Davidson, Wake Forest, or Rhodes for Medical School?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>I know I will be Pre Med in college, so a major in biology will probably be my choice. I have visited Rhodes College, Davidson College, Wake Forest University, and Duke University. I like the size of the first three, but decided that Duke is too big (tour guide said some classes have 300 people in them – I want about 15-20). I know that GPAs really matter to Medical Schools, so should I go somewhere like Rhodes where there isn’t as much competition as Davidson (which I’ve heard is really stressful, not to mention a reach)? I’ve considered applying early decision to the one I decide on to increase my chances of getting in. I like small liberal arts schools (not too far north, hate the cold) so what other schools are within reach? I don’t want to feel like I’m at the butt end of my class, but I also want a good preparatory school.
STATS:
I am a female Caucasian rising senior in a large Texas high school (almost 1,000 per graduating class) and I'm within the top 3%.</p>

<p>-GPA: 3.7 unweighted, 4.4 weighted
-PSAT score: 217 (The state cutoff for National Merit is usually 215)
-SAT: Composite: 2130 (670 Verbal, 700 Math, 760 Writing)
-ACT: 31 (33 Math, 33 English, 31 Reading, !!27 Science!! – I have never taken a prep class, and had never seen the format of science questions on the ACT. I mini-freaked out and re-read each passage and graph and ended up not finishing the last 7-8 questions. I always make As in my advanced science classes though!)
-In orchestra, received superior ratings in the area solo competition, first division rating at the state solo competition, and was in the all-district and all-region orchestras. I don’t necessarily want to pursue music in college, but if that becomes the make or break point I’ll continue (My tour guide at Wake Forest said that if a department really wants a specific person, it will tell the admissions office to pay extra attention to his or her application).
-National Honor Society
-Junior World Affairs Council (Learns about different cultures & world issues)
-Junior Statesmen of America (Discusses current events)
-I volunteer tutoring middle school children in math
-Volunteer at local CCA (Christian Community Action) Food Bank
-Received "Fantastic Farmer" awards both Sophomore and Junior years for Commitment To Excellence, Dedication, and Attitude (awards which teachers can only give to one student, and there are about 30 students selected from the whole grade level)...the Farmer is my mascot, if you were wondering; I'm not in 4-H or anything.
-I'll have good teacher recommendations (English teacher loves me)
-English is my strongest subject, so I'm counting on putting together a killer essay (low SAT verbal score I know, I’m just a really slow reader)
-My granddad was the head of the psychology department at Rhodes College before he passed away. Could I get anything for that? My mom attended Rhodes for free because she was his daughter.</p>

<p>Also, my dad is self-employed and the economy has been killer for about ten years; sometimes we can barely afford groceries. However, my grand mom has saved up about $100,000 for my schooling. This is absolutely all I have from my family to get me through college and medical school and will definitely not last, and my parents only make about $45,000 a year after taxes. Will this account keep me from receiving substantial scholarships/ financial aid? A family friend told us to remove my parents’ names from the account and just leave it in my grandmother’s name, but still use it for my family's Expected Family Contribution, about 4K. Could that get us in trouble?</p>

<p>Thanks so much for reading all of this!</p>

2

<p>I want about 15-20).</p>

<p>I’m not certain, but I don’t think any of these schools are going to have class sizes THAT small for pre-med pre-reqs. But, maybe I’m wrong. Labs might be that small, but probably not lectures.</p>

3

<p>I dont think any school will have intro science classes any smaller than 30. I go to a very small LAC, which has an average class size of about 12. Intro bio had 80 kids enrolled. Ochem has 42. Classes wont be that small until things get specialized, like advance inorganic chemistry. Labs are typically between 15-30 students however.</p>

<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC App</p>

4

<p>Oh and 100k should be more than enough for ug. Apply instate, and you should be able to leave each year paying only 10k AT MOST. Leaving 60k for grad school or w.e. Since your ug doesnt really matter when applying to med school, it wont hurt to go to a flagship state school rather than an expensive 30k+ a year private. What state are you in?</p>

