Denison vs Davidson vs GWU for pre-med

[ajg3]

Which will set me up best for medical school? Denison, Davidson or GWU? I have merit at Denison and GWU but not Davidson.

[tsbna44]

The school where you’d be happiest to attend and excel best academically.

Having access to programs like shadowing are helpful too.

You might speak to each advisor and see how they help prep students.

Ultimately the which is better question is student dependent.

Just remember med school will cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars. So if money will be an issue, you are better to spend less now.

The three schools are different btw - especially GW.

What’s your preference ?

[thumper1]

You can fulfill the required courses for medical school applicants at just about every four year college in this country (arts conservatories excluded). Medical school….should you get there…will likely be about $100,000 a year. And it’s funded primarily with loans loans and more loans. So good to keep undergrad loans to a bare minimum.

Where do you think you will be happiest…because happy students do better in college than unhappy ones!

[LisaMBA]

Davidson without question. Look at the stats for grad school admissions.

[Mwfan1921]

Do you have a link? And presumably you know the data are better than Denison and GWU?

If relying on oft- manipulated MD school acceptance rate data, OP would need to get data from each school (many schools aren’t transparent) and ask questions like:

• Do the data include MD and DO? Just MD? Other degrees like PA, DPT, DDS?

• Does the school write a committee letter? (Davidson does, don’t sure about the rest) For all students who want to apply? Or does the school gatekeep/protect their stats by providing committee letters to only those who the pre-health advisors think will be admitted? (Applications without committee letters are DOA from students at schools who provide them)

• do the data include all applicants who graduated from that school, regardless of year? It should, average med school matriculant is 24.

• what proportion of applicants in the data did a post-bac or SMP?

• Critically, Davidson does not provide a committee letter to those who do a post-bac. Not sure about the other two.

• avg sGPA and MCAT of applicants by admitted, denied, gender, and race.

[thumper1]

@LisaMBA

Look at the stats for grad school admissions.

@LisaMBA admission to medical school is very different than admission to most other grad school programs…not a good comparison at all.

[collegemom3717]

@ajg3

Which will set me up best for medical school? Denison, Davidson or GWU?

None will “set you up” better than the others! So many of these posts seem to think that it’s the college that matters and it is NOT. 100% it is what you do. First cut is MCAT (and no college “teaches” the MCAT) + sGPA + cGPA. After that it is LoRs, how you demonstrate the “15 competencies”*, your exposure to the practice of medicine, and (if you get that far) interviews. ALL of those things are down to you: how hard you work and how much you take advantage of the opportunities available to you. That difference will matter much much more than the differences between D, D, or GW.

Between the college ‘pre-health’ advising (which pretty much every college has at a reasonably adequate level), your peers, and the internet you have all the info on med school admissions you need.

What will change most of the next 4+ years is you: you will become more mature and more independent. You won’t need to hold on to the new skater pusher - by the time you apply to med school you will be skating confidently.

tl;dr- it won’t be the differences between these 3 colleges that will determine whether or not you get into med school- it will be what you do while you are there. The 2 variables to consider are 1) where you think you will shine- where your think you will be happiest and 2) total debt required to attend (the smaller the better!)
Heads up: you are a HS senior and your world is about to get exponentially bigger.

*What Medical Schools are Looking for: Understanding the 15 Core Competencies

[LisaMBA]

I was referring to medical school: Medical, Dental, and Health Professions School Admission | Davidson

In addition, the resources and advising provided to undergrads interested in going to medical school are significant.

Here are some stats on SLAC med school admissions: The Best Liberal Arts Colleges for Medical School (2023) — Shemmassian Academic Consulting

Here is an old CC thread on Denison: Is Denison decent for Pre-Med?

And, here are stats for all schools (adjusted for size – scroll down): Top Feeders to Medical School

Neither Denison nor GWU come close to Davidson for med school acceptance rates.

[Mwfan1921]

@LisaMBA

Neither Denison nor GWU come close to Davidson for med school acceptance rates.

What data are you using that support this statement? None of your sources show the med school acceptance rate for these 3 schools. The feeder list you linked to includes none of them. All of these schools provide strong pre-health advising.

