<p>Hi, just like the title say which school is the best to prepare you for med school</p>
<p>there would be no difference between any of those schools…nor would there be between a good number of other schools.</p>
<p>In reality, colleges don’t “prepare you for med school.” They all offer the basic pre-med pre-req courses…bio, chem, ochem, physics and calc. If the student does well in the classes, understands the info, and retains the info…that’s what prepares you for the MCAT. Getting a high GPA and doing well on the MCAT is what helps you get into med school. </p>
<p>No school can give you a strong assurance that you’ll get into med school. It’s up to YOU.</p>
<p>Won’t matter. My friend went to U Chicago and personally told me that the prestige of your undergrad doesn’t really matter. Why she said doesn’t really matter is because some schools, when viewed by adcoms in med schools, will give like a 0.15/something like that boost to their gpa due to its known deflation; vice versa. </p>
<p>She also mentioned to choose the path that saves the most of your resources, and I mean your money, for med school. Why you listed only basically top schools, choose the one that you’ll like the best as they all roughly cost the same to attend. However, rather than fuel your egotistical drive for prestige, perspectives change when it comes time to paying for med school.</p>
<p>Which one has lower cost for you, more grade inflation relative to student competitiveness, and better access to the expected pre-med extracurriculars?</p>
<p>The one that fits you the best. If finances are concern, then definitely take the cheapest option, but make sure that you personally feel “at home” there.</p>
<p>How can I find out which school has more grade inflation ?</p>
<p>why do you need that? I do not know how, ask the current students. The most irrelevant piece of information though. If you are unhappy at the place, if you are personally misearble, your grades will be negatively affected. This is your most important consideration.</p>
<p>@MiamiDad, Thanks, You rock :)</p>
<p>Premed classes at most reputable colleges rarely have grade inflation, even when the college as a whole may have the grade inflation.</p>
<p>Using one “premed factory” college as an example (not one of the colleges you referred to), Princeton may send 100-120 students to med schools (maybe one half of them with a gap year or two) each year, and each class is around 1200-1300 students in recent years (dependinging on the year.) Roughly speaking, the percentage of successful applicants are 5% for non-alumni applicants and another 5% for alumni applicants.</p>
<p>Assuming that the sizes of these colleges (Swamthmore is indeed smaller so maybe multiply their number of their med school applicants by two) are not drastically different, look at the absolute number of succesfully applicants. I would avoid attending one with too few applicants.</p>
<p>However, if you are quite sure that you will be a strong student/applicant no matter where you go, it then does not matter which school you go to. The top X percents students from any college (e.g., if you are among top 10%-15% from any of the colleges in your list), you will likely have no problem being a successful applicant. It is YOU who make it or break it, not the college. In a sense, the college provides a pool of competitive students so that it gives you an opportunity to demonstrate to med school that you excel in such a competitive environment. (This is also the reason why AP test scores do not carry much weight, as the pool of AP test takers are not considered as competitive enough in the eyes of med school adcom. Only about 40% of MCAT test takers apply to med schools. How may percents of AP test takers will end up applying and getting into a med school?!)</p>
<p>"However, if you are quite sure that you will be a strong student/applicant no matter where you go, it then does not matter which school you go to. "
-Strongly agree. Self-reliance is a key to succes, no matter what you do in your life and the place that you attend. At the end, that is what will make you, if you lack in this area, you will break at some point in a future. Do not rely on any external factors, rely on your own attitude, work ethic and make as sure as possible that place fits you personally. Every single pre-med who my D. knew at her UG is in Med. School currently. It does not mean that all pre-meds from her UG got in. It means that D. has chosen to be around people who did everything possible to get accepted. She did not go to any top school, she was at public state college that did not even have a Medical School. She researched a lot (in person) when choosing her UG, including several visits to various ones, overnights, staying with potential sport team (ended up not doing varsity or even club sport for the lack of time). She talked a lot to current students, she checked out campus. She knew where she would feel comfy and where she would not. Grades inflation/deflation or whatever were not on her mind at all. She assumed that she would continue to have As if she worked hard. She was shocked by the gap in academics between her private prep. HS and college requirements. She realized that adjustment to a much higher level of challenge is required. She did just that, adjusted and was fine. But she was at the place where she was happy, she loved it, visited a lot even while at Medical School. This made adjustment easier.</p>
<p>Premed classes at most reputable colleges rarely have grade inflation, even when the college as a whole may have the grade inflation.</p>
<p>this is so true. </p>
<p>I know a pre-med at an ivy and he assumed that because his school was famous for grade inflation that he’d find that in his pre-med pre-reqs. Wrong. He’s had to really work for those A’s.</p>
<p>^Every pre-med that I know, including all very top caliber kids from D’s private prep. HS who ended up going to state public UG (most eith MD parents did just that, as parents knew that the name of UG did not matter), had to work extremely hard for their As and adjust to much higher academic requirements at college. The gap in academics from the best HS in a area and the low ranked college wa enourmous and some of these valedictorians ended up not considering medicine any more after very first semester of Bio despite having all the 5s and As in their HS AP classes.
