth, Upenn, and MIT </p>
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<p>My daughter got in Columbia, Dartmouth, Upenn, and MIT.</p>
<p>I'm not sure which college would be best for getting into Medical School.</p>
<p>Please guide me if you have any knowledge about this.</p>
<p>Students get into great medical schools from all of these schools.</p>
<p>More importantly, what does your daughter want to study? What kind of social environment does she want to live in? What kinds of extracurriculars does she want to pursue?</p>
<p>Perhaps, she wants to study neuroscience or biology. She likes MIT for the plentiful research opportunities (UROP) and strength in science. At the same time, she likes a liberal arts curriculum and wants to be involved in many extracurriculars.</p>
<p>Those aren’t contradictory aims at MIT – there is a lot of elective room in the biology and brain and cognitive sciences degree programs, so she could take a large number of humanities classes (or other classes that suit her fancy).</p>
<p>Most MIT students are involved in extracurriculars. About 60% do something art-related, 20% play a varsity sport, and 75% participate in intramural or club sports. There are tons of other things to do, too – you can see a listing of all active clubs [url=<a href=“http://student.mit.edu/asa/student_group_search.do?action=viewall]here[/url”>http://student.mit.edu/asa/student_group_search.do?action=viewall]here[/url</a>]. Extracurricular participation is the rule rather than the exception at MIT. I know I participated in my major extracurricular because it was nice to have six hours a week to run around and have fun and not think about biology.</p>
<p>I had to make a similar decision, and I narrowed it down to Dartmouth vs. MIT. I have a brother at Dartmouth who is majoring in neuroscience, and I’m at MIT majoring in neuroscience (technically, brain and cognitive sciences). I was a little disappointed that Dartmouth had failed to set up their neuroscience booth at their academic fair for admitted students, whereas BCS at MIT had a very nice display and very enthusiastic people to talk to (and free stuff!). However, my brother does not have any major complaints about neuroscience at Dartmouth. That being said, MIT has one of the top neuroscience departments in the country, the largest brain research center in the world and very easy opportunities for research. My brother being premed, like me, has also noted it is probably easier to find places to shadow a doctor or do medical internships in Boston than it is in Hanover (however, Dartmouth does have a medical school which may offer opportunities like this to undergrads). I personally know somebody shadowing doctors and volunteering at MassGeneral, which is a great opportunity you get as a premed by going to a Boston area school like MIT.</p>
<p>And as Mollie said, MIT has a ton of extracurriculars and the full range of humanities offerings (and the class sizes can be quite small). These offerings are further supplemented by cross-registration at Wellesley, MassArt, or Harvard.</p>
<p>If she wants to do undergraduate research, getting my UROP has been just about the easiest thing I’ve done at MIT so far. I haven’t heard of a college where it’s easier, and I’d assume that this would be a big plus in medical school admissions…</p>