<p>How do you decide that one Pre-Med program is better or worse than another? It seems like just about every school I've visited has some sort of advising program but I'm having trouble definitively judging/ranking them. All I can come up with are vague statements like "[College A] seems better for/more focused on the sciences than [College B]". </p>
<p>So, what do you look at when looking at a school's Pre-Med program?</p>
<p>There is no perfect pre med program anywhere. You need to choose a college based on how well it fits you.</p>
<p>Like a good many things in life, you’ll need to make your own opportunities as a pre-med.</p>
<p>As for how to judge advising, ask these questions of both the advising office and of students currently attending the school:</p>
<p>1) Is there an advisor exclusively for medical school applications or does the advising office handle all health professions?</p>
<p>2) What kind of practical help does the advising office offer? (Mock interviews? Help with school selection? Seminars on the pre med process? PS review? Help with finding physicians shadowing/clinical volunteer opportunities?) </p>
<p>3) Responsiveness to students? How long does it take to get an appointment?</p>
<p>4) Committee letter offered? Any restrictions on who gets letters? What are the committee’s criteria for ranking applicants?</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! In addition to the advising, do you have any tips for evaluating the academic difficulty and/or quality at different schools? (Especially science)</p>
<p>What kinds of programs are you looking at? </p>
<p>Research Us are going to be different than LACs or SLACs, and should be evaluated differently.</p>
<p>Depending on your potential major, you may want to see how often upper level elective are offered. Smaller schools tend to only offer upper level electives every other year or every third year. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does make scheduling your coursework a bit trickier. </p>
<p>Also consider whether you might want a greater or less breadth of electives. Breadth of elective offerings really isn’t a issue for pre med since all the pre-reqs are basically intro level classes, but you even think you might possibly want to go MD/PhD or PhD, it’s something you need to seriously consider. You will have fewer course choices and fewer teacher choices at small schools. Again, not necessarily a bad thing.</p>
<p>RE: academic difficult is hard to judge since it’s so subjective. You need to look at your academic peers, particularly who will be your academic peers in STEM courses. The smartest, most academically able students tend to cluster in STEM fields so don’t look at the school’s population as a whole. Consider whether your SAT/ACT scores indicate that you’re going to be in the lower half of the incoming class, the middle 50 percentile, or the upper 25%. You want to be in the last situation, not the other 2 because you will get outcompeted during the weed out classes.</p>
<p>Thanks again for the response.
Most of the schools I’m looking at are in NE like Tufts, BC, BU, Northeastern, Colgate, NYU, Bowdoin.
Also, if you don’t mind me asking, how’d you get this type of knowledge?</p>
<p>I’m part of an academic family. DH (now retired) was PhD physical scientist at a national research facility. Child #1 is already in med school; child #2 is applying to med school this cycle (and will get accepted somewhere–she has a great record). I work at a biomedical basic research facility. I have many friends who are STEM university professors and/or researchers.</p>
<p>Choose the school that fits you personally the best. Choosing free option is very wise (Merit awards). Forget ranking, irrelevant! “Value” is very personal, what is valuable for you might be completely ignored by others. Respect your opinion over others!
Do your best at any place and you will be fine.</p>
<p>@WayOutWestMom, that’s a heck of a background, best of luck to your second child, though it doesn’t seem like she’ll need it! </p>
<p>@MiamiDAP, I’m not terribly concerned what any “ranking” service like US News or Princeton Review says, but at times it is difficult for me, the first kid in my family to go to college in the US, to evaluate some schools. Thanks for your advice, the idea of getting out of college debt free is VERY appealing these days…</p>