<p>with low placement rates and grade deflation, not sure that Chicago is that great for a premed</p>
<p>Unless you plan on working harder in college than in high school (which most punks don't plan on doing if they go to a top 20 school), I wouldn't suggest Johns Hopkins.</p>
<p>It's a decent school for grad school though, it's not too bad. Though, when you are older, you are in a different state of mind.</p>
<p>Unless you don't plan to work your butt off in medical school (large pain in the butt, work, memorization, etc...) and quite literally fail out, don't go to any school that forces you to work to the limit.</p>
<p>If your not prepared as an undergrad, what makes you think work at the graduate level, let alone medical school is going to be any easier?</p>
<p>Tough schools, prepares you well far more for the work encountered in med school than schools that are not tough.</p>
<p>zenythz:</p>
<p>I dont know much about the schools you listed except for the fact that USC has a higher rate than UCLA. Over 50% of their students that applied to medical school have matriculated in the past few years.</p>
<p>JHU ranks #1 for pre-med, and it's intense. However pre-med and it's ranking aren't everything. Look at Harvard Medical Schools admissions for example, people come from a VARIETY of pre-med schools, there were even some schools that were outside the US, some even in Mexico...</p>
<p>As far as the schools listed, JHU ranks #1 for pre-med, Duke #2/3, and Wash. U. in St. Louis #3/2. As far as the rest, they too have prestige and excellent pre-medical programs as well that would be superior to get into as well! :-)</p>
<p>Ranks? What ranks?</p>
<p>
[quote=]
As far as the schools listed, JHU ranks #1 for pre-med, Duke #2/3, and Wash. U. in St. Louis #3/2.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>really just a silly post. There are no rankings for premed, and the strength of advising at nearly all the schools on your list is excellent. The pros and cons of JHU and WashU premed have been debated pretty extensively, and given my experience with those two institutions, I would actually put them near the bottom of your list. The only schools I would be concerned about going to for premed would be Chicago and UCLA, the latter if it suffers from the lack of advising that UCB does, and the former because it might not be a goof fit for someone with a preprofessional bent (you'll note I am NOT mentioning any grade deflation BS). Assuming you get into any of these schools, decide where you will be happiest, that is where you will have the most success.</p>
<p>Umm everyone seems pretty knowledgeable about a wide variety of the different pre-med programs and what schools are superior, I admit that I am a little undereducated about the same topics and so in terms of advising, how much they help you get into a good medical school, and how great their pre-med programs are compared to each other. Basically which is best for an undecided student who is so far seriously considering pre-med.
Here's some information that might help
Strong overall student from a small school but still in top 10%(about three people)
Good at english made a 4 on the AP, highest score in my school in at least a decade plus not bad for a small school student
TX UIL State LD debate qualifier in my first year of debating
Good at sciences especially biology
Fairly active president and vice-president of Key Club sophomore and Junior Year, Vice-President of Student Council next year and very active representative junior year, who attended several conferences and a workshop
active president of Spanish club junior year
probably 4.0 GPA school won't tell me yet
taken hardest possible curriculum at my school
Got a overall 2040 on my SAT first time, and both times I have taken ACT got a 30 unfortunately. Plan to retake both SAT and ACT asap
ummm anything else that would help.
oh and heres a list of colleges that I have heard have good pre-med programs any tips about which are better or any other good ones would be greatly appreciated.
College List:
Stanford (my top choice currently)
Brown
Harvard
Princeton
Baylor
Texas Tech
UPenn
JHU(heard a lot of praise but don't know much about it)</p>
<p>What are you guys talking about "pre-med programs"?? There's no such thing! You take the pre-reqs and MCAT, and apply... thats pretty much it. Some schools may have better career advising units, but that sure as hell isn't a huge thing you should concern yourself with. </p>
<p>Go to a school that you like and major in something you will do well in. That should be your goal at this point. There is no such thing as "pre-med rankings"... :rolleyes: Admissions committees will take into account where you went to school when looking at your application. Certain schools are pretty famous for their grade inflation, so a high GPA from there won't be looked on as well as a high GPA from a school with tougher grading like UCB or UCLA.</p>
<p>
[quote]
What are you guys talking about "pre-med programs"?? There's no such thing! You take the pre-reqs and MCAT, and apply... thats pretty much it.[...]Go to a school that you like and major in something you will do well in. That should be your goal at this point. There is no such thing as "pre-med rankings"...
[/quote]
^We have been trying to tell people this. Nobody listens to us.</p>
<p>(I do have one minor quibble, and that's that UCB and UCLA are not actually particularly grade-tough. It's a common misperception.)</p>
<p>I know this is a stupid question, but applying to college in the US is really confusing me!
So if there is no such thing as 'pre-med programmes', and you just apply to a college you like and pick a major, at what point do you sign up for the 'pre reqs'?
Are these available at any college?</p>
<p>Yes. Yes. Whenever you sign up for classes. Not any college, but a lot of them.</p>
<p>When my D was applying to colleges several years ago, a friend who is a doctor and has an endowed chair at HMS said that she felt that JHU prepared their students better for medical school than any other school. My daughter never applied to JHU but went to Harvard instead.</p>
<p>^^ JHU is definitely one of those colleges. The problem is that it also has a reputation of having a very malignant and cut throat environment amongst premeds..</p>
<p>That is the Hopkins reputation. Whether it is deserved, potential applicants should figure out for themselves.</p>
<p>Prepares students better than any other college? There are so many colleges that send students on to be terrific medical students and physicians that this comment just does not make much sense. The vast majority of people who enter medical school graduate on time, and some who don't are derailed by illness or family disasters. In other words, overwhelmingly people who go to medical school are well prepared.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure that most doctors went to state colleges. I'm sure that most do NOT go to a handful of most prestigious private universities. As a very rough guide, and not to endorse US News, if one were to go to any of their "top" 100 colleges, there should be no concern whatsoever about emerging prepared for medical school.</p>
<p>Panda power,</p>
<p>You have picked many of the most selective colleges in the country. Unless you have a major hook you did not mention (potential starting football player??) the places outside of Texas will be deep reaches. On the other hand, as I indicated above, one hardly needs to go to Stanford to be ready for medical school. </p>
<p>You should talk to people in premed advising, and to students undergoing med school application, at the colleges you are considering. You need an idea of whether the students feel they are getting attention and advice. The premed office should be able to tell you things like mean MCAT scores and where students tend to go to medical school. General reputations are probably not worth very much, because they revolve around how students respond to the environment, which is highly individual.</p>
<p>"Prepares students better than any other college?" - in my post, I was referring to the experience of one doctor who has dealt with medical students at Harvard for > 20 years from numerous schools.</p>
<p>undergrad college doesnt really matter. its better to do fantastic at a mediocre college. its all about gpa the the med schools specific prerequisites and mcats. you do well in all 3, you should be ok for med school.</p>
<p>sorry, but have a question of my own to put in here... any idea on how Columbia ranks in getting their pre-med students into med schools? Columbia gives supporting committee letters to pre-med with GPA of 3.0 which is kind of low considering you probably can't get into any school with that grade.</p>