I know. Another one. Which out of these Texas colleges would be best for pre-med?

I’ve already applied to these schools: UT (Austin), Texas A&M (College Station), Baylor, Texas Tech (With Honors), and Austin College. Major is Biochemistry. Given the fact that UT and A&M are more of a reach for me, and Baylor is a little expensive, I’ve been heavily considering Tech with honors and Austin college, because I want to be able to have excellent research opportunities (tight-knit honors community or tight-knit private school) and be heavily involved with clubs and leadership. Am I overlooking certain aspects about UT, A&M, and Baylor that you guys could give me some insight on? What intimidates me about those big schools is that things such as research and leadership roles in school clubs may be more difficult to attain with more students to compete against.

Go to the school that costs the least. Seriously, you’ll be thankful you did later on.

I know nothing about Austin college but I know multiple kids that go there wanting to be in medicine. Supposed to be a good school for that.

Which one do you like if you decided to not go to medical school after undergrad? Pick that one

Austin college or Tech Honors are excellent choices for a pre-med.
Once you have admissions results look at value and the environment that’s likely to allow do your best. Visit, post again with specifics and people here will help you.
If you didn’t get into med school, which would you wish to attend?
Have you looked into Southwestern and Trinity?

Austin College. The most important factor (after cost, of course) is which school will give you the support you need. Pre-med is brutal, and some students find the small classes and direct professor contact of an LAC to be crucial. In fact, if you can make it through your required pre-med courses (and earn top grades, of course), a small school like Austin C. should work to help you get accepted to medical school (so that the college can boast about its students’ acceptance rate to med school).

It is important, as others have noted, to also consider which school is best if med school doesn’t happen. The ground is littered with the bones of once hopeful pre-med students. One HS friend of mine switched to pre-law. My roommate in college switched and applied to dental schools.

Trinity University.

I’m going to be very honest with you because you are premed…

Your SAT score and GPA does not bode well for a premed.

I don’t see how you’d get into UT anyway and you may not get into TAMU. But either way, don’t go to a school like these two because the successful premeds there will likely have higher stats than you have.

So, if you want a “fighting chance” to become a doctor, then go to Texas Tech or some other “good school” where your stats are considered to be high.

If becoming a doctor is a real dream for you and not just some romantic fantasy, then don’t go to a school like UT or TAMU. Go where your premed classmates will be similar or weaker than you are.

Sounds like you are leaping before you look. In another thread you listed your ECs as

So it doesn’t sound like you have any actual paid or volunteer experience in health care. But you’ve settled on being a doctor.

Experience in a health-care setting is an an unwritten requirement of medical school admissions. Some other programs such as physician assistant or physical therapist have actual hour requirements just to apply.

Another clue you haven’t spent much time looking into how one becomes a doctor. A generation ago research was a key to med school admission and it remains part of the lore of what HS kids think they need to do while in college. Spend a few minutes reading thru https://www.rhodes.edu/sites/default/files/PreMed_Essentials.pdf and see what pre-med advisors say about research & experience.

Being a doctor is a respected profession. But many HS kids have a hazy dream of how wonderful it would be to be a doctor without taking the time to explore the career first. And its fun to tell friends and family “I’m going to be a doctor!”

Before you get all wrapped up in choosing a premed school and planning your college electives so they fit your chosen medical school it would be a good idea to get some actual exposure to health care. And even if you still see yourself working in the field you should be considering alternatives that don’t involve 11+ years of school/training from where you are now and heavy debt. Doctors are far from the only ones in the health field that help people. Physical therapists, radiology techs, nurses, speech pathologists, physician assistants, and many others earn a good living in health care as you can see on http://explorehealthcareers.org

@mikemac

To anyone else who is about to reply with another self-righteous and condescending message:

  1. Yes, I know my ec’s suck. I didn’t have anyone to tell me what was important in the college application process until the end of the junior year before it was too late. I had the polar opposite of helicopter parents. I realized that things will need to be different in college, especially since I’ll be applying to medical school (to your sincere displeasure). Also, this was a class as part of my school day, not an “extracurricular” but anyways, I took a class that I had to apply for, and I was given the opportunity to be on the hospital floor, interacting with patients, as well as interacting with doctors and nurses as we learned from them. Each week we were on a different floor of the hospital (icu, surgery, radiology etc) so I’m not oblivious to how a hospital works or feels like. I described this experience in my essays.

