<p>UGA has a good pipeline to the MCG (or Georgia’s University of Health Sciences as it’s now called) but I wouldn’t necessarily say that it has a necessarily good reputation (especially compared to Emory or Tech) to the other major medical programs. If you want to stay in Georgia, MCG is a good option; however across the country MCG is not well known. A recent study commissioned by MCG found that about half of hospital administrators and Med School faculty across the country had never even heard of the MCG (hence the name change). That doesn’t bode well for practicing outside of Georgia.</p>
<p>I’ll also qualify the claim about a college student that doesn’t know what he or she wants - coming out of high school, one thing you need to figure out is at least the type of degree you want. Are you a social sciences person, a humanities person, or a math and science person? You don’t necessarily need to know “I want to be a mechanical engineer with a specialization in rotating equipment”, but you should at least know “I’m interested in Math and Science more than Literature or History.” Once you’ve made that very rough cut, look at Georgia Tech vs. UGA. GT for Math/Science and UGA for anything else. </p>
<p>The reason is that even though GT has a narrower focus than UGA, once you’ve settled on Math/Science, you have more options at GT than at UGA. For example, if you move into computer science, both schools have CS departments, but GT has 8 different CS paths while UGA has 1. You see the same in other Math/Science (and obviously engineering) departments at Tech vs. similar departments at UGA.</p>
<p>BanjoHitter and all: My suggestion is to look a little more carefully at UGA, and the options in the Franklin College of Arts & Sciences concerning UGA’s science offerings. Biochem and Molec. Bio, Genetics, Cell Biology, Biology, Microbiology, Env. Health, etc. show the broad scope of UGA’s programs that are traditional pre-med majors. And if you think that MCG is the standard route for UGA grades, it is not. Due to the size of UGA, MCG’s incoming class has a large # of UGA grads, but you are only looking at one side of the equation. Take a look at earlier replies on this post to see the wide range of med schools that regularly have UGA grads. Overall, there is no one good source for pre-med to medical school data, but I would not suggest relying on sweeping generalizations. Look at the listed facts from each college, the majors they offer, and contact both pre-med programs for more detailed information about that college’s student data.</p>
<p>I’ve looked at Franklin’s science offerings - they’re subsumed by the offerings at GT. As far as Medical School’s go, my comment was not that UGA students are restricted to the MCG, just that there is not necessarily a “pipeline” to other medical schools. Sending one student to Harvard Medical does not create a “pipeline”.</p>
<p>They may have those programs, but it doesn’t matter much unless they are of solid quality. They may be alright, but Tech’s counterparts are going to be superior. Also, those same schools have a decent amount of Tech grads (though you have to scale it down, b/c less folks are pre-med there).</p>
<p>Banjo and Bernie: Can you tell me the basis for your disregard of some very strong programs, including a great Genetics program that is not “subsumed” by any of GT’s science programs. Can you give me specifics of how these science programs are not of “solid quality”, as I have not seen any proof. And would you please give me specifics on where GT pre-med students go to med schools and the numbers, as the GT website does not have details in the pre-med site, and I still have not seen the numbers that you would say makes a “pipeline”. </p>
<p>Where several people that have ties to UGA have given specifics about med school attendance outside of MCG, (and not just one student at Harvard if you would PLEASE actually look at some UGA information such as the Honors web site and the CURO program), I have still not seen any actual real information on where GT students go for med school. I am not talking about generalities, but actual student information. Here is a link to the Foundation Fellows page, <a href=“https://asg.citp.uga.edu/fellows_uga/index.html[/url]”>https://asg.citp.uga.edu/fellows_uga/index.html</a>, where you can go to “people” and “Alumni” for profiles of former fellows, and many list where they are attending grad school. But when you go to [url=<a href=“http://www.prehealth.gatech.edu/premed/premed.php]Pre-Medicine[/url”>http://www.prehealth.gatech.edu/premed/premed.php]Pre-Medicine[/url</a>] at GT’s site, you get very little, and I cannot track down anything about placement numbers. </p>
<p>Give me actual data on med school admission and attendance, and I will be okay with your argument, but until then, stop with the generic bashing of UGA. I have four family members who are GT grads, and I think it is a great academic place. But I am not generalizing any negative stereotypes just to make a point (no “nerds” or “geeks” language thrown around).</p>
<p>I did not say anything about the folks who go to UGA, I was just saying that most of their science programs will not be as strong or as rigorous as those at Tech in many/most cases. It is a good school. It doesn’t need to have all of its programs be on par or better than Tech’s to be considered good or solid for that matter. My goodness! You folks act as if we are saying the whole school sucks when we say that some programs are not better than the counterparts at Tech. Anyway, unless I was considering the liberal arts, (which I did and is the reason I am attending Emory), and wanted pre-med, I’m going to Tech. But I’m biased because I would want to be in Atlanta (where the volunteer/research/intern opportunities even during the semester are amazing) and I want more challenging coursework (I shouldn’t have to be in an honors program to be exposed to it to a great extent, and I assure you I more of those anecdotes about the level of coursework in non-honors classes there, straight from the mouths of those taking them). I don’t care if I have to work harder to keep a high science GPA. After seeing the level of the coursework in some of UGA’s courses traditionally taken by pre-meds, a student like me isn’t impressed and I would easily choose Tech if it was only between them and UGA. I am willing to admit that I am different from most as I know for a fact that many of my peers at Emory would actually love that level of work b/c they only want high grades. Perhaps this person falls between the middle. Oh, and I know several Tech folks at Emory med.(not a bad med. school at all from what I see and hear) for example. And I can perhaps research where else they go. I would imagine that those pre-meds that do well at Tech probably have a lot of options that are just as good as y’all’s (excuse the southern in me) or ours’.<br>
