<p>Could you give a few examples of research-heavy med schools that explicitly look at undergrad research as an admission factor? Would these schools primarily be the high profile schools like Harvard, JHU, Penn?</p>
<p>Would it be safe to say that lower profile schools like Loyola Chicago or Drexel are more practice-based med schools?</p>
<p>By the way, thank you all for the responses again. This thread has been immensely helpful for me.</p>
<p>Research is never a bad thing but, yes, higher ranked schools tend to value research more because they not only see physicians as clinicians but also as scientists.</p>
<p>Well, higher ranked schools tend to value research more because the rankings in question are research rankings. It's a tautology, not a correlation.</p>
<p>A few more questions:</p>
<p>How many rec letters are usually asked for by med schools, and is it necessary to request these letters from your professors in the natural sciences? Would a rec letter be of lesser value if written by a professor in the humanities or social sciences?</p>
<p>Also when do the interviews usually take place? I'd like to do a study-abroad program either fall or winter quarter of my junior year; I was wondering if this could possibly get in the way of med school admissions?</p>
<p>Lastly, I've recently learned doing a post-bac program as an alternative to meeting pre-med requirements in college. What are the pros and cons of it, and would you personally recommend it as someone who has already been through med school admissions?</p>
<p>Most schools want at least 2 or 3 as a minimum (or alternatively, a committee letter if your school has a pre-med committee). Some will allow them from any prof, others have specific requirements that a certain number be from a professor in your major or a certain make up of both natural science and humanities/social science profs. (Ie Creighton requires 3 letters, two of which must be from natural science profs).</p>
<p>You can also send in letters from other people who you believe know you well enough to write you a solid letter. </p>
<p>My letter writers were:
1) Biology prof I had freshman year (this was a last ditch attempt b/c my 1st choice chem prof fell off the the face of the earth)
2) Sociology prof (my major) who I had served on various committees with and taken several classes from
3) Educational Psych prof who I TA'd a leadership development class for.
4) Sponsor of the Arts & Sciences Student Ambassador program I had been heavily involved with since my freshman year.
5) My boss from the job I had waiting tables.</p>
<p>I think maybe only one school of the 4 that I actually sent letters to got them from all 5, so the others got some sort of mixture.</p>
<p>1.) If your undergraduate school has a premedical committee, whatever they ask for will trump what medical schools need. Otherwise, medical school requirements vary a great deal and will have to be adjusted to as the time comes. Some will wants sciences, some will want recommendations from your major, some might want English specifically, etc. They will tell you what they want -- there's very little room for guessing.</p>
<p>2.) Interviews happen during your senior year.</p>
<p>3.) It doesn't make sense to plan on doing a post-bacc. It's a nice option for those who settle on premed late or have GPAs too low during normal college, but why spend the extra years and money? No, just take care of them during college.</p>
<p>I'm a pre-med at NU and can offer a bit of advice. First I recommend going to this website, which is NU's pre-med advising site: <a href="http://www.northwestern.edu/advising-center/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.northwestern.edu/advising-center/index.html</a></p>
<p>Fall quarter of your freshman year you'll be taking a freshman seminar, finishing up your language requirement and then taking intro chem and calculus. As an econ major, they'll advise you to take macro and micro sometime during your freshman year. Econ is the most popular major at NU, so you'll find that your intro econ classes are a bit big and curved. Also, since NU is on the quarter system, it's really easy to double major, meaning that you'll have no problem doing your pre-med requirements (which is 4 year long courses, much less than a major) and whatever other major you want. </p>
<p>I can try to answer any other NU specific questions you have. I LOVE it here, and I hope you will too.</p>