[thumper1]

@LisaMBA

Neither Denison nor GWU come close to Davidson for med school acceptance rates.

Please take the reported med school accepted students on college websites with a grain of salt. Most often, they are self reported. Plus…do they include only students accepted directly out of undergrad or do they include students who applied after a year or more away from undergrad.

You can take the required courses for medical school applicants at just about any four year college (arts conservatories excluded).

Any of these three would be fine. The student should pick the one where they would be the happiest…because happy students do better generally than unhappy ones.

[LisaMBA]

You may want to review the links again. Only Davidson is listed as it is among the top feeders – it is number 19 nationally when adjusted for size. The others are not included in the top 30.

Do note that these are not college websites, with the exception of the link to the Davidson site. These are independent college counseling consulting firms that compile data.

From an academic standpoint (which is the purpose of the OP), Davidson is clearly superior at helping students gain admission to medical school. With that said, I agree that fit is more important.

[JBraun]

GPA and MCAT scores are the most important factors for med school admissions. Davidson is an amazing school, though has a reputation for grade deflation compared to other LACs. If you Google search “Davidson grade inflation”, you can read student experiences.
Also, med school admissions rates are not necessarily what they may seem. Some schools’ committees self-select which applicants to support, i.e., they may only provide a committee letter to those students who they think are most likely to get admitted.

[Mwfan1921]

@JBraun

Davidson is an amazing school, though has a reputation for grade deflation compared to other LACs.

Not sure I am seeing grade deflation for Davidson. Props to them for GPA transparency of their graduating classes, I don’t know of any other highly rejective LACs that divulge this info, so we can’t compare them to other LACs.

Class of 2022: 3.551 Mean GPA/3.633 Median GPA
2021: 3.558/3.625
2020: 3.484/3.552
2019: 3.443/3.516
2018: 3.431/3.515
2017: 3.377/3.444
2016: 3.356/3.403
2015: 3.348/3.408
2014: 3.315/3.350

https://www.davidson.edu/offices-and-services/registrar/graduating-class-profiles

[JBraun]

I don’t have any personal experience but here’s a couple of CC threads:

how accurate is the Davidson grade deflation rumor??

<p>I am seriously looking at Davidson College for the class of 2018 (I will apply this fall), I visited the campus, loved it, it seems like it has everything going for it in terms of a college, all except the dreaded grade deflation. My question is, how accurate is this rumor? I realize it is a challenging school, I'm up for that. What I'm NOT up for is being compared to other students and being graded based off of their talent. Does this happen? </p> <p>If professors are so caring and helpful, how is grade deflation such an issue? This does not make sense to me. </p> <p>Anyone with credible info on this subject- your help is much appreciated!! Thanks!</p>

Grade deflation in Davidson

<p>I'm an entering freshman as well and am too a bit concerned. However, I've visitited Davidson three times, two for visits and one for Decision Davidson. During those, I believe I was around at least 15 students who addressed this question and all of them had the same response. All of them said the academics are tough and all of them said they have never learned so much. However, they all said professors want nobody to fail and will never purposely 'deflate' a students grade. You get what you earn. They also said the way to avoid freaking out about this sterotype is to take courses which interest you, work hard, and you will be find. They each said they know many students who have high GPAs, 3.5+ and still have time for the social aspect of Davidson. I can definately understand the worry as a future student myself, however, I think its safe to say that hard work, perseverance, and a good course selection will stabilize the stress level.</p>

Urgent: Is Davidson too hard?

That’s a 3.4 or 3.5 at Davidson, not some giant State school. You’ll have letters of recommendation from professors who know you really well, instead of letters from professors at a giant State school that say “Student X received a grade of Y in my giant lecture course.” To help you out, it would be helpful to know the alternative school. All I can say at this point is that Davidson has blown me away with their commitment to providing a kinds, supportive community, the motivation of their students, and the incredible leadership shown by their President (Quillen) during this chaos. I’ve been on college campuses since 1988 (at all kinds of schools – top 10 schools, small private schools, giant State schools, etc.) and, trust me, Davidson is special.