Not sure if either of your students received the information on the Webinars given by JHU for incoming students. When D21 was accepted they had quite a few of them as well as one specifically for PreMed students. I’d highly suggest your students attend them if provided, or look back thru past sessions. And I’d agree, lots of students take Gap years.
I’m always shocked at the BME students that are also PreMed. The advantage there is my daughters Mentor\Professor teaches at the Med School so they have access to those resources. BME freshman are given 2 Advisors their first year.
PLEASE have your student visit the JHU campus. Caltech’s area is very nice when I worked at JPL… but that was many years ago. However, I think they would “feel” very safe there. I did not personally visit JHU prior but my daughter did attend with her HS. I was NOT impressed when I dropped her off on Move-In day. But SHE loves it and so far has thrived. But yes, very challenging
I would seriously consider how many students apply to medical school from JHU vs Caltech each year. My guess is that are far fewer Caltech applicants each year.
This has importance because medical schools only have a limited # of open seats each year. They want to have a wide distribution of colleges, genders, races, majors, etc represented. So going to the college where there are fewer premeds will make it easier to stand out.
Note that your student will still be expected to have outstanding grades and MCAT to have a decent chance at acceptance. Generally a GPA > 3.8 and MCAT > 514 puts you in good shape. The med school admissions committees won’t overlook a low GPA, even if its from a hard major, or a school known for grade deflation. So keep that in mind.
I wouldn’t assume that at all. Some may have made a decision to apply to medical school a few years after completing undergrad. Some wanted to beef up their volunteer work, and shadowing, and patient contact hours….and prep for and take the MCAT.
I know a student who did 27 months in the Peace Corps after undergrad…
Congratulations @Dad4college for Hudson scholarship. Its huge as I saw the stats that only 20 out 40K gets it. Fortunately my D also got it. It helps to make the decision.
I’m not sure I agree. While med schools are looking to enroll diverse class in terms of SES status, life experiences, and ethnicity. The undergrad attended and the applicant’s major are factors adcomms really don’t care about. Often that info isn’t even included in the packet the application reader gets.
Attending a school where there are few pre-meds can have pluses as well as minuses. A school that produces few pre-med may not have a reputation with adcomms for graduating students who are successful in med school. This is important, especially if the applicant is applying broadly/nationally or to competitive programs. Professors who only rarely write LOEs (Letters of Evaluation) may not write LOEs that are as useful to adcomms as those who are more familiar with the expected format and write them frequently.
Assuming all factors are equal (GPA, MCAT, rigor, etc), admissions committees do pay attention to having students from a variety of different colleges. They don’t want a large # of students from the same college. There are no hard quotas of course.
I used to read admissions apps for a private medical school, so I have first hand experience with this. But I’ll admit this was many years ago, so things may have changed.
I was actually surprised with the number of Brown and Hopkins students entering into Yale Medical school I think it was 2yrs ago. Only other school that had more was coming from Yale.
Also before assuming you MUST have a GPA >3.8 please watch the PreMed info session Hopkins holds each year for their PreMed students who were accepted and attending Med School. Now the student with lower GPA may not be attending a top tier Med Pgm but they are attending Med school. So do not discount having a low GPA as immediate disqualification.
As a reminder, JHU is HARD. 95+% were top of their HS graduating classes and top test scores and impressive resumes. These students bust their butts at Hopkins. And I know for sure the same goes for CalTech. I sat and worked with several peers getting their PhD from there when I worked at JPL.
Yep, my daughter actually dropped the idea of Med School after speaking with a Kaiser Physician during an internship the summer before senior year. But I now see that was the best decision ever. She is soooo happy in her Engineering major. I should have known she would be an engineer with her love of trains/cars building all those Lego items since she was 5.
According to the MSAR data there are about 10 matriculants to JHU Medical School with less than a 3.86 GPA. I’ll agree that stats aren’t everything, but for the tippy top schools it’s part of the deal.
