<p>I am faced with an extremely difficult college decision and even the minutest advice would be extremely helpful</p>
<p>I have to pick between Yale, Princeton, the BU 7-year med program, and the Stonybrook 8-year med program. The med programs assure me admission to med school at the ripe age of 17, but they are obviously not as awesome as yale or princeton.</p>
<p>This decision is particularly difficult because Princeton has given me more financial assistance than Yale although it does not have a medical school to make connections with (no nepotism). Princeton also has more grade deflation than yale (yale is 40/40 A/B I believe... I hope that's good enough.) Stonybrook is almost free undergraduate and medical school because it is a state university, while BU is extremely expensive although it would enable me to save a year of tuition expenses.</p>
<p>another factor I was wondering whether anyone has any insight about is whether the medical school you ultimately go to affects your residency program or ultimate profession or whether the undergrad school you ultimately go to affects the med school you get into. For example, is there any advantage to going to Yale med school instead of a state med school, or would their be any advantage in getting into med school if I go to Yale undergrad school. Does ivies typically inflate their grades more than other colleges in order to remain elite?</p>
<p>I heard that Princeton limited the number of people who can get As. Maybe it’s 35%? I could be totally wrong/thinking of a different school though (but I’m pretty sure that I’m correct)</p>
<p>If you are 100% sure on Med School, I would go with BU.
If you are even 2% or 50% not sure of wanting to be a doctor, then I would look between Yale and Prince</p>
<p>Actually I think BU is eliminated, because if you are going to a guaranteed program then go the cheaper route because its about Med School.</p>
<p>It is rare that you are 100% sold on becoming a doctor. That is not a knock on you at all, its just normal for students to change majors once they are exposed to different options.</p>
<p>I would choose the better financial option between Yale and Princeton, that is a once in a lifetime opportunity.</p>
<p>As others have said, if you really want to be a doctor, and are at least 95% certain that that is the way you will go, I would consider Stonybrook or BU (BU if at all financially possible). </p>
<p>But if you’re not sure, I would choose Princeton or Yale (personally, Yale). They would give you a great undergrad experience, better than BU/Stonybrook. But you would have to work VERY hard, take the MCAT, and apply to med schools, and remember, acceptance (even from an Ivy) isn’t anywhere near 100%. </p>
<p>Honestly, if you want my personal opinion, I would go to Y/P. It would be hard to turn my back on such a great opportunity… one of the best undergrad experiences ever! And I don’t think the 7/8 year programs have an acceptance rate much higher than that of med schools, so if you work VERY hard (esp. at Princeton, I think, because from what I’ve heard, their grading is tough, while Yale inflates) you have a great shot at a great med school (or any med school, because once you graduate, your a doctor… whether it’s Harvard Med or Back-Water U Medical School).</p>
<p>Just… think carefully. What are your priorities? Where is your heart and mind leading you?</p>
<p>I think you’ll have no problem getting into med school if you can get into Princeton and Yale. Why give up the amazing opportunity?</p>
<p>What med school you go to seems to effect things like the residencies you have access to and seems to matter most for future academic positions more than practicing medicine.</p>
<p>BU or SB over P or Y, won’t you always wonder what you gave up? You’re going to be more than just a doctor in life, develop your whole self!</p>
<p>It’s not unheard of for students from schools like Princeton or Yale to be denied admission to medical school. I had a friend at Stanford was rejected everywhere he applied. A more common scenario is for people to start college as pre-meds, and change their minds (either because their interests changed, or because their grades in the pre-reqs weren’t high enough.</p>
<p>I also knew someone (thirty years ago) who entered a combined program, and left it. Even the “guaranteed” programs have requirements for remaining in the program.</p>
<p>Still, the fact that you were offered admission to two such programs as well as Princeton and Yale is extremely auspicious.</p>
<p>You may want to stroll over to the Med School Forum and read what folks have posted there about the med school application process, and any comments they have about the direct admission programs.</p>
