My D got into Caltech & Johns Hopkins. Apart from financial aid any pros and cons are highly appreciated to make a decision as studied abroad. She is interested in Neuroscience (premed).
Thanks
my god - what a awesome problem to have.
Not an expert - but I think with things medical, JHU is such a great name. But my god, she got into Cal Tech. There are few names to me that stand tall over others - thatâs one of them.
Can you get with advisors at both schools - and see their programs or outcomes, etc.
Is there a specific area of neuro that sheâs interested in? Can she match that interest up with professorsâ research?
Wow - very impressive - congrats to her.
Great news. Congratulations! Make sure there is a hospital near Caltech for volunteering, shadowing etc that I think is considered to be necessary to apply for medical school.
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Every Caltech student I have known says that CalTech is like drinking from a firehose, esp the 1st year. Most of them say it is both overwhelming and exhilarating. You know your daughter: is that her?
Every JHU student I know is a very hard worker. JHU students do not tend to see the weekend as time off, but more time to work on what they are doing. It is intense but a steadier pace. You know your daughter: is that her?
My guess is that no matter which one she chooses, she will need a year between undergrad and med school to get in the âextraâ stuff (volunteering/shadowing) that med schools are requiring, but that is becoming the norm.
eta: here is a thread on taking time after college to prepare for med school: Is it a good practice to take a post-grad gap year to prepare for a med school? - #11 by WayOutWestMom
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Congrats!. The fact that she got into these two schools means she is deemed to be well prepared academically. Caltech will be undoubtedly more challenging academically, but in an exhilarating way as @collegemom3717 has said. To ease the transition to Caltech, students are graded on a pass/fail basis in every course in the first two quarters (Caltech is on a quarter system).The foundational science courses (physics, biology, and chemistry - including an intro to organic chemistry) taken by nearly all freshmen would have satisfied most of premed requirements on the sciences, so they are likely graded pass/fail (and wouldnât be included in studentsâ GPA).
One of key differences between the two schools is likely the collaborative culture among their students. At Caltech, nearly all homework and projects are designed with collaboration in mind. Almost all exams are open-book and take-home (and often untimed). Adherence to its honor code (in both academic and non-academic settings) is the most important part of the campus culture and studentsâ lives.
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I wonder if Caltech may help a student stand out amongst peers during the med school application process. In part because JHU has so many folks applying to med school, but also because we in medicine tend to have a lot of respect/awe for Caltech (Iâm not currently involved in med school admissions so youâll want to solicit other opinions on this).
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I know successful med school students who attendes both of these outstanding colleges. Are the two schools equally affordable? If so, does your D have a preference?
Be aware that med schools will not accept P/F grades as fulfilling admission requirements.
I know at MIT, which has a similar policy about freshman grades, that an underlying grade is recorded for freshman courses, but these grades not shown on transcripts except for transcripts for application to professional schools. I suspect that Cal Tech does something similar.
Besides academics, pre-med need to consider whether the school and its location provides access to sites where pre-meds can get involved with the expected pre-med ECs: community service with disadvantaged groups; physician shadowing; clinical volunteering/employment and leadership roles in their activities.
Research opportunities are abundant at both schools, but research is frequently over-valued by students & parents when compared with other pre-med ECs.
A survey of adcomms showed that research was only ranked as being of medium importance when making decision about who to interview and accept, while leadership, community service, clinical experience and physician shadowing were ranked as being of high importance.
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Yes, students are given shadow grades at both schools. These shadow grades arenât included in the calculation of studentsâ GPAs, however. Do medical schools recalculate applicantsâ GPAs?
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Yes, AMCAS recalculates the cGPA and sGPA for all applicants and includes every college level class a student has ever taken, including any dual enrollment classes taken in high school.
See pp. 25-42 of 2023 AMCAS Applicant Guide
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Our sonâs roommate âSteveâ was pre med at Caltech. Yes, he is doing his residency now.
I donât know the details but I remember that I was surprised that he was premed at Caltech.
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Thank you for your feedback. It provides insight whatâs coming. Is gap year a norm for almost everyone?
Thank you. Price tag will be same after scholarship/aid. D donât have preference. But we have friendâs daughter in JHU. We lived in CA and has just heard about Caltech. But not found info about premed over there.
Thanks to everyone for sharing some great info and a big thank to @2020BSMD for starting this thread 
Weâre in a similar situation - my DS23 has been accepted at CalTech and JHU BME. So, Iâve been following this discussion thread closely and learning from it.
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Good info we were not aware. Thanks a lot.
Yes. According to the 2022 Matriculating Student Questionnaire, only 28% of entering med students came directly from undergrad.
47% reported taking 1-2 gap years after graduation.
15% reported they had graduated 3-4 years prior to matriculating.
10% had graduated 5 or more years prior.
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Would I be correct to assume that most of the other 72% of premed students also wanted to go to medical schools immediately, but failed to gain entry directly from undergrad?
Iâll let @WayOutWestMom answer this more thoroughly, but the simple answer is no, that is not correct.
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CottonTales is correct. Most didnât apply.
Applying to med school at the end of senior year necessitates taking a gap year since the med school application cycle takes a full year.
To matriculate directly from undergrad requires a student to apply in May of their junior year of college. Colleges that use committee letter often require students to submit their CVs, LOEs, personal statements, and MCAT score in March. Most students arenât ready to apply then.
Gap years are also used to buff up ECs, prep for the MCAT (which typically requires a dedicated study block of 4-6 weeks) or earn money to pay for the cost of a round of applications (a single round of med school applications runs in the range of $5-8K) or pay down undergrad debt.
Some take gap years because they want a breather between the intense competition of pre-med undergrad and the firehose academics of med school.
Some take gap years to explore career options other than medicine.
The 5+ year group is nearly all career changers. Or those who earn a PhD before med school. (The latter is more common than you might think.)
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Barring financial aid/scholarship situations, both schools seem to carry same price tag (?). In our case, my DS23 has been selected as one of Hodson scholars, so the cost aspect figures in our discussions. But we, also, like to evaluate the two options solely based on fulfilling/exceeding PreMed requirements and research opportunities. Thanks!