<p>Hi everyone, I've been admitted to both Michigan and the Wayne Medstart program and I'm having a lot of trouble deciding which to attend. If you haven't heard of the program at Wayne, it's basically a conditional guarantee for acceptance to Wayne's medical school after 4 years, which is an amazing offer. But it's still extremely hard to just give up Michigan for a spot in med school, and living in Detroit for 4 years really is no match for Ann Arbor. I'm leaning towards Michigan now, but I just have a few concerns..</p>
<p>-If I do go to Michigan, I'm in engineering but I would also like to do the premed requirements so that I might attend med school through the traditional route. I've been strongly discouraged from doing this, but is it really impossible? I've heard of rare cases where a chemical engineer at Mich was able to get into UMMS. I have quite a few transfer and AP credits.
-Is the competition at UofM overwhelming in the premed courses? I've heard that weeder classes are everywhere.
-If I go to Wayne, I know that the Medstart students are pampered with great research opportunities and focused academic advising. I'm worried that at Michigan there will be too much competition for research positions and academic advisors overwhelmed with the amount of students. Is this a valid concern? </p>
<p>Thanks for reading, really, it has been stressful trying to decide between the two. If you guys have any other advice please let me know!</p>
<p>It’s a tough choice. Wayne is a good school but it is not as good as Michigan and does not offer the campus environment that Michigan has. Michigan is more rigorous and some of the pre-med courses can be weeders.</p>
<p>How bad do you want to go to Medical School? The more you want to go to med school, the more it favors Wayne.</p>
<p>What do you think your chances are of ultimately getting in without the guarantee? The better you think your chances are, the more it favors Michigan.</p>
<p>How interested are you in engineering? The more you are interested in engineering, the more it favors, Michigan.</p>
<p>How bad do you want to go to Michigan? The more you want to go to Michigan, the more you are going to hate being at Wayne.</p>
<p>You obviously are very smart and probably would do very well wherever you attended school…HOWEVER…If you know for certain that you want to be a medical doctor, go for the sure thing at WSU.</p>
<p>I have head that quite a few pre-med engineers at Michigan get a degree in biomedical engineering, have you considered that?</p>
<p>Secondly, I don’t know what kind of med school Wayne has, but I bet Michigan could get you into a better program. </p>
<p>Final point, My grandfather attended Wayne and then Michigan (this was a while ago as he is now retired) and he liked Michigan quite a bit more.</p>
<p>Medical schools are mostly concerned with high GPA and MCAT scores. Engineering does not lend itself to high grades except for the very top student. Wayne has a well known and a better than average medical school. It isn’t Michigan, but then again few schools are. The thought of automatically being accepted to a good medical school program is very enticing, not to mention the relief of knowing that it’s going to happen way in advance.</p>
<p>kevinevin - if finance is not the issue , U of michigan is better choice. You may want to look at the last year Umich medical school admitted class profile
[University</a> of Michigan Medical School :: Admissions :: Interview Day](<a href=“http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/admissions/apply/profiles.html]University”>http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/admissions/apply/profiles.html)</p>
<p>only 3 students from Wayne got admitted here whereas large % of Umich undergad got admitted to this top medical school . Also I agree with rjkofnovi that engineering maybe tough for getting higher grades. As you see in the profile, not many engineering students got admitted except for biology /biomedical engineering students. So if you consider biomedical engineering , it maybe an option. Yes I agree that Wayne medstart may give plenty of research opportunity but am sure you will end up doing great research in Umich as well through MRC or UROP program (which you have to apply for). Congrats on getting admitted to both the schools and medstart program. Good luck with your decision making!</p>
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<li><p>Nothing wrong with going from engineering to medicine. In fact, there appears to be a growing role for (mostly biomedical) engineers in medicine as they seem to be the best equipped to replace the dying breed of physiologists. The obvious GPA caveat is obvious, but many medical schools regard applicants holistically, and it’s fairly obvious that a 3.8 in engineering is not the same as a 3.8 in liberal arts. Keeping a high GPA in COE is very difficult though.</p></li>