<p>You can reach it by clicking on “Discussion Home” in the upper left of this screen and then scrolling down.</p>
<p>Unless you and your parents are made of money, the advice most CC parents would give you is to keep the expense of your undergrad education as low as possible so that you can afford med school. Take a long hard look at the projected combined cost of undergrad plus med school with your various options. Princeton + Mystery Med school may be the best deal. It may be the worst. You won’t have a handle on that until you do the math.</p>
<p>Hence the problem. All top graduate schools are getting more diversified in their applicant pools and this includes international student candidates. </p>
<p>I do agree with another poster. What you want to do at 17 (or 47) may change dramatically. I’d go Princeton as they gave you the better deal. Your life can be full of unknown opportunities, too early to lock it in.</p>
<p>I don’t think that getting into med school out of Princeton is anything close to a slam dunk.</p>
<p>Med school admissions are primarily a function of your gpa, particularly in the science prep classes for med school, and your MCAT scores. Princeton’s grading policy is going to make it very tough to get consistently high grades in general chem, ochem and the like.</p>
<p>The other issue: If you chose a 7 or 8 year program, you don’t need to take (and study for, and pay for tutoring for) the MCAT. You don’t need to spend five thousand dollars on med school applications and the associated interviews at the med school campuses, which are often scheduled in a way that makes it very hard to buy cheap airfares. You don’t need to take a gap year after you finish college to complete the applications.</p>
<p>I think that if you reasonably think that you want to be a doctor, why not choose one of the combined programs. If you interests diverge, don’t continue on to medical school. You’re clearly a great student, so I suspect you’ll do very well wherever you go, and your grad school options (if you decide not to pursue medicine) aren’t going to be hampered by getting a degree from either of the direct medical programs you mention as long as you carry high grades.</p>
<p>I think people seriously underestimate the difficulty of getting into medical school and the time and cost involved, plus the challenge of finding all the time for the necessary extracurricular volunteer work to demonstrate that you’re sincerely interested in a medical career. I also think that they substantially overestimate the value of going to an Ivy League school if med school is their ultimate goal. </p>
<p>As for the choice between the two direct programs, the first one would be cost: If SUNY Stony Brook is a lot more affordable for you, go for it, particularly if you won’t end up with a lot of student debt. Your future life as a doctor will be enormously eased if you don’t have huge debts weighing you down. Really. If money is no object, then pick the program and location you like best. </p>
<p>And do read “Match Day” sooner rather than later so that you know what you have to look forward to and how med school students are matched with a residency program.</p>
<p>arabab your comment on the ease of Direct-med programs is not true.</p>
<p>From what I understand, many of these programs still require an MCAT and that the student maintain a certain GPA (3.5 I believe) in order to proceed.</p>
<p>With a 3.5 GPA in tough science and pre-med courses, the student could also be a prime candidate for other medical schools.</p>
<p>Myself as a potential future medical student, I would like to do my graduate years in a large city. I don’t think Boston is a bad city for a medical student. Though if your not 100% sure on being a doctor, not 100% sure you would like to spend your medical years in Boston I would consider Yale or Princeton, or at least Boston for just the normal course of 4 years.</p>
<p>Go to Yale or Princeton. Both will give you the preparation & opportunities you need for medical school – AND SO MUCH MORE. You will not regret the experience even if it means a bit more time in school. However, if you go BU and then change your mind about medicine – hey! it happens (a lot more often than you’d expect!) – you will be kicking yourself big time. And life is way too short for regrets.</p>
<p>At a state school, fewer than 20% of freshmen who start out premed will even end up applying to med school (most of the ones who do apply will end up rejected by every single med school).</p>
<p>The percentages are a little nicer at the top colleges. But, if you go the Yale/Princeton route, there is still less than a 50% chance you’ll end up applying to med school. And out of the ones that apply to med school, probably fewer than half will get into a med school as well regarded as BU. So, ultimately, you’ll probably have less than a 25% chance of getting into a school as nice as BU Med. It is definitely risker to go the undergrad route vs. the BS/MD route.</p>