You will work very hard at every place, if not, you are out.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>I agree. </p>
<p>It’s unfortunate that many kids wrongly think that their big state school won’t offer challenging pre-med pre-reqs, and/or they think that their classmates in the pre-reqs won’t be smart like they are. Maybe the first semester of so will include some kids who don’t belong in those classes, but the harsh weeding will quickly “separate the men from the boys” (no sexism intended…lol). </p>
<p>The fact is that most students at big state schools never take the “science for STEM majors classes”…which are the pre-med pre-reqs. Those students that are in majors that require those classes tend to be the cream of the crop at those schools - so there’s no need for the school to “dumb down” those classes. Besides, schools want to use those classes to weed out those who can’t cut it. No one wants those kids going further into a STEM major that will be way over their heads. </p>
<p>Threads like this one which are asking which school is better for pre-med are really silly (no offense to the OP). It like asking, “which North Face jacket is best for me? The one in red, navy or black?” The schools are essentially the same…make your selection based on location, cost, campus-culture, and other non-academic things that interest you. </p>
<p>Miami…I have seen the same thing here. A number of the MD parents in our area also just send their kids to one of our four best state schools for their pre-med education (Alabama, Auburn, UAB or UAH). They know that the undergrad doesn’t matter as long as it’s not some unknown PodunkU with modest science classes. These MD parents know that their kids’ med school will be expensive enough, so that’s where they direct their money. So far, all of their kids have gotten into med school, so their strategy seems to be working. One MD has two kids currently in med school, so while he’s paying a lot for them to go, he paid only a modest amount for their undergrad so it’s all good to him.</p>
<p>“Maybe the first semester of so will include some kids who don’t belong in those classes,” - Well, a good program will have a weed out killer in the very first sememster to make sure that those who do not belong, do not waste a lot of their time. D’s public state UG did just that. The very first Bio was taught by 3 profs simulteniusly in the classroom teaching their specialty. The class was very well known in Honors dorms, horror stories even among other majors, engineering student mentioned it to me, yes, those engineers who have the hardest UG academics knew about not ever taking the class if they needed any Bio. That was shocking but it made sure that only very dedicated stayed in pre-med track.</p>
<p>All the weeding doesn’t/can’t really take place the first semester. There will be kids who get a B or even a C their first semester and until that trend continues, they won’t yet be “weeded” out. Some might even get A’s for Bio I and II, but then Ochem and maybe physics are too difficult for them.</p>
<p>As others on this board have described, if a school has 500 students claiming to be pre-med as Fall Frosh, then by the end of the first year, there may only be 350 or so. By the end of Sophomore year, there may only be 250 or so. When the time comes to take the MCAT and actually apply to med school, there may only be 100-150 kids applying.</p>
<p>“A’s for Bio I and II, but then Ochem and maybe physics are too difficult for them.”
-Yes, this is true, except D’s first Bio was not easier at all than Orgo and definitely harder than Physics. It also was much harder on everybody because of being part of the very first semester at college when kids realize that no matter where they came from and what caliber of HS students they were, the huge adjustment to the hihger level of academic requirement is absolutely needed. Many just could not overcome that hurdle and fell out and it was actually very good for them as they did not waste much time being on pre-med track. The harder the first sememster, the better.
But other classes like Orgo would also test their working habits to the limits. And it is very good as no matter how pushed they feel in UG, Med. School is so much more. D’s comments in regard to comparison is that the academics at UG and Med. School simply cannot be compared, they exit in a different universe. Well, others do not feel this way, but D’s classmates do though.</p>