<p>I am currently a junior in high school and am looking for schools with good pre-med programs that I have a good chance of getting into. A school in the mid-west would be preferable, but the priority is one that will get me into med school. I go to a very small private school that does not offer AP courses, but I am planning on taking some of the AP tests this spring. Any suggestions on which ones to take? Would it also be worthwhile to take some SAT II tests?</p>
<p>GPA: 4.0 (Unweighted)
Class Rank - 1 out of 23
SAT - I just took it and got 710 R, 680 M, 710 W. Depending on what I get on the ACT, I might retake it.<br>
ACT - Will take it in February
PSAT - 208, probably commended but not semi-finalist, (from what I hear commended does not help with anything?)</p>
<p>EC
Boy Scouts - Eagle Scout, ASPL, OA
Volunteering at Hospital 3 hrs a week will be about 200 hours total
Baseball - JV freshman and sophmore (not sure if I'll keep playing)
Church and School Worship Band - Currently leading church one
Junior Class Treasurer
Volunteering helping with tech for church 1 hour a week for past 5 years
Volunteer Tutoring a student in math junior year 2 hrs a week
Worked as Game Op at Valleyfair Amusement Park Summer of Junior Year
Planning on going on Overseas Trip to help needy people summer of Senior Year
Made and maintaing website for my boy scout troop, maintaining pediatric group's website</p>
<p>Awards
Excellence in Sr. High Band
Excellence in Sr. High Choir (both only given to one person a year)
Eagle Scout</p>
<p>Rice-93% acceptance rate
Duke- most likely around the same
I mean any school that is top 20 is gonna be good for pre-med. Michigan in the Midwest, Northwestern of course, don’t know bout Notre Dame’s pre-med rep.</p>
<p>You should look into Creighton University as possibly a safety school. They’re known for having a good pre-med program and they’re located in the midwest. You should also check out, like the above poster said, Rice University. Any top 20 school will have great pre-med programs so its really just getting into any of those that will be your dilemma.</p>
<p>looking for a school that will “get you into med school” is fruitless. As Amherst says in its excellent premed guide online
Looking at acceptance rates is similarly misleading. At top 25 schools they have high rates – but look at what they were starting with!! You get into a top school, you’re smart enough to end up in the top 1/3 of med school applicants and hence get in somewhere. More disturbing are high rates at places you’ve never heard of. Are they turning lead into gold? Nope. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find that med schools require a “committee letter” from any school that supplies it (generally most of them except large publics). To get the eye-catching rate, the schools simply tell weaker students the letter is going to say “recommended with reservations” or “not recommended”. If you’re smart enough to think of med school, you’re smart enough to know that with those letters you are simply wasting time & money by applying.]</p>
<p>In sum, the main thing that’s going to get you into med school is you. Read the advice above from Amherst, read thru their guide, and you’ll be better prepared than 75% of the people out there.</p>
<p>Be a top student at a good state university, and you’ll have more research opportunities, more internships, more mentoring than if you are a middling student at a top private. And you’ll save tens of thousands of dollars for med school, which you are going to need.</p>
<p>Most of those med school admissions percentages you read about it are absolutely irrelevant. What you want to know, and what no school will give you, is the percentage of students who enter thinking they want to be pre-med who actually end up in med school. Sure, some students decide it really isn’t for them, but the vast majority are just weeded out in the process. My alma mater, a top LAC and rival to Amherst, claims 90% admissions - but the reality is that, given the weed out, the real number is closer to 25-30%.</p>
<p>Might I suggest you look at the premed forum as this has been discussed extensively. Really, you can be a premed anywhere that offers intro Chem, Bio, Physics, and Math. There’s nothing special about it. What separates schools are the advising (Ivies and small privates tend to be better than state schools unless you’re in a special program), research opportunities, hospital volunteer opportunities, and how much you like the school. No one school will be clearly better than any other. Just get into college and go wherever fits you best. With high weedout rates and the fact that your mind can change, don’t go to a college only on the basis that you plan to be a doctor.</p>
<p>
I’d say my school (Penn) has more research opportunities, internships, and mentoring than the vast majority of state schools out there. As a non science major I’m working at a biology lab right now. I’ll probably get published in a few months. I’m also nowhere near a top student at my school. Most of my premed friends are able to get research positions without too much effort. Also, advising is open to everyone and is very good. Granted, there is a large amount of weeding out, every college will have a large number of premeds drop for any number of reasons. I wouldn’t say Penn weeds out more premeds than Penn State just to keep med school admission numbers up. Also, mini fails to mention that going to a top private might be cheaper than going to a state school depending on how aid packages work out for some people.</p>
<p>Just apply where you want. Med school will fall into place later.</p>
<p>At risk of stating the obvious, Carleton, Grinnell and St. Olaf have some of the strongest science programs of all the liberal arts colleges and would be excellent choices. If you have a fairly conservative/religious bent, Wheaton College in Illinois offers outstanding “bang for the buck” and top academics.</p>