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<p>Yes, but med school admissions isn’t just about MCAT and GPA. Your EC’s, recs, interview, essays play very important roles, far greater roles than they play in college admissions. You can get into all but the top 25 or so colleges on the strength of academics alone. It doesn’t work that way for med school admissions. Those subjective factors are important for admissions regardless of how strong your stats are. For example, I had a 3.9+ college GPA and a 37 MCAT but I only got into around 1/3 of the mid and low tier med schools I applied to. Clearly, it wasn’t the stats but rather those subjective factors that got me rejected. And my EC’s weren’t even bad! (they got me into the top tier med school that I’m attending now). But, when you have 100 applicants for every seat and each applicant features something interesting whether it’s Division 1 sports vs. Marshall Scholarship vs. starting a clinic in Africa vs. publishing in Science, it literally becomes a matter of preference which EC a reviewer would find more impressive.</p>
<p>That’s what the BS/MD programs spare you from. I had to work 3 part-time jobs, teach the SAT’s to underpriviledged kids, and maintain a 3.9 GPA at Cornell at the same time. Someone in a BS/MD program doesn’t have to do that. They can just focus on getting their 3.5. BU Med gets more applications than all but 4-5 med schools (it gets around 12,000 applications for roughly 150 spots). When I interviewed at Columbia for med school, almost everyone in my Columbia interview group had been rejected the day before from BU Med w/o even an interview (including me). The schools that get the most applications are GWU, BU, Georgetown, Drexel, NYMC (all of whom receive over 10,000 applications for ~150 spots) and the mid-tier schools can often be more of a crap shoot than top tier schools.</p>
<p>Which medical school you attend has lots of implications for what residencies are available to you which in turn governs which fellowships are available to you. I would think really hard about accepting an offer that forces you into attending a medical school that you don’t respect. (btw, neither Stony Brook nor BU have poor medical schools).</p>
<p>I believe the statistic is that about half of the people who fill out initial AMCAS applications end up attending a medical school that fall. If you feel strongly that you can beat out half of all the people applying for medical schools, maybe you should attend the college that will be a good fit and worry about medical school later if or when you decide you want to do so.</p>
<p>I was 100% certain that I wanted to be a physician up until my senior year of college (late into the application for medical school stage). I love science and medicine and felt that that career choice was a good fit. However, I realized that by committing to a medical school I was giving up all the other possibilities that were so exciting. I became a scientist and I have never regretted the decision. Moral of the story is that you might want to keep an open mind as you go through college; who knows what passions you will have when you are an adult.</p>
<p>Yeah I agree with pretty much everyone on here. If your heart is set on becoming a doctor, I’d say BU’s medical program is the best bet. However, if you are shaky on the whole career aspect, then go with yale or princeton!! BOTH amazing schools :]
actually, my sister went through the same dillema. She knew she wanted to be a doctor, it was practically her life goal, SO she chose an accelerated medical program, even though she got into Columbia, Cornell, Duke, etc. But yeah, for her it is all working out great, if you’re like her, I’d say choose the program. But if you’re not sure, go with Yale or Princeton. Whatever you choose, I am sure you’ll be fine, GOOD LUCK!! =]</p>
<p>another factor I was wondering whether anyone has any insight about is whether the medical school you ultimately go to affects your residency program or ultimate profession or whether the undergrad school you ultimately go to affects the med school you get into. For example, is there any advantage to going to Yale med school instead of a state med school, or would their be any advantage in getting into med school if I go to Yale undergrad school.</p>
<p>no. the fact of the matter is that as a graduate of any medical school you earn the title of doctor. go to stony brook if you are certain you want to be a doctor. you will save a LOT of money, and a LOT of stress.</p>