Good Pre-Med and Research schools?

College Search & Selection
1

Hello

I’m a high school senior from Pennsylvania and currently looking into schools to apply to. I currently go to a very rigorous public high school where I’ve taken 14 AP’s and have a 35 on my ACTs and have a decent GPA along with a slew of extra-circulars and experience shadowing at a hospital. I’m interested in Pre-med and want to major in chemistry (maybe do one of those combined B.S and Masters programs). Ideally I want to go to a school in a major city (or at least really close) and want to be able to be involved in research and study abroad. Although academics is important to me, I also want a school with a decent party school aka not a super nerdy school.

Questions that I have for every school:

Is it easy to get into research or is is super competitive?
What is the student body like?
Is there a good social scene aka parties that aren’t nerdy?
Can you study abroad and do pre-med?
Any good chem or pre-med programs?
Shadowing opportunities?
Class size?

Here are a list of schools so far
Columbia: What’s the core like? Is it impossible for people who aren’t the best at writing?
Georgetown
U-Chicago: Is the B.S and masters combination in chem impossible to do?
University of Michigan: What is Ann Arbor like? Is it nice/ stuff to do? Is the B.S in Chemistry program hard to do with Pre-Med? Is the honors program worth it or are there too many required classes?
Tufts
Northeastern
Drexel
Northwestern
Johns Hopkins
U Penn
University of Washington- Seattle
Wash University in St. Louis
Emory

If anyone has any suggestions or comments about any of these schools (or other good ones)…

Thank You

2

University of Chicago is pretty nerdy (motto = “Where fun goes to die”) so doesn’t sound like a fit. BU sounds like a fit. What is your financial situation? Do you need FA? Will you qualify? If not, do you need merit or will your parents be paying the $240 tuition (4 years) at the above schools?

3

Do you have any safeties? Those schools are all reaches, besides Drexel, which is expensive.
Pre-meds are advised to save money for grad school, and avoid grade deflation.

I just read a thread today that mentioned UChicago’s lack of social life. JHU isn’t a huge party school, either.

4

@newjerseygirl98 JHU has a lack of social life? I honestly thought the opposite, for such an elite school it seems to be social.

5

I would definitely like merit (especially cause I’ll have to pay for med school also), but I don’t need it. Won’t be applying for financial aid (at least not for my freshman year, but maybe for later years) so finances aren’t the biggest factors but merit scholarships are something I’m looking into.

6

I don’t think JHU has a lack of social life, actually, just that students are more focused on academics.