I will be fair and concede that perhaps I was misguided in saying that the programs are not solid at all. I should have simply said that those programs for which you mention that has a Tech counterpart, is probably not as strong as the counterpart.<br>
Tech is good if the person knows they want to do science, that way, even if they decide they don’t necessarily want to be a doctor, but say a researcher, they are in the right place. Depends on what they want.</p>
<p>I have no problem saying that if the person is unsure, go to UGA. They just should not expect that the science programs their will be as strong. However, if the sciences are not the only thing that matters to them. I notice that humanities and social sciences do help pre-meds even though they don’t know or care to know. It dramatically improves writing skills, for example, which is now needed for the MCAT. The person also needs to assess what type of environment they want outside of the classroom.</p>
<p>Bernie: Thanks for all the facts that you have given, especially since you do not attend either college, your ideas are based on such a wide range of interaction with UGA/GT professors and academic programs, and that you gave such compelling evidence. I have two neighbors who are Emory grads and who struggle with logic and actual ideas, but I would not make a sweeping judgment of you or Emory as a whole based upon these two people. I would ask that you stick with information that you actually know, not second/third hand individual accounts. That is all for me on this issue!</p>
<p>Amen Gadawg! It is worthwhile to go to UGA in that you are secure enough and busy enough that you don’t feel compelled to post page after page about other schools.</p>
<p>To me, any school in Georgia is fair game for critique (including my own, I do it all of the time) as I am from Georgia and have many friends attending these institutions and have a heavy degree of interaction with all of these friends. As for first or secondhand accounts, I suppose I should assume that my friends are lying when they tell me about the coursework that they are doing. I should take it as an opinion that my friend’s first exam only covered conversions, units, and percent abundances even though he told me. </p>
<p>Moreover and GADawg: With your logic, a person should not be able to post an X vs. X topic in a particular schools thread/forum. Instead, there should be forums broken down by region/state, and it can be posted in this general area, so that it is up for everyone to debate. Many people will know about many other schools through interactions with those who attend them or perhaps taking courses at these institutions, or viewing the coursework done (this is a form of interaction). It’s not fair to say that this debate should be limited to only those who attend the two up for debate. And in this case, getting debate from both sides was unlikely as it was only posted in the UGA forum. In theory, Burdell and the other poster should not be over here either. Also, how come Persianman123 was allowed to over-exaggerate “facts” so much, with no one here questioning it. All I said is this, that his percentages were not correct, and that the schools are more comparable in those in the areas than he realizes. For example, I was correct about Tech’s retention being similar to ours (and thus UGA’s) and about their med. school admit rate being okay (I think it was like 53% amongst applicants from what I hear). Just saying. I actually support all of these schools vehemently. But it is clear that some schools do certain things better than others. And I just want to say it. Hopefully that is okay, but if you want me to come with my numbers, then fine. You may also be right about the flaws in some of my critique, especially on academic difficulty because that is somewhat hard to quantify, and should perhaps only be measured versus the types of students attending each institution. For example, students currently attending either institution may view the coursework as tough (and remember that the preconception is that Tech is harder), but it is very well possible that, if two students from each were to exchange for a semester, they may perform exactly the same as they did at the home institution. I will apologize on being unfair on this front.</p>
<p>As for your professor/faculty interaction: Let’s be serious. Many of the students attending many colleges/universities hardly get the opportunity to do such a thing on their own campus. I see this all the time at Emory, and certainly at larger institutions. So do not hold me to that standard. You may also choose not to believe the info. I got from my friends. That’s fine, but I could also choose not to believe what you said about the Emory grads. However, I know what you said to be true of many people here and any elite college (or college period). I don’t claim that any institution is perfect. I could go on and on about what’s wrong with this place and willingly tell a person whether or not to attend based upon what they want to do or major in. With that said, I stand by my opinion. If I truely believed that I was only into the sciences (these are normally the types who choose Tech in the first place), even if I strayed from pre-med, I would attend Georgia Tech, maybe unless I wanted to do genetics (I forget whether Tech offers it) or a concentration of interest not offered at Tech. Is this fair enough, or is this still considered bashing? These schools more than often pull two different kinds of students in terms of aspirations. This person must figure out what they want (are they interested in the liberal arts for example).</p>