I’m looking to go pre-med. Which school would be better for such a track? I’m a little worried about grade deflation at Hopkins but I’m not sure if Northwestern is just as competitive…Thanks!
Your choices may be about the same along the lines with which you’ve inquired. To reach your goal with perhaps less stress, also consider schools such as Bates, Colgate, Grinnell, Hamilton, Carleton, Amherst and Pomona.
Will you have to go into debt for undergrad?
Nope! My decision is independent of finances @mommdc
I’d had the impression that you are a HS junior, @IvyLeagueAlien, so just ignore the second part of my post if you are a senior.
NW is highly competitive.
NU is just as competitive. Very difficult track there.
which school is better?
Both outstanding and reputationally similar. Johns Hopkins, has a stronger reputation for pre-med, has outstanding bio-engineering, and is connected to a top 3 research oriented med school.
The above said, pick the one where you will feel more comfortable and enjoy your college experience. Provided you do well both will get you into a good medical school, and if you choose to pursue other avenues, both have the broad repetitional strength to permit you switch directions without risk.
Are you a senior who was admitted to both?
@MYOS1634 yes. I am currently deciding between both schools.
My ultimate goal is to attend medical school. I’ve heard Hopkins is known as the “medical school graveyard”, where any aspirations of matriculation are crushed. Is this true about the environment at Hopkins?
<<<<
I’ve heard Hopkins is known as the “medical school graveyard”, where any aspirations of matriculation are crushed. Is this true about the environment at Hopkins?
<<<<
Are there any numbers? how many JHS freshmen are premed…and how many end up applying to med school?
Remember your chances for med school rest more heavily on your GPA (and ability to maintain a high one wherever you matriculate) than on the name of your college or university. Good luck deciding!
Jhu is not a good environment for premeds. The medical school itselfbis great, but there undergraduate environment isn’t conducive to the high GPA mad schools want. You want a school that’s as supportive as possible.
If there’s a chance you’re not interested in being premed, jhu is great.
Any other choices beside those two ?
@MYOS1634 i’m waiting to hear back from the ivies, vandy, rice, and duke… do you have any recommendations? JHU sounds unsupportive and really hard to maintain a high GPA
The reasoning (across various threads) regarding JHU as being less than ideal for pre-med students can be somewhat illogical, in that it tends to run along the lines of, “Don’t go to JHU if want to become a doctor, they produce too many of them.”
^^^
I don’t know if that’s the logic. I think the logic may be somewhat similar to what is said about schools like UCLA, Berkeley, UCSD, UCI, the Ivys, and other top schools: Don’t go to XXX because that school is crawling with tippy top gunner premeds and there’s a good chance you won’t survive."
Frankly, if someone is 100% serious** about wanting to go to med school, then targetting a top school, loaded with top premeds, is like choosing to run the gauntlet. If someone is absolutely sure that s/he wants to go to med school, then choose a school where his/her stats are at the top, study hard, get the GPA, spank the MCAT, and participate in relevant medically-related ECs.
The biggest and most common misstep I see premeds doing is choosing a big name school because they think it will impress med school adcoms. But once they’re at that undergrad, they find the competition for the limited number of A’s to be overwhelming, and their GPA faulters.
**100% serious: The students who have seriously considered medicine, who understand the challenges, and are academically and mentally strong enough to make it thru. I don’t mean kids with stats that likely won’t survived the premed prereqs. And I don’t mean the students who have some romanticized the idea of becoming a doctor.
I would lean to Northwestern, mainly because of better location and more diversified strengths (in the chance that you change field to something like economics/business).