hi! i want to be a doctor and major in either biology or biochemistry, but i don’t know which college i should go to. i want to go to nyu because i love new york, but i dont know if it is a good college for pre med. i have a 3.5 gpa (unweighted) and 3.8 (weighted) so i dont know which other colleges to apply for. thanks.
I don’t think NYU is good for a premed.
It’s expensive, gives lousy aid, and the competition for premeds is high. Your GPA is not high. I think you’d be weeded.
What are your parents saying about paying?
As for “loving New York,”… you’ll be a premed. You don’t need the distraction of what NY offers. You’re going to be nose to the grindstone.
Tell us more…
What is your ACT/SAT score?
What is your home state?
How much will your parents pay each year? Ask them, please don’t guess. We see later posts from a lot of disappointed students who thought their parents would pay more.
Ok…you’re a soph in high school.
Slow down. You’re making some plans that could be detrimental.
Every year we see posts from premeds who made naive mistakes that totally derailed their med school paths. Some of the premed - to - med school path is counter-intuitive.
Do not graduate early from high school. If anything, see if you can do Dual Enrollment but still be considered a high school student. Leaving high school and then going to a CC can hurt your chances for the best aid or scholarships because you’d be a transfer student. However, if you’re still a high school student and take DE classes, then you’ve protected your “incoming frosh” status (even with those DE college credits, and can get the best aid or merit.
How serious are you about med school? Is it just a romantic fancy or do you understand how un-glamourous and yucky it all can be. I still remember a text from my son while he was in med school, “mom, we had to amputate too many legs today.” My heart sank because I knew he was sad. He then called me and described (not sure if this is the exact wording) how they had to dissect down to the bone and then use a Gilgi Saw to cut thru the bone. He loves being a doctor, and he’s has nerves of steel and an iron stomach, but it’s a very difficult career path…long hours. He’s a resident now and last month he was at the hospital nearly 18 hours a day, including weekends. This month, his hours are around 14 hours a day…a little better. He is hoping to have a Saturday off later this month to attend the Iron Bowl game (he’s a Bama grad).
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Hi! I am a sophomore at a very competitive high school and my grades are average. I have 3 As and 3 Bs and I am only in 2 honors courses, so I don’t think I have really high chances of getting into a 4 year university. I really want to take the early exit exam so that way I go to community college right after sophomore year, and after 2 years of community college I go straight to a 4 year university. However, is it possible for me to still be accepted into a medical school if I do the early exit exam? Thanks!
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Can your parents afford to pay for 4 years at NYU and then 4 years of med school?
And I agree – you are a sophomore. Your time would be much better spent elsewhere than coming to CC at this point.
For now you should focus on:
–Working hard, learning, and doing as well as you can in the most challenging curriculum you can manage.
–When the time comes study for standardized tests.
–Continue your involvement in activities you care about and work towards making meaningful contributions to those activities.
–Enjoying spending time with your family and friends
Mom2 has it covered. But I’ll add this for others who may be wrestling with the same question. For a current HS sophompre, NYU undergrad plus med school (likely private) afterward will cost about $700,000. Seven Hundred Thousand Dollars. Think about that.
NYU CAN and Will get you into a med school if you do well, there are many successful students, but as all the others have indicated that it is not the most cost competitive school that gets you there. Right now, you should concentrate on improving your HS academics, not trying to do some thing fancy like take an exit exam and go to a community college. It does not sound you are ready for it, based on your current grades. You’d better off to get a high GPA in HS and a high ACT/SAT score and then talk about going to NYU or not, based on your financial condition and stats.
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NYU CAN and Will get you into a med school if you do well, there are many successful students, but as all the others have indicated that it is not the most cost competitive school that gets you there. Right now, you should concentrate on improving your HS academics, not trying to do some thing fancy like take an exit exam and go to a community college. It does not sound you are ready for it, based on your current grades. You’d better off to get a high GPA in HS and a high ACT/SAT score and then talk about going to NYU or not, based on your financial condition and stats.
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Agree with much of the above except the “NYU can and will get you into med school if you do well…”.
No school gets anyone into med school. It’s really all on you. And no one knows ahead of time if they’ll do well.
Recently, either on CC or another premed forum, an NYU student posted that he needs to transfer. He had been a very good high school student and assumed he’d do well at NYU. He’s not getting med school worthy grades. So, he’s transferring to him home state school where hopefully, he’ll get a better GPA. And likely he will.
The OP isn’t a top student, he’s a good student. It would be silly to risk NYU or similar as a premed. Might as well pick another career path it going to NYU or another similar school.
Ok…I just found the post from the NYU student, here’s part of it
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NYU GPA:3.1 BCPM:2.7
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SAT:2250
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As you can see, his NYU GPA is a huge issue. This was a strong high school student…evidenced by the strong SAT score and the NYU admission.