  2. Yes, my stats (gpa+sat) suck. See the beginning of number 1 for commentary. In addition, some people either aren’t good at standardized tests or get hyper-anxious the morning of (that’s me) and cannot think straight during them no matter how high their scores on practice tests were. To judge somebody’s fit for a college or being a pre-med based on a sat score is probably one of the most misguided and ignorant things to believe. I do plan on studying as early as possible for the mcat (as soon as I start taking or have finished the majority of courses on the mcat). Also, after this revelation at the end of junior year, I took 7 ap classes this semester to see if I could really handle a fraction of the undergraduate work of a pre-med. A’s in all but 1 of them (high b in physics 2). The classes included things like calc bc, stat, eng lit, and physics 2. A’s were made in ap chem and ap bio years before which are relevant to my major.

  3. To who posted about me “not having a clue” of medical school admissions because I have the audacity to want good research opportunities: research is still a good thing to have on your application, but more importantly, I actually am interested enough in biochemistry to want to do undergraduate research in it, even if its not required for medical school.

  4. Many people who were superstars in high school are now failures, and the opposite is true. It is quite noteworthy that you guys are too ignorant to see that or acknowledge that people can change.

Posters are simply trying to help you, no one is judging you, just giving unbiased feedback, generally based on significant experience. With that said, congratulations on a great semester, with difficult rigor.

Here are 2 links that may be helpful re: TAMU. Here is the link to grade distribution by course, which is important for pre-med consideration. Search by courses within each school/dept: http://web-as.tamu.edu/gradereport/

Also see post #140 at this thread, addressing some positives and negatives at TAMU:http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/2104055-surprises-positive-and-negative-at-your-childs-college-vs-expectations-name-the-school.html

Good luck during the admissions process and beyond.

@premed9956 Are you doing things you love? Then why say its not good enough?
Just do what you love around your schoolwork, and don’t worry too much. You can sort through
various medical professions, please consider masters in public health, nursing, physical therapist.
PA and Osteopathic Medicine, and MD programs. By the way did you know that osteopathic medical schools
ARE WAY WAY EASIER to get in? You don’t have to aim at MD, to become a doctor anymore.

There are some specialities that will require an MD though, so study that carefully to understand all the options
out there and look carefully at osteopathic med schools that require a MUCH LOWER MCAT score!

Also have you considered going to a school where you can get a PA degree or MD in six years, without all
the pain of undergrad? Look in Kansas and New York State. There are programs. Search in Texas for those too.
Do NOT listen to the naysayers. They just love to punch down kids on College Confidential.

I agree with you, this over focus on high school is totally ridiculous. just get into a good college and work through your options. Don’t let other “premeds” get to you, as half or 3/4 will simply drop out, as they will not be suited to being a doctor. You may well be suited.

There is no way you have to be a paramedic now, or a candy striper, you can simply play a guitar
and still outshine the kiddos that were starting paramedic training at age 3 !!!

Its very funny to read the naysayers, but laugh, do not cry about it.

The burnout rate for the kiddos who start to shove and push at age 5-10 is very very high.
In fact, I know MDs who have nervous breakdowns, and never get through residency. There are a lot of failures
out there who had " perfect resumes and scores" at your age, all orchestrated by overanxious moms and dads!!!

so play a guitar, sing, and relax. If you are cut out for becoming a healthcare professional,
you can figure it out.

To say some good things. A friend of ours in TX had almost exactly the same stats as yours. She is graduating from Mary Hardin Baylor in TX this year. She did a lot of research and said the people she interviewed with were impressed by it. She also played varsity soccer for 4 years! She has been accepted to 3 med schools in TX!

My son who’s stats were a little more got into an early admit program for vets in Kansas and has a 4.0 so far. He girlfriend is pre-med and has been getting interest from med school advisors for her cancer research she is working on. Big write-up on it recently.

You do not want to burn out before med school. Do not go to the hardest school Have a life, show the admins you have great grades, a high MCAT, and had a balanced undergraduate experience.

So, shadow, make sure it is what you want. Go to a college where you can get good grades. It doesn’t matter if it is UT, Kansas State, KCBSMD, Trinity, Texas Tech, just go where you can do well and shine. Shine in college, get very involved. If it is your passion you can do great things!

@Coloradomama

I don’t know who you are directing that comment to, but I am a pragmatist. If someone genuinely wants a goal, then I will try to steer them away from paths that will likely derail them.

A student with less-than-strong stats who wants to be premed should not be attending a school like UTexas or TAMU. Gen Chem I and II and Bio I and II would likely kill this student the first year.

High school foundation in math and science courses is very important for a premed (or STEM major). Those without that foundation might want to spend sometime at a CC or an inexpensive local state school, taking their time, and getting that foundation and slowly taking the premed prereqs.

@mom2collegekids

Did you not see my above comment about my senior year grades and courseload? 4.75 senior year GPA with 7 ap classes (and 1 regular anatomy class because pre-ap and ap anatomy don’t exist) + college apps? Pretty strong improvement if you ask me. I’m not a weak student, I was just admittedly very lazy the last few years. It will not happen in college. Trust me, I regret the last few years enough to make sure it never happens again. Last year when I took AP Chem (and made an A) the class was known to be so difficult that students who go on to places like UT and A&M end up sending emails to the teacher thanking them for making the class more difficult, because their science classes (at least in freshman and sophomore year) are easier or the same difficulty as the ap chem class. No joke, that class was brutal but totally worth it.

