<p>I am entering college this fall and I'm considering the following schools:
Dartmouth, Cornell, Pomona College, Swarthmore, Wash U St. Louis, UC Berkeley Regents Scholarship, and UCLA Regents Scholarship</p>
<p>My future aspirations: All throughout high school I've wanted to pursue medicine beyond my undergraduate years, and naturally I committed to medical school at a pretty young age. Today I'm still leaning towards medicine, but I know that college shapes your decisions pretty heavily. I've heard a lot of different advice: Go to Dartmouth/Cornell for the name and east coast experience, go to Pomona for the friendly liberal arts feel and the best chance of getting into med school, go to Berkeley for the cost and privileges of being a Regents scholar.</p>
<p>Please help! What is your advice? I know it is probably impossible to provide an objective perspective, but the more objectivity the more helpful it would be. Thank you!</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go to a UC right now with California’s financial issues. They’re raising tuition rates. If I were in your position, I’d go to Pomona. Everyone I know who goes there loves it, and its good for med school. Great weather makes everything better. I can’t imagine going to an east coast school where it’s cold/rainy most of the year, but maybe that’s because I’m from Hawaii and chose Stanford.</p>
<p>Wow. That’s a nice set of schools to choose from. Congratulations on that.</p>
<p>I don’t think that you could go horribly wrong with any of them, but they’re all pretty different. You have liberal arts colleges and large research universities, urban and less urban schools, and on top of that, I’m sure the costs for each school are very different for you (among many other things).</p>
<p>It really does require a lot of reflection on your part. Do you learn best in smaller classes, or do you like classes in big lecture halls? Do you want to be in the hustle and bustle of the city, or would you prefer a suburban or rural setting? That last question is something I think I should have considered before making my choice a bit more - I’ve found out that I’m a much more metropolitan person than I thought I was. Will you be a big fish in a big pond? An even bigger pond?</p>
<p>It might be helpful to find out about the pre-med advising programs at each school. I don’t know anything about that, but I do know a few people who aren’t that keen on the advisers at my school, so I’m guessing it’s worth something.</p>
<p>I doubt I blew your mind with anything in this post, but I don’t think random CC people (myself included) can help you all that much. That being said, I’d probably avoid the UCs too, just because I know that I’d likely be having a much worse experience at UCSB if I had to deal with canceled pre-major courses as a freshman or something like that (something that you might have to deal with as a student at any UC right now).</p>
<p>All of these schools would do a great job preparing you for and getting you into med school. You need to pick the one you’d feel more at home at. </p>
<p>But if you want my biased opinion, I can’t recommend Pomona highly enough in all areas. Especially for the friendly liberal arts feel.</p>
<p>lol ‘east coast experience’… I love DC and Maryland but the East Coast isn’t very great.</p>
<p>Yeah, like others said, those are all excellent schools and they all have about the same name recognition. Pick the one you think you’ll fit in best. That’s a bit harder than it sounds, I know. Like Flush said, think about what you like. Do you like being in the city? Near the city? In suburbia? In a small town? In the countryside? Are you ok with most entertainment being parties, or do you want access to a wide variety of activities?</p>
<p>Also consider finances. Remember that med school ain’t cheap.</p>