<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC App</p>

5

<p>Just go to the one that you personally like the best. Being cheapest is also a bonus, if Med. School is in a future. In terms of academic challenges, it is very very challenging for everybody at every single place. That includes very top caliber students from private prep. schools going to state colleges. I guarantee you, it will not be walk in a park at any place. Also, opportunities for EC’s are everywhere as long as you actively seek them. IMO, success depends much more on student than UG that he attends. This is from prospective of a parent of first year Medical student.</p>

6

<p>You might want to contact the poster Curmudgeon, whose daughter had several excellent opportunities for undergrad pre-med, but chose Rhodes and excelled there…she is now at Yale Med.
I would not be surprised if you qualified for both some merit money and financial aid at Rhodes.
Rhodes also has a lot of premed interning opportunities at the local hospital, which is an essential part of your med school applications.</p>

<p>You also might want to consider Smith, if you are not opposed to considering an all-female school.</p>

7

<p>Short answer: “Fix” that ACT science anomaly. (It’s easily done.) Work Forest and Davidson are great schools. Don’t go there. :wink: Go to Rhodes. </p>

<p>Long answer: See your pm. </p>

<p>BTW, couple of changes to your CV, and flipflop your PSAT and SAT and you might be my kid. lol</p>

8

<p>Dwalker, I’m in Texas, but my grand mom lives in Memphis and is practically on her hands and knees begging me to go to Rhodes, haha.</p>

<p>Thanks so much everyone, I really appreciate your input. I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting such across-the-board favor toward Rhodes (over the other two schools).</p>

9

<p>Davidson is one of the best schools in the country. Wake isn’t that far behind. But Rhodes is a truly great school for a pre-med. Advising, prof’s, research, and volunteer opps. It’s all there.</p>

10

<p>If money is truly a concern (and it sounds like it is) don’t discount UT or A&M. Each school sends a large number of students to Texas Med schools each year. Your $100K will spend a lot more slowly in either of these two schools. </p>

<p>If you can pull off a scholarship to Rhodes, go for it… I think it will take somewhat higher SATs to get serious merit money from Davidson based on the past experience of several friends …Duke is notoriously stingy with merit money…not sure about Wake.</p>

11

<p>it’s also hard to get merit money at davidson. i had way higher stats than the OP and couldnt land a scholarship there.</p>

<p>OP wants small class sizes, so not going to find that at UT or A&M. I will say this though, I am very impressed with the pre-med advising at A&M from what I’ve seen and heard on the interview trail. Their advisors do a great job</p>

12

<p>I agree with the posters about merit chances at Wake and Davidson. Assuming a successful ACT re-take to “correct” the science score , I’d consider adding Emory, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Miami, and WashU to the research U list. I’d add Scripps, University of the South, Centre, Furman, Hendrix, Austin College, and Southwestern to the LAC’s. My personal favorite of those might be Scripps. As a Claremont consortium college the resources are grand. Don’t let the “women’s college” part slow you down a bit. Harvey Mudd is literally next door and it is 80% male. Flights into the LA area are cheap from Texas. Cheaper than Memphis. ;)</p>

<p>Edit: But you still ought to play the hand till all the FA is in. Then pick.</p>

13

<p>concur with the others, the test scores are too low for merit money at Wake or Davidson. If you like Wake and Duke, how about Richmond? (no merit money there, either, but D1 sports and small classes)</p>

<p>WashU is extremely test-score happy, and not sure a 2100 would excite them much. :)</p>

14

<p>Without merit money all these private LACs are going to be out of reach for her unless their is a need based component.</p>

15

<p>She should be an NMF with her 217 (215 in Texas this year). Her 2130 will qualify her. She’ll get some money at some of those schools. Enough? I dunno. Hence the broad application strategy. With her NMF she can look at Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Alabama as potential financial safeties and they are all way smaller than A+M and Texas and at her score level, potentially lots cheaper than the Texas schools. Merit scholarships at Texas public uni’s are very rare and stingy when they do exist. Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Alabama are usually much better financial choices IME. </p>

<p>Does USC still give 1/2 tuition merit for NMF? And then you compete for full tuition? That is the way it was. Not sure now. </p>

<p>But I think she can do better on that ACT, now that she knows that the secret is timing and reading comprehension, not content knowledge. If she can pull that to a 33-34, she’s in much better shape. </p>

