Hello! I was admitted both to Georgetown’s and UPenn’s College of Arts and Sciences and I cannot decide where to go. I am a Chem major with intention to go to medical school. Any advice/pros and cons of the schools?
Georgetown has good pre-med and science offerings but, from my experience here, it is not a technical school. The College will put you in a lot of philosophy, ethics and theology requirements that you might prefer to avoid, I have no idea what Penn’s curriculum is, or how you feel about broadening your horizons, but if you want to maximize your time in the lab and doing chemistry Georgetown might not be the best fit. That said, the Chem department has a lot of money and resources and, given that few people come here explicitly for chemistry, if you are passionate and sure that you’ll stand out as a star student you can be a big fish in a small pond which opens the doors to a lot of internships, recommendations and connections that might be much harder to get elsewhere.
GU and Penn are in the same caliber in most ways and are recognized as peer schools , although some people might find Georgetown is bit more prestigious due to its lay prestige.
If you are set for staying in chemisty , then either schools are equally good. However, if you have a chance to change your major into another science or medical field, Penn can offer a much wider range of options.
To me, the Penn name is more prestigious; however, you’ll get a good enough education at Georgetown that if the “money” or “fit” variables are slam dunks for Georgetown in your case, then definitely choose Georgetown.
Explaining myself:
I think Penn’s true academic peers include schools like Chicago, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Cornell, Brown, Caltech and Northwestern. I think the only schools slightly above them are HYPSM. Wharton, of course, is right there with HYPSM.
To me, Georgetown’s true peers (counting just private schools) include Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Rice, Johns Hopkins, Washington U and CMU. Maybe Emory, BC, USC and NYU also. The difference in the quality of teaching between this group and HYPSM is probably about nil; the main differences seem to be in the stats of the students and the prestige factor. And the amount of money spent on each student. (or available to be spent…)
Using research as barometer, the science programs at Georgetown are pretty weak. Unless there’s evidence that the education is superb, it’s probably a safer choice to pick Penn.
If you want to go into the hard sciences, UPenn would be a better fit. However, if you wanted to go into health policy, Georgetown would be the better school.
For what it’s worth, Georgetown’s relative “weakness” in the sciences (as defined by “low research activity”) may be regarded as an advantage at the undergrad level, depending on how you look at it.
Georgetown has relatively few PhD candidates in the hard sciences, which means that undergrads get a lot more access to research work that would normally be reserved for Grad students.
The level of teaching at the undergrad level is likely the same as anywhere else, and because in most cases the same students are taking classes in the hard sciences (of whom, the majority are pre-meds) there tends to develop something of a close-knit cohort.
You should know though, OP, that most pre-meds here at Georgetown are Health Science majors in the School of Nursing and Health Studies.