Hello current Brown students, I have a question

<p>I can’t really decide where I should apply; I want to go to Brown undergraduate, but my parents are against this idea because they think that going to an Ivy League school would be very risky considering the fact that Ivy League professors are not that generous. They want me to apply for BS/MD programs instead of Brown. </p>

<p>I really want to go to a med school, but would majoring in something like chemistry at Brown significantly reduce my chance of going to good med schools? My HS GPA is not even close to 3.8; it’s just a lil above 3.70, so I am worried. It is not very likely that I can get like 3.8 in college. I want sincere and detailed answers from current Brown students or Brown graduates. </p>

<p>Non-Brown students, please don’t post anything on this thread. POR FAVOR.</p>

<p>There is a BS/MD program at Brown. Its called the Program for a Liberal Medical Education.</p>

<p>I know the PLME, but I don't want to apply for it because frankly Brown Med school is not so good. THe program is really competitive, but the program itself doesn't seem so good</p>

<p>I'm not sure I understand your question. What do you mean by "ivy league professors are not that generous"? Are we talking about with grades? With their time? Because I would say that neither of those things are true, particularly at Brown, where (most) professors are very generous with their time and WANT their students to succeed. And what do the professors have to do with your getting into med school?</p>

<p>I can't imagine why majoring in chem at Brown would reduce your chances of getting into med school. I am not on the med track so maybe I'm being naive or stupid about something, but it's my understanding that pre-med students can pretty much major in what they want as long as they do well in whatever they study and fulfill the pre-med requirements (and even if they don't, there's always the option of doing a post-bac year, so even that isn't usually a problem). If you could find a way to relate your major to your interest in medicine, that would make your applications to medical school extra compelling too, and with a chem major, I don't see how that would be a problem at all.</p>

<p>Your GPA sounds fine to me; some of the competitive schools might be a reach, but if your applicaiton is rounded out with other good recs, scores, and writings, I can't imagine you would have a problem at least being in the running. But again, I'm not sure what your GPA has to do with your other questions. And you can DEFINITELY not predict your college GPA based on your high school GPA. It depends on a hundred things that have nothing to do with how well you performed in high school, and the standards may be completely different.</p>

<p>by way of being helpful,</p>

<p>it seems odd to be dead set on going to a top medical school and also be concerned about your ability to get good grades at a top undergraduate college. the two are absolutely and directly related and you can't have it both ways.</p>

<p>your chances of getting into a top medical school, provided that you do well, are slightly higher if you attend a prestigious/highly selective undergraduate school such as an ivy. every year, brown will send a certain amount of pre-meds to harvard and johns hopkins.</p>

<p>it may be true that it is easier to do well at a less selective school, but these schools send less pre-meds to harvard and johns hopkins.</p>

<p>also, you ought to understand that med school rankings and med school selectivity do not correlate all that well, nor does the research ranking in US News tell you much about program strength.</p>

<p>yao, college isn't just about getting the highest possible grades so that you can get into the best med school. If thats your only factor in deciding where to go to school, then let someone else who loves a lot more about Brown go.</p>

<p>Beyond a lot of things you have a few serious misconceptions.</p>

<p>1) Any BS/MD combined program is far more competative than Brown. People who want tod o that apply to 20 plus programs and never get in one who would see more than qualified.</p>

<p>2) Major in whatever you want-- pre med isnt a major it's about 6 classes of required material and a letter from an advisor essentially.</p>

<p>3) Brown has some of hte highest admittance rates to med schools of any undergraduate institution in the NATION. 77% was I think what they said when I was on a tour there (as a non- premed i dont remember exactly).</p>

<p>People major in history as premeds. Chemistry will more than qualify you.</p>

<p>Here's the obvious solution: apply to both Brown and BS/MD programs. It's not like they're mutually exclusive. If you are lucky enough to get into both, then you can start making a choice between the two.</p>