He’s transferring out. He’s a sophomore at NYU, so it will be VERY hard to raise that GPA to be med school worthy. He’ll have to take a gap year because he’ll need all 5 remaining semesters of top grades to budge that GPA. His hopes for an MD school are probably screwed unless he does a Special Masters Program after he graduates.
Even if he gets straight As (difficult) for the next 5 semesters, his GPA will probably end up around 3.5 GPA which is low for MD schools. It’s hard to perfectly figure since we don’t know how many credits he’s taken and how many were BCPM and how many BCPM he has to still take.
I disagree whole hearty that a student cannot succeed in NYU or ANY top school (ie BU) as a premed. There are plenty anecdotal stories about some premed cannot make it in one school or the other, but you have to take statistics in consideration. Most of the medical students are from top 50 schools, so there are plenty of med school students from NYU or BU. The problem is that med schools only pick top students in each UG. If any individual cannot make it, that is because that individual cannot compete successfully in that school, it is not school’s fault.There is no easy way out for a premed.
Whether OP should go to NYU or not, my suggestion is that its not cost effective to OP and based on his performance so far, NYU does not fit in and most likely he will not succeed as a premed. There is a difference between the school’s capability and individual’s performance.
There is very good advice in comments #1 through #7 above. I have only one thing to add:
You said that your unweighted GPA in high school is 3.5. This is not the sort of high school GPA that leads me to expect that you will ever go to medical school. I see a question from you on another thread about graduating high school early and going to community college.
If you actually want to get to medical school, some advice: Do not even think about graduating high school early. Do not try to find high school courses that are the hardest possible and will allow your GPA to fall even further. Do not even think about trying to get into the most academically challenging and competitive university that you could possibly have any chance at getting into (such as NYU).
Instead, concentrate first and foremost on getting your GPA up. You need A’s, and lots of A’s, and not much else. Get off of CC and STUDY. Sit in the front row in every class. Get ahead in all of your homework. Do homework the day that it is assigned. If there is anything that you don’t understand then seek out additional help after school.
Then when you are towards the end of your junior year and the beginning of senior year of high school look at universities that are very good but not necessarily “tippy top”, and that have a good premed program but that will be economically affordable. You want to be in the top 1/2 of the class where ever you go. Your in-state public schools are probably the first place to look.
thank you so much! my home state is California, and i havent taken the SAT yet. i also dont know how much my parents will pay, but ill ask them. thanks again !
i wanted to do CC because the transfer rate is much higher but i since i am struggling with HS classes college classes will be even worse for me. i am trying to get my HS GPA up though
i am interested in University of Washington as well
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disagree whole hearty that a student cannot succeed in NYU or ANY top school (ie BU) as a premed. There are plenty anecdotal stories about some premed cannot make it in one school or the other, but you have to take statistics in consideration.
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No one is saying no one can get into a US MD med school from a top school.
I’m saying that it can be more difficult, and it can be and often is. No one knows ahead of time if they might be one of the failures.
I’m sure that when you sent your premed student to a tippy top school, you had no idea that the student would not get into any US MD schools. I am willing to bet that if your child had gone to a much lower-ranked but good school, the GPA would have been higher and the student would be in a us MD school today.
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That is probably not true.
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Why? Very expensive and you’re not a resident? Why would you ever want to go to uwash as an OOS premed???
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Much higher for what???
So OP is CA resident, NYU is going to be very expensive for you since it is known for very bad financial aid, even for local NY residents with high stats. NYU pre-med classes are very hard (well they are hard in almost all schools), combining with high cost, it is just not a smart choice at all. On east coast, NYU and BU probably top the worst choice for pre-med since you’re paying high private school tuition and getting worse grades.
OP is CA resident and looking at NYU? Man, If I was a resident I would be applying to all UCs schools. They are far better for premed and much cheaper. Lucky you
“OP is CA resident”
There are a LOT of VERY good in-state options in California.
“On east coast, NYU and BU probably top the worst choice for pre-med since you’re paying high private school tuition and getting worse grades.”
IMHO this is exactly right.
“i have a 3.5 gpa (unweighted)”
If you want to have any chance at all of ever going to medical school, you need to use the rest of your high school years to learn how to get better grades. Keep ahead in ALL classes. Get extra help in any class where you need help to get an A. Sit near the front in every class and always pay attention. Do homework the day that it is assigned. If you did anything wrong re-do it correctly before turning it in. In math and science understand WHY things are the way that they are and don’t just memorize formulae. Strive for A’s in all classes. You will be competing with students who got straight A’s in high school, and have to learn how to do that and succeed.
If you can afford it and can keep up with the work, yes. There are very many lab, research, and work opportunities that come from NYU. My sister did pre med at NYU and is now at Columbia for medical school (with acceptances from Yale, NYU, Albert Einstein, etc.) but it all depends most on how much work you are willing to put in.