<p>If she ends up needing LAC’s where she is more competitive for their highest awards I have a few of those, too. :wink: At Scripps, if she gets a 1/2 tuition JES scholarship, they can get very creative with FA.</p>

16

<p>As to need-based FA, it’s a crap-shoot for the self-employed. Income is only one variable. Awards vary wildly but it’s worth a shot IMO. For my kid they varied by $16K a year (Colgate best, Yale and Amherst worst).</p>

<p>As to granny’s $100K, I have sent you my advice by p.m… (Basically it was …granny needs to see a pro in her state.)</p>

<p>Just based on income, the OP is in good shape for FA at many 100% need schools, but like I said, “tax return” income is not the only variable in deciding FA.</p>

17

<p>* I go to a very small LAC, which has an average class size of about 12. Intro bio had 80 kids enrolled. Ochem has 42. Classes wont be that small until things get specialized, like advance inorganic chemistry. Labs are typically between 15-30 students however.</p>

<p>*</p>

<p>Right. That’s what I thought. I know that many think privates/LACs all have tiny classes, but many of the typical lower division classes that “everyone” takes are often large lecture style.</p>

<p>I know that at my kids’ big flagship, they haven’t had very many large classes because they used AP credits to skip those Gen-Ed type courses and went mostly to upper-division courses. The only large classes my pre-med son has had were OChem I & II and Physics w/ Cal I & II (lecture) and those had around 50-80 kids in each lecture class. The labs had 20 kids each. </p>

<p>Do some investigation…you will find that some publics don’t have many large classes.</p>

<p>Your biggest problem will be that your dad is self-employed. FA is often not generous to those who are self-employed because of how need is calculated.</p>

<p>Apply to a few schools like the ones on your list to see how your FA works out, but also apply to some schools where NMF status will give you big merit, just in case the FA doesn’t work out at the other schools.</p>

<p>Does anyone know if Davidson and Rhodes promise to “meet need”?</p>

18

<p>Davidson yes, Rhodes no. [But Rhodes has a wonderful competitive scholarship for kids whose parents make under (iirc) $80K that stacks with any merit award.]</p>

19

<p>Davidson is an excellent school but there is always a risk of being weeded out as a student applying for med school…DC has a very,very high rate of acceptance to med schools and they want to keep it that way…Admission is very selective at Davidson, the college does not need to give out much merit aid to admit excellent students…If you love DC and you find money not to be an issue , talk to your parents and consider applying early decision, much higher acceptance rate…I have a son at Furman (he is not premed), however I do know they have excellent support for premed majors. Hard working, dedicated students do well getting admitted to med school. The science facilities and library are amazing and the academics are rigorous… You would be admitted to Furman with a very good chance of receiving merit money…I would definetly put Furman on your list…Rhodes is an amazing school though, you really would be well served premed at Rhodes…Being close to St. Judes is a big plus…Wake Forest is bigger than Davidson and will be easier to be admitted to than DC but has more national name recognition and as a result is not generous with merit aid.</p>

20

<p>Wake alumna ('08) here. I was very pleased with the pre-med program at Wake. The prerequisites will not be particularly small classes (~35-40, though one of my pre-reqs only had like 13 people in it), but the lab sections will be small (~16 or so is the max in biology, and there are a few more in the chemistry labs). After your prereqs, though, the science classes get very small. I don’t think that any of my upper level biology classes had more than 20 people, and I had several classes (in the sciences and in the humanities) with less than 10 people. I feel like I really got to know some of my professors, and I think that many would remember me even going on four years later.</p>

<p>There are also tons of opportunities to really explore your interests. If you want to do scientific research, the lab facilities are awesome (and there are opportunities to do research at the medical center as well). Wake is very, very big into public service and there are all sorts of volunteer organizations. It’s a small enough school that everyone kind of has to wear multiple extra-curricular hats for all the organizations to run smoothly, and this made my application to medical school a little more varied than most, I think.</p>

<p>I’d be happy to answer any questions you have (though it might take me a few days–I’m on a really busy rotation right now and taking a fair amount of call). Feel free to PM me if you’d like.</p>