I’m attending Wesleyan this fall and am confused about what percentage of Wesleyan grads get into Med school…I’ve heard that it’s between 80 and 90 % from some sources, but have also seen numbers as low as 66%. I’m just looking for a straight answer. What is the Med School acceptance rate coming from Wes?
The 66-81% number is from the Wesleyan website itself and includes ALL graduates, including adults who have been in the workforce for over five years and have decided to change careers (a very common phenomenon among liberal arts graduates.) That’s the honest answer. Beware of claims that any college or university has a 90% medical school acceptance rate; they’re usually only talking about their best students, after a rigorous winnowing process.
Thanks! So are other schools basically the same…? Or are the other LAC’s just way better with Med School acceptances? I’m excited for Wes either way!
Wesleyan is very comparable to its peer institutions with regards to medical school acceptance rates. The national average is ~40-45%, while Wesleyan and peer schools are usually in the 70’s-80’s%. Wesleyan is also a member of the Northeast Consortium on Medical Education (NECOME). This group has pre-med advisors from Amherst, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Haverford, Holy Cross, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, and Williams, along with medical school admission officers from Albany, Dartmouth, Einstein, Harvard, Jefferson, Tufts, UConn, UPenn, and URochester medical schools. In other words, the advisors at those colleges keep in touch with those med school admission officers so they know what’s going on in the world of admissions.
You made a great choice coming to Wes for pre-med.
PM me for more details if you want!
It’s virtually the same. Here is how the process is described from one of Wesleyan’s biggest competitors, Amherst College, an institution that has graced this board many times in the form of parents, alumni and prospies advising Wesleyan applicants to apply to Amherst. In this excerpt from the Amherst career center website, something called “The Committee Letter” is described in detail:
In other words, with a Committee Letter, a premed candidate’s chances of acceptance to med school are improved greatly. Without it - it’s a crap shoot. Suffice it to say, Wesleyan also has the equivalent of a med school committee letter.
However, the Amherst advisor goes on to say, that even with the letter,
https://www.amherst.edu/aboutamherst/news/campusbuzz/node/501039
Never mind the gobbledygook about applying more than once to med school. No one knows what that means. The point is, that “overall” the acceptance rates are comparable as far as Amherst and Wesleyan are concerned.
Both of you have definitely re-instilled my confidence that I’ve made the right choice. Thank you!