I am considering to go to private colleges with high reputation(average grade inflation), but the problem is, do they offer any kind of shadowing and medical experiences? I am planning on to get a part time job in a hospital while I am in college. Should I go to a big school or a small school?
You could do those kinds of things in the summer instead. Or take a gap year after college for that and working on applications. With smaller class sizes, you are probably less likely to get “weeded” at a small school.
Very few colleges have formal programs that offer shadowing and clinical experiences for students. Pre-med advisors or a pre-med club may have a list of physicians who have allowed shadowing in the past, but generally it’s up to the student to contact the physicians and make arrangements.
As @intparent says, shadowing and some clinical volunteering (or lab research experiences) are often done during the summer.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both large colleges and small colleges. (FWIW, one D went to a big state U, one D went to smaller private U. Both went to med school.)
Bigger college–more research opportunities, greater breadth of course offerings, electives offered more frequently more Plan B options
Smaller college–easier to get to know professors, fewer VAPs and hired lecturers, may offer greater support to struggling students
I’m not sure I agree that you’re less likely to get weeded at a smaller college. It depends on how strong of a student you are and what kind of students your college attracts. Bigger schools have students with a wider spread of preparation and abilities while smaller schools tend to have a more homogenous set of students. If you’re an academically strong student it may be easier to rise to the top at a bigger college, while at a smaller school if everyone in your class has preparation and academic ability similar to your own, you’re more likely to end up in the middle of the pack.
For example, D2’s college was reasonably small–about 6000 undergrads, but it attracted very academically strong students, including a huge contingent of pre-meds (about 30% of all freshmen labelled themselves as pre-meds) and the weeding was very intense. (D2 described her school like this-- First semester you walk down the dorm hall and everyone is a pre-med. After winter breaks and after chem 1 grades come out, you walk down the hall and everyone is an econ major. Third semester after calc 2 grades come out, suddenly everyone is a sociology major…)
It isn’t necessarily easier to get research opportunities at a larger school. A lot of the research work there is done by grad students. Even if a student gets a lab position, they may see very little of the prof, but instead will be working with grad students. Profs at smaller schools need undergrads in their labs because there are no grad students.
Good points you guys. Thanks a lot.
Also, smaller private colleges are less likely to deliberately weed. Colleges like Bowdoin, Bates, Dickinson, Colby, St Olaf… are well known for science and have 1,800-3,500 students so there’s a lot of support.