<li><p>It is true that most of your premed requirements are weeder courses. I have also heard engineers trash-talk LSA with things like “orgo is the easiest class in my engineering schedule and the hardest class in your LSA schedule,” so be warned. I imagine the person saying this was at least a sophomore though; I don’t think most people find freshmen engineering miles ahead of orgo.</p></li>
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<p>3a. It’s not an invalid concern, but I don’t think it’s too hard to find research if you really put yourself out there. UROP is a possible experience/resume-building gateway. If you are very dedicated, cold calling/emailing professors worked for me and many of my friends, but you absolutely must have at least taken a few lab courses or UROPed in that discipline and do your due diligence reading up on professors’ research interests. I estimate 1 in every 4 or 5 professors would at least respond to a cold call if you do that.</p>
<p>3b. Many students hate academic advising at Michigan (see the “Is Michigan weak in any way” thread). That being said, I think LSA pre-health advising is excellent. David Brawn knows his stuff and Peggy Zitek has a great reputation as an adviser. They are usually booked a month or more in advance though.</p>
<p>A few things to consider. My daughter, who went to Michigan (ans is currently studying for her Step 1 medical boards–yuck!) also had this dilemma. Choose to go to a 6 year med program or go the full undergraduate route and apply to med school. A family member who had done the 6 year program at Northwestern told her to go the full undergraduate route. Looking back, my daughter thought there were definite advantages to going the 6 year route. So consider these issues:</p>
<p>Pro-6/7 year program (Wayne):
- Already admitted to med school and will not have to spend cash and time studying for the MCAT (Kaplan/Princeton review courses are expensive).
- Will not be stressed getting through Michigan’s weeder classes, and yes, ORGO is tough! Many kids take classes in the summer elsewhere to get better grades (she took Physics at home.)
- You will not spend most of the fall semester senior year applying to 15-20 medical schools (each application costs a chunk of money) and then submitting secondary applications which take a long time to complete and then traveling for interviews (more money), all while you are trying to keep your grades up in classes. Your friends will be taking easy classes and partying most of the year and will not understand why you are never around.
- Medical school is expensive, so you will be saving about $120,000, not to mention 2 years of undergraduate tuition, if you get through in 6 years vs. 8.</p>
<p>Pro-Michigan:
- You will have a great 4 years of activities, friends and memorable moments. Sorry, but I don’t know anything about Wayne, so I can’t comment on their social scene. My daughter was in a sorority and played club tennis.
- AA is a great town and you can’t beat Michigan’s football and basketball games.
- Research is terrific. She was part of the HSSP learning community and did UROP, where she was a research assistant and did lab research that got published.
- Michigan has great placement to medical schools. Of the 128 kids in her current med school class (in Chicago) many went to Michigan, including her roommate (who she didn’t know well on campus.) Also, when she went on interviews, she repeatedly ran into interviewers (doctors) or student tour guides who had gone to Michigan. That alumni network at its best!
- It prepares you well for med school classes. She felt that her undergrad courses served her well in medical school. Although, I agree with other posts that say counseling is not terrific. She changed her pre-med advisor several times.
- Medical school itself is incredibly difficult. I can’t even tell you what the stress levels are like or the amount of studying you will be doing, and sometimes maturity helps in coping with those issues. Three students in her class are taking a year off after they started their M2 year because of anxiety/stress. They can come back and do that year over. A large number of her class did not come straight from college (which many students don’t realize, she is in the minority coming into med school directly after graduation). Many med students do various things with their lives for a year or more before coming to med school. This time away from school gave them a better life perspective. </p>
<p>I know these decisions are tough and you should discuss all these issues with your parents or other adults whose opinion you respect. </p>
<p>Lastly, we counseled our daughter that if she did not want to eventually go to med school, Michigan gave her so many other options. Several of her friends started college wanting to go to med school and then changed their minds. Believe me, we often told her to choose path B during college, but if there is one thing I have learned about her friends in med school now, is that they were all incredibly determined and focused on this one particular career path and nothing was going to get in their way.</p>
<p>Sorry this is so long, but I hope it helps.</p>