<p>I'm looking to major in biology and go to medical school after graduation. I applied early decision to Johns Hopkins. I'm also going to apply to Penn and Brown as reaches. Haven't found any colleges strong in biology that are good matches though. Any help?</p>
<p>Extracurriculars: above average
4 year football player, varsity letter
Student council president/officer 4 years
3 hospital internship classes
300 volunteer hours at local hospital
etc etc</p>
<p>GPA 4.0 weighted, ~3.8 unweighted</p>
<p>740 Math
680 CR
740 Writing
33 ACT composite
770 SAT II bio
660 SAT II literature</p>
<p>Thanks for the help in advance.
Also, i'm from around Philadelphia PA and I'd like to stay on the east coast.</p>
<p>You might want to think about Non east coast schools (Rice, Emory?) for geographic balance. Consider U Rochester for a safer school... Maybe some LACs with good sciences for high matches-- Haverford, Wesleyan, Bucknell, Lafayette? Safeties: Ursinus, Juniata? </p>
<p>Need to know more about what you want besides bio degree... Your scores are very good, but not mindblowing. Diversify your target areas for better caliber schools that aren't awash in smart kids from PA, or go against the grain to artsy schools seeking bio kids (Bard.)</p>
<p>Thanks. I'm looking for a medium size school (not more than 10k people, no less than ~2k) that is in or around a city/large town. Any other suggestions?</p>
<p>Well, you're in Philadelphia - why not Ursinus? They have a higher rate of getting folks who enter as premeds into medical school than JHU (and likely higher than Brown or Penn), you could certainly play football, and you'd get a great education.</p>
<p>ursinus, that sounds like a planet, i highly doubt that many ppl and med schools know it. There are ppl in academia that never even heard of dartmouth, therefore, i conclude that they have NEVER heard of this place.</p>
<p>Check the med school admissions rates for folks who started off as premeds, and then compare it with the smilar rates at JHU. You'll find there is no comparison.</p>
<p>If he wants to get into a GOOD medical school JHU is the best bet... and with the stats he's listed I doubt there will be any problem... a bio degree from JHU in medical school admission is only rivaled by one from Harvard...</p>
<p>but hey, idk, b/c there are very few midwesterners at Cornell. That is probably the reason. And if someone can get into U Chicago Med, they can prob get into a school on the east coast as good and will prob pick it over the midwestern one.</p>
<p>Holy Cross would be a good fit, as HC has an excellent premed program and strong relationship with UMass Medical school. Also Holy Cross has Div1aa football and strong alumni network.</p>
<p>"If he wants to get into a GOOD medical school JHU is the best bet..."</p>
<p>For the AVERAGE would-be premed, the best bet by far is your local state u. That's because the top students at the state u. will get more mentoring, more research opportunities, and more internship possibilities than the average pre-med at JHU, who will find herself competing with top-flight graduate students for same. In fact, the "average" entering pre-med student at JHU is much more likely to be weeded out in the process, and won't even receive recommendations from the med school admissions committee.</p>
<p>This is NOT a putdown of JHU. On the contrary, the best students at JHU go on to do amazing things. But no matter how you slice it, half the would-be premeds at JHU are going to be in the bottom 50% of the pool, and large numbers are going to end up not going to med school at all.</p>