Encouraging PreMed Programs

<p>I know that top schools like Tufts have excellent pre med programs, but I feel that a program at a university such as Tufts would try to weed out hopeful med students, and not encourage them. Does anyone know of any schools that tend to encourage pre med students?</p>

<p>Interestingly enough,I was thinking about a corrollary to that today and did some fast and flawed 'net research and came up with a couple of ideas. First,I really don't trust the %'s spit out 95,100% of our premeds are accepted. Well that's just silly. So, I thought I would look at the rates of the school's graduates reported to be attending med school as a % of all graduating seniors. So far, in the strata of schools D is currently most interested in (as match/safeties) I have found so far 6 that send greater than 10% of all grads to med school.</p>

<p>They are in rank order from top to bottom:</p>

<p>Centre, Lawrence, Hendrix, Austin, Ursinus, and Birmingham-Southern.</p>

<p>I have no idea what this means but it IS interesting.</p>

<p>The real question is whether pre-med is so very attractive. The percentage of Yale undergraduates who go directly onto med school from Yale dropped from 17% in 1975 to just 6% in 2002. No one would suggest that Yale students are less qualified than they were 25 years, though it is clear that the gap between Yale and 50-100 other top schools has narrowed radically. The same student who might have been in the middle of the class at (say) Johns Hopkins and perhaps discouraged from applying might have been top of the class at Ursinus, and gotten in with ease.</p>

<p>The big question is how one goes about paying for it.</p>

<p>Thanks a lot! Yeah, I've seen Ursinus before, maybe I should look into it</p>

<p>Please don't think my list was exhaustive or accurate. I copied data from websites that have been wrong before.There was one school,can't remember but maybe Bowdoin that the number was 21%. One in five kids, how weird must that be?</p>

<p>I understand. I agree with what you said, your method seems more logical than most :) I commented because I had seen the colleges you posted, and I agreed with your assesment, that's all</p>

<p>Mini, your last line of your first paragraph is a factor that D really has to address in her selection process. Combined with our various workload and intensity threads, gee . JHU may be a pretty rough place around finals time. JHU may not be the place for D.</p>

<p>I practice medicine in Alabama.....most of the guys and gals in private practice went to state schools or local colleges.....just a few from the Hopkins-Ivy-Duke crowd. You do not need to go to a top tier school to gain acceptance to med school. Best bet is to attend whatever looks attractive and shine once you are there.</p>

<p>that's comforting, and i'll definitely take that into consideration.
thanks</p>

<p>Another vote for what Oldman is saying. Med school is not like say, business or investment banking where connections and the right school make a big difference - you should choose a college for the type of education you are looking for, fit feel, rigor, and expense - med school is expensive. The less amount of debt (preferably no debt) the better.</p>

<p>At my present rate of learning about the ins and outs of all of this, my daughter will be practicing before I come up with a list of schools I could recommend without fear of screwing something up. I am becoming ever more thankful that I don't have a vote. Someday, I'll have to wax eloquent on my life thesis: Parenting is ruled by "The Law of Unintended Consequences" which reads, in relevant part-when you push in here,it pops out over there.I'll save the rest for another time. LOL.</p>

<p>Don't confuse "What do I need to do to get into Harvard Med School?" with "What do I need to do to become a successful physician?", even an academic physician.</p>

<p>Mdhopeful, my daughter is thinking about pre-med - my first advice to her was - go to the big state uni and save the money for med school tuition. She really wants a chance to get a part of her education in another region of the country, so my next piece of advice was, OK, go away, then come back to the state uni for med school (we're in AL, too, don't know what is with AL docs, maybe we don't sleep!), because the school is good and the tuition is really reasonable for med school.</p>

<p>Curmudg, the only school on that list I can speak to is B'ham-Southern, Oldman chime in you may be familiar with BSC, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of this applies to Hendrix as well. BSC is just adjacent to downtown B'ham, a straight shot to UAB and the Med Center. Its student body is populated by many kids with ties to the school, as well as pre-prof kids who don't want to go out of state, aren't Baptist, and want a smaller school feel. It traditionally is has been the most liberal of the in state Methodist colleges (there used to be 3 or 4), with strong pre-law, pre-med and ministry programs. Students are well prepared for UAB and South Alabama med schools.</p>

<p>It is, for someone from Al, the LAC version of "save your money and go to the state uni". Its a great school, just overlooked because its in B'ham AL, and not the best beighborhood at that. Also, its one of my daughter's schools, as well as about 6 other people in her class.</p>

<p>D also plans to come "home" for med school and she plans on practicing, not teaching or research so I really don't see Harvard Med in her future. But who knows?</p>

<p>One of my partners is a B'ham Southern grad...he then went to UAB for med, South Carolina for residency and Med College of Georgia for fellowship....another partner went to La Salle undergrad then Penn Stae med then residency at U Maryland and fellowship at Penn....I went to UVA then Emory med and UAB for residency/fellowship....there are a million routes...even if geared towards academics you can make it without the reputation of a top tier place.</p>

<p>Of note what correlates best with practice location is where you do your last training.</p>