<p>Accepted by both Columbia and MIT. Which school is better for future career plan?</p>
<p>Don’t think about it like “which school for pre-med,” think about it more “which school fits my interests and desires more holistically?”</p>
<p>The reason I say that is that both schools are great for pre-med. They both have great name recognition and solid pre-med programs. However, point one is that medical school admissions focus heavily on your undergraduate GPA – I would argue much more heavily on that than your undergraduate school. A 3.7 from Michigan is much more likely to be offered medical school admission than a 3.4 from MIT, all other things being equal. The most important factors being your GPA, your MCAT scores, and any medical experiences you have (summer science programs, shadowing, volunteering, mentoring), you need to select a college at which you can thrive and get those experiences to make yourself the best student you can make. (I think MIT is notorious for grade deflation, but I could be wrong.)</p>
<p>Secondly, you may find that your desires change. I’d wager that less than 40% of the friends I went to high school with who said that they were pre-med at the point of entry to college actually ended up pre-med in college, stayed that way, and went on to medical school afterwards. Currently I have 3 friends who are in medical school, whereas the rest are doing something else. You need to go to a school that will have the flexibility for you to change your interests, if you do decide to do that, as well as something that will support pre-medical education.</p>
<p>I’d pick Columbia but of course I am biased!</p>
<p>^ absolutely correct…every word of it…couldn’t have said it better myself</p>