Duke v. Rice pre-med!!!!!!!

<p>ive heard from my counselor that something like 85-90% of premeds at each school get into med school? Are the percentages about equal for both schools? and also would there be ANY sort advantage to going to either duke or rice for a prospective biochemistry major looking to go to med school?? im kinda stuck here.</p>

<p>both duke and rice have an extremely high acceptance rate into med school. i dont know much about biochem, but both are not great at it…but strength of the program isn’t that important if you’re shooting for med school. i’m not very familiar with each school’s grade inflation, but that would probably be a factor you should consider (place to get higher GPA more easily)</p>

<p>Duke doesn’t have a good biochem department? Are you sure???</p>

<p>They have 6.5 million a year in NIH funding, 34 faculty, 18 grants, 100 grad students/postdocs, a National Academy of Science Medal Winner, and the best computational biology program in the nation.</p>

<p>thanks for the statistics. they have a good one, not a great one. great = berkeley (pretty much indisputable)</p>

<p>

The rankings put Berkeley’s biochem/biophysics program at #7 and Duke’s at #10. I had no idea a difference of three spots made one program “great” and another simply “good.”</p>

<p>Rice has far greater research opportunities given it proximity (across the street) from the largest medical/health care resources in the world. There are like 5 medical centers/hospitals, and huge ones, across the street. Also, Rice has the 4th largest endowment per student in the country. Rice’s research opportunities cannot be beat in the bio/chem/premed area. That said, though Rice pushes a well rounded liberal arts foundation, it is easy to get sucked into the sciences, etc. but for some they want that imbalance.</p>

<p>[Undergraduate</a> engineering specialties: Biomedical - Best Colleges - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/spec-doct-biomedical]Undergraduate”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/spec-doct-biomedical)</p>

<p>My point was not over a general independent ranking but research opportunities, per student. I have not seen a ranking on this, but Duke just does not have the same access to the facilities of MD Anderson, et al , that exist next to Rice-- it is like a one mile row of 20 story interconnected hospitals and medical complexes -the largest medical complex in the world. Who has been to both Rice and Duke and do you agree?</p>

<p>I know both schools decently. I would say that both have excellent resources. Rice has MD Anderson, Duke has the Research Triangle. Overall, I would say that Rice students have a higher per capita access to research opportunities, since Rice is the best university in the Houston area. Duke students still have to compete with UNC-CH for opportunities. So I would say Rice is slightly better. But not by that much.</p>

<p>@IBclass06: depends what source you are looking at; however, berkeley almost universally tops duke… especially if you are admitted to the college of chemistry not necessarily L&S</p>

<p>@nsrjsyt: I never knew Biomedical engineering and biochemistry were the same thing. BME and Bioch are not even in the same school (Pratt vs Trinity)</p>

<p>the medical center is definitely a big draw factor (many people I know chose Rice over top ranked non-Ivies b/c of the cheaper tuition + ability to live at home + medical center)… but to me houston isn’t a very pleasant place to have a college experience…perhaps because high school here has made me hate this city with a passion</p>