<p>I've narrowed down my college list to University of Michigan and Kalamazoo College.
One, obviously Michigan, is a large top-notch state school with around 50,000 students.
Kalamazoo, on the other hand, has less than 2,000 students, and while known as the "Harvard of the midwest", is virtually unknown to most.
With price out of the picture, I can't decide which school is best for me. </p>
<p>I am planning on pre-med, so I will have to take the general classes like biology, organic chemistry, etc. and am really worried about the large class sizes and getting enough individual attention. I know that at Kalamazoo I will get more than enough individual attention, and way more interaction with faculty. Also at Kalamazoo, I am fairly certain I will be able to study abroad and still graduate in 4 years so I can move on to grad school (85% of the student body at Kalamazoo studies abroad), something I don't know if I can fit in at Michigan. </p>
<p>Please let me know if you have any advice with pre-med at these schools, what your experience was, and what you think I should do. I just want to get a great education to put me in good standing for med school, and to have fun and a good college experience at the same time.</p>
<p>To me, it sounds as though Kalamazoo will be the better option, also the best one is whichever saves you the most money (both options are great and med school is expensive!) if money is of no issue, you want to go where you feel you will do very well and get attention and good rec letters from teachers but also access to volunteer opportunities!</p>
<p>What would your major be? (Pre-med is not a major; it is a set of courses that medical schools want to see you take, and can be taken alongside any major.)</p>
<p>You can check at each school’s web site the course catalogs to see what kind of offerings there are in each department at each school, and the schedules for frequency of offering and class sizes.</p>
<p>If you value small class sizes, it appears that most biology and chemistry courses at Kalamazoo are 20-32 students for lectures and labs, but Michigan has three general chemistry lectures of 400+ students each, with about 50 lab sections of 24 students each (pre-med courses like general chemistry are often the courses with the largest enrollment on any campus).</p>
<p>I don’t think you should just put price “out of the picture”. If you do intend to go on to med school that will be expensive. Make sure you limit the cost of your undergrad.</p>
<p>To answer some questions, my major at Kalamazoo would be biology with a concentration in neuroscience, and at Michigan it would just be neuroscience.
Also the cost of attendance for me is almost exactly the same for both, so that is why I put money out of the picture.</p>
<p>Do you like smaller classes? Kzoo. Do you like more offerings? UMich. Rah rah sports? Umich. More intimate? Kzoo. It just depends on what you like.</p>