I am currently a high school senior who was accepted to both for undergrad, and I was wondering what would be an overall better option for doing premed?
Columbia:
Location in NYC means really good volunteering and clinical opportunities, as well as biotech and medical internships.
Generally considered easier to get high GPA than MIT, although could be because there's a lot more people at Columbia taking humanities and social science majors.
Very good research opportunities, although not as great as MIT.
Division 1 athletics instead of Division 3 at MIT (could be a blessing or curse, since D1 is also generally more competitive and time-consuming).
MIT:
Way better research opportunities than Columbia.
High average MCAT scores (probably due to the rigor of the coursework).
A lot less BS in the curriculum (it doesn't have Columbia's core curriculum so I can focus on taking a lot more technical and STEM classes)
From what I've seen, a stronger biology and chemistry department that supposedly prepares very well for medical school.
Looks like you’re an athlete-recruit at both schools. They both are not ideal for pre-med with the reasons you already said. I’d pick a school that is athlete-friendly with less genius competing for the A’s in those tough weeder pre-med classes (BCPM).
Regarding your point 3 for MIT, you should realize that MIT’s general education requirements are quite heavy, including in humanities, arts, and social sciences. The math and science part requires harder math and physics courses than premeds usually take.
From an “academic preparation for medical school” standpoint, there will be no demonstrable difference between MIT and Columbia. It’s going to come down to NYC vs. Boston, Core or not, and other soft factors that separate the two.
I think you’ll have a strong sense of where you belong after you visit the campuses. My neighbor was trying to decide between Columbia and Princeton. She ruled out Columbia upon touring. She was weirded out by the bars on the windows and felt there was no sense of community because students were distracted by New York City and didn’t bond as strongly to their peers.
If the environment isn’t a huge factor, look into the percentage of premeds who get into medical school from MIT and Columbia. I’m guessing they both have excellent acceptance rates, but maybe one is higher than the other.
Unless you are super-hard-core science and math, if you are committed to pre-med, I would suggest Columbia over MIT. There are large classes at Columbia where 90% of the grades are A. I think you will be hard-pressed to find something similar at MIT. There might be smaller, advanced classes where 90% of the students get A’s, but not large introductory classes where that happens. GPA is extremely important for medical school. Since your standardized test results were good enough for MIT and Columbia, I think that you can expect to do reasonably well on the MCAT, wherever you go. An MIT education might give you a boost on a question or two, but probably not on many. You also need to factor in the time that you will have available for medically related volunteering. If you are taking a very demanding course load each semester, you will have a hard time finding the time for that, and it matters a fair amount for med school admissions.
I think that the acceptance rates are not the best measure of the college to pick for pre-med. This only indicates how well students do when they have reached senior year as pre-meds and are applying to medical school. It does not indicate what fraction of the class entered as pre-meds, but decided not to apply to medical school. Some may have found an area that they loved more than medicine. However, I suspect that some were still interested in medicine, but concluded that they did not have the GPA to make applying worthwhile.
If you are not committed to pre-med, then the considerations become different.
You should see how you feel about the two schools when you visit.
MIT is an excellent school for certain future plans, to be sure. I would not advise it for pre-med, though.
I should add that I was premed at MIT, and wouldn’t recommend a Division 1 sport while doing premed. Medical schools aren’t forgiving about subpar grades.
Thank you for your response! Could you talk about your experience as a premed at MIT, as well as any advice, should I choose to enroll? I am particularly interested in major, research, volunteering, and how to maintain a good GPA. Thanks!
Pre-med acceptance rates are basically useless. Schools all cook the books in one way or another to get the highest possible number. I’ve discussed specific examples of ways to do it on one of the stickied threads.