<p>Hi everyone I am a frantic senior trying to make a decision.</p>
<p>I love Dartmouth, but here's the thing. I don't know much about the premed program, and I feel like I am walking into a dark alley. </p>
<p>How is the average GPA? Is getting above a 3.7 manageable? or is it highly impressive?</p>
<p>How is the medical advising compared to UPenn's? I know UPenn is very pre-professional. How does Dartmouth fare in comparison?</p>
<p>How is the level of medical research amongst the premed undergrads?</p>
<p>Does anyone personally know anyone, or know any statistics of people who have gotten into the top med schools such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Penn, etc.? </p>
<p>Is there anything else you can tell me that will sway my decision?</p>
<p>Thank you guys so much!</p>
<p>When I went to Dimensions, I was surprised by the number of research opportunities for freshman. I went to the Engineering open house and discovered that there are two major research branches at Thayer: biomedical and environmental. If you go to Dart, you’re pretty much guaranteed a research position as a freshman and you’ll be able to explore prosthetics without any prior experience.</p>
<p>They also told me that there is dedicated equipment at the medical school for undergrad research and that if you want to use an MRI, you can “kick out” a med school student and use it instead since you have priority.</p>
<p>There are a bunch of pre-meds at the school (everyone seemed to either be pre-med or business). Since the school is much smaller than Penn, grading should not be as bad and you’ll get some great opportunities since Dart is all about undergrads.</p>
<p>I think you’ll be better off at Dartmouth. I was shocked at how well my classmates places into med school - it seemed like everyone ended up at Yale, Harvard, WashU, et. Dartmouth is full of opportunities for undergrads. It starts with the Nathan Smith Society which is uniquely designed to help with the med school process (and showers undergrads with placement into research) [Nathan</a> Smith Society](<a href=“http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nss/]Nathan”>http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nss/)</p>
<p>Then there are a number of undergrad focused health care research opportunities starting with a new $35M health care delivery science center ([The</a> Dartmouth Center | Home](<a href=“http://tdchcds.dartmouth.edu/]The”>http://tdchcds.dartmouth.edu/)). Add this with Dartmouth hitchcock, thesis opportunities, sophomore presidential scholarships, etc and I can’t imagine a better place to be pre-med in the country. Its undergrad focus at its best and its why Dartmouth does so well in graduate placement.</p>
<p>I am premed Dartmouth 13. Go to UPENN! You cannot beat the hospitals surrounding UPenn, and from what I know, UPenn really gives undergrads research and work opportunities in the surrounding hospitals, which is great for a premed. You can’t go by stats on med school. Every undergraduate premed program weeds out those who won’t get in to keep their stats up. Umm… have you also read the threads on the Greek system and hazing at Dartmouth. I am feeling very vindicated!!! Go to UPENN! Seriously!</p>
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<p>Thanks for your honest answer! If you don’t mind, can you elaborate more on your premed experiences at Dartmouth? Is there a dearth of medical opportunities? People keep telling me about the undergraduate focus and collaboration with the medical school… can you elaborate more on that? And Is GPA less inflated?</p>
<p>Please give me more perspective! Thanks!</p>
<p>There is a lot of doubt that Fred Oliver is a Dartmouth student based on many of his posts which seem to not know Dartmouth well and have inconsistencies. Look it up. Dartmouth floods its undergrads with research opportunities, and it goes well beyond where most schools go. My first year I attended another elite Ivy research university and when I transferred to Dartmouth I could not believe how much more attention and access I received.</p>
<p>Agree slipper. I am also thinking DMalum could be the same person as Fredoliver. DMAlum just joined CC yesterday, and his only posts are bashing DM.</p>
<p>I am NOT DMalum, and I find it quite amusing that the new Dartmouth people have to convince themselves that anyone who has something bad to say about Dartmouth can’t be legit! Drinking Koolaid much?! Indeed, there are actually at least two of us who have expressed a bad experience at Dartmouth, and threads and threads and articles and articles about hazing, racism, classism, etc. at Dartmouth. All true. I am glad to see the 17’s defending Dartmouth when the university doesn’t even do it for themselves (especially ones who have taken a spot while wait listed to Harvard - how vested is that student?) How can anyone legitimately defend premed at Dartmouth over penn? Really? Arguably the best hospitals in the country are at Penn’s campus and offer research opportunities to undergrads. It is also a known fact that Premed advisors at most colleges weed out low gpa students so they can report higher med school acceptances. Not just Dartmouth, most do this. I am not inconsistent, I have consistently said what I don’t like about Dartmouth and how I regret my choice to come here.</p>
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<p>hey I am probably outdated, but I grew up outside philly, but went to undergraduate and med school at Dartmouth, class of 1990, and class of 1996. Did my residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Med Center in Boston. Both schools will undoubtedly give you solid undergraduate training, and in my residency program at BIDMC, which is a Harvard hospital, we had trainees from both Penn and Dartmouth. I think as an undergraduate you should think about what would make you happier - do you want to be in the mountains of new Hampshire or in urban Philadelphia. You will work hard either place, and you will want to be happy when it comes time to relaxing. I personally would have been miserable living in Philadelphia, I think it is an armpit, and I am from there. However other people might find Hanover too rural. If you get good grades and take advantage of any research opportunities, then you will do fine either place. For med school - I would say that Dartmouth is much more open to primary care, and Penn pretty much shuns primary care. For residency programs, I interviewed at Penn, and found them very snobby and I would never have gone there. I actually found the Harvard programs a lot more friendly than Penn. Anyways - you guys are in a great position to be able to choose - but you should think about your overall happiness - it will sustain you during 4 years of premeds… it only gets harder from there…</p>
<p>Penn is arguably the best school in the country for pre-med. first, many medical research opportunities are available to freshman and sophomores. Because Penn’s medical school is large and inundated with NIH funding (#2 in aid) it can offer many more research opportunities than dartmouth’s. second, there is very quick and easy access from campus to the hospitals surrounding penn and many volunteer opportunities are available. </p>
<p>As far as raw numbers go, Penn gets around the same number of students into Harvard med as MIT (couldnt find numbers for other top schools). Most med students at Penn med( ranked #4) come from Penn undergrad. uchicago med school ( ranked #10, i think) accepted over 80% of Penn applicants last year for a total of 14 students (this is one of the highest percentages of acceptance by undergrad at chicago)…85% of all Penn undergrad pre-meds gain admission into medical school for a total of 280 students making penn in the top five for producing the most number of medical students by undergrad institution. </p>
<p>This info is from penn website, american medical association, and handbooks at penn that are only accessible via their career services office on campus. </p>
<p>you should go to penn</p>
<p>It is now june 8. I am quite sure that OP has made a coice. Closing thread</p>