I agree that the foundation of math and science is very important for a pre-med. I guess I should have been more clear in that other thread, but I have all a’s for science classes except physics 2 and first-semester freshman bio (ugh). And that includes a total of 8 years of science, including the ap and pre-ap variants of chemistry and biology, ap physics 1 and 2, AP Environmental science, and anatomy. Math was off to a rough start, but I’ve been scoring a’s this year in ap calc bc and stat. I’m honestly lucky that I was allowed into ap calc bc but I’m glad I was.

Some people aren’t lucky in that they have informed parents or guidance counselors to instill upon them the importance of high school and get to live in the same city their whole life (I’ve moved states 4 times, let alone across town and different schools). My older sister was even the type of person to constantly downplay highly selective schools as “overrated” so you can see what I got to work with. Luckily I’ve realized the importance of all this stuff before starting college, when it {really} matters.

As the parent of a kid with similar stats, who was one of the miraculous few accepted at TAMU after wholistic review (she is currently finishing her 1st semester at TAMU with some great results I might add) Let me say, you may or may not get in, who knows! I think you can probably count UT-A out unless there is some mitigating factors you haven’t mentioned. Be advised that if you do get accepted at TAMU…everything, and I do mean everything, is a competition/application/interview at TAMU. Wanna join a club? Fill out an application, write an essay and be interviewed and still chances are you won’t get in, even if you are qualified and socially interesting and know somebody already in the club to vouch for you. Wanna get a seat in a specific class, yeah good luck, so do 40k other students. I mean, even getting a spot in a dorm is competitive. Great school and my kid likes it well enough, it will definitely be a good place to get a feel for life in the real world (or cut throat world of medicine), it is a great place to learn that there are probably 20-30k more people who are smarter, more qualified, better connected than you (I mean the ubiquitous you, not you specifically!).

If I were looking to get into med school, I’d focus on schools like Texas Tech, UTSA (which has some great medical related undergrad options too should you change your mind about med school), even UT-D or UNT, SFA where you can shine on a smaller stage. I rarely agree with @mom2collegekids but she is not wrong in her advice here, focus on schools other than UT-A and TAMU if your true goal is med school.

@premed9956 “Am I overlooking certain aspects about UT, A&M, and Baylor that you guys could give me some insight on? What intimidates me about those big schools is that things such as research and leadership roles in school clubs may be more difficult to attain with more students to compete against.”

I think your initial assessment of UT, A&M and Baylor is spot on. It’s not to say that you can’t succeed there and certainly many students do go onto Med School from these schools, but I think a better path would be a smaller college where you can be a stand-out star. I know people who have gone to Austin College and really loved their time there. One school that has not been mentioned is Southwestern in Georgetown. We toured that school with DD19 (also pre-med) and they have a brand-new science facility. We toured with a pre-med student who said his family doctor sent both of her kids to Southwestern and encouraged him to go there. Trinity has it has gotten very competitive in admissions over the last few years, but they send over 70% of their students to graduate, law and med school. So the school really prepares you for post graduate work.

If you want to go pre-med then think about:

  1. The cheapest reasonable college so you/your parents can use the money for med school
  2. The college needs to prepare you for MCATs but still allow you to get a good GPA
  3. Access to volunteering opportunities (e.g., near a hospital)
  4. Success in graduates getting into med school
  5. Options if you don’t go to med school

It’s not misguided or ingnorant to be concerned that a future premed doesn’t test well. The MCAT starts bright and early at 8am (have to be there by 7:30am) and goes on for 7.5 hours. Yes, it’s nearly an 8 hour long test. If you “cannot think straight” in the morning, then that’s going to affect you over and over again …for MCAT, for shelf exams, for Step exams, etc.

There is a correlation between how well a student does on ACT/SAT and how they’ll do on the MCAT, particularly the verbal portion. Therefore it’s not misguided or ignorant to have this concern.

That said, I hope that you figure out some ways to overcome your morning anxiety.

Yes, I saw that 1 quarter’s worth of senior year grades is showing marked improvement. Hopefully you’ll be able to keep it up! Good luck!

The OP writes

Your blistering replies to people who are trying to help and giving you reasonable advice speaks volumes.

Applicants to med school need recs from profs which may be less than flattering if your interactions with them are similar to your interactions here. Med school interviews are not all tea and cookies; expect some stress-test questions to test your poise. The tendency you have shown to lash out will sink your chances should you make it to this stage.