<p>I just went on some long college visits and tours, and it seems to me that the location of the undergraduate school I go to doesn't really matter. For example, Cornell, my #1, doesn't really have many opportunities to work with hands-on medicine during my 4 years, whereas UPenn has 3 or 4 hospitals nearby that I could volunteer at (as does Syracuse U). </p>
<p>SO does it really matter if the undergrad school I go to is located in a city with many medical opportunities? Can I get the same education at a secluded college like Colgate? It seems to me that as long as I learn the material and do well on the MCATS, the school doesn't really matter. I mean, the med schools take into account the undergrad school you go to and the grading and everything, so what's the difference?</p>
<p>Am I wrong?</p>
<p>Also, can anyone tell me if Cornell really is as good a premed school as I think it is? I love it there.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=202936%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=202936</a></p>
<p>Clinical exposure is critical. It would be easier to get at Penn, harder to get at Cornell, and much harder at Colgate. All are possible.</p>
<p>I think Cornell's about as good a premed school as any other Top 20 university, no more, no less.</p>
<p>Cayuga Medical Center is a short bus ride away and the volunteer director, Cal Wood, is really cool and fairly accomodating (if, for instance, you want to be put in a specific department).</p>
<p>I do think Cornell offers perhaps two advantages over some other schools, although these advantages are minute:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It has two formal programs (a Mentorship and an Externship) to pair Cornell premeds with doctors to shadow. It can be a little awkward/daunting to find physicians to shadow so it's nice that Cornell does it for you. The Externship one pairs you with a Cornell alum and most of them are really cool. Mine drove out of his way to pick me up on his way to work, took me out to lunch every day that I shadowed, and even offered me a few of his Cornell hockey tickets. Plus, he got me in to see an emergency C-section on one of the days. It wasn't his call since he, as the pediatrician, wasn't performing the surgery but he talked to the OB/GYN and the family for me and got me in.</p></li>
<li><p>Cornell has a premed committee (which many other schools do as well) which writes you a letter and allows you to bypass med schools' specific LOR requirements. Usually this isn't a big deal but it can be if you're like me and have trouble getting good LOR's.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>2.) Berkeley certainly does not offer this, and so my friend had to run around getting 9 or so LORs. Every school's requirements are slightly different -- some want three science professors, some wanted two sciences plus two professors in your major, some wanted an English, a chemistry, and a biology -- etc.</p>
<p>Thanks, that's really helpful.</p>