<p>Is it better to go to a LAC or National University for Pre-Med? I like the small classes, direct teaching, and more research oppurtunities aspects for the LACs. National Universities have huge classes, and less research oppurtunities for undergrads, but they are cheaper as I am considering going to a state public university.</p>
<p>My Top Choices for LACs (Feel free to add some more good pre-med colleges to the list):</p>
<p>It really doesn’t matter for pre-med. Both kinds of schools can get you into med school, and all of the schools on your list have gotten many many students into medical school.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the pre-med courses at large universities (especially UCs) tend to be very large. A close friend went to UCLA and was pre-med there, and she said her intro bio classes were 500+ students with people sitting in overflow rooms watching it streaming on television screens. Your bio classes probably won’t be larger than ~100 people at the small LACs, and very likely will be smaller than that.</p>
<p>Apply to them all and see where the chips fall - you may get significant financial aid at some of those top LACs. Also, you don’t have to major in biology to be pre-med, so keep an open mind.</p>
<p>Lower division biology and chemistry courses tend to be among the largest classes at any given school, so if small class size is important to you, LACs would have an advantage here. But check the on-line class schedule at each school to be sure.</p>
<p>Note that Harvey Mudd’s common core requirements do include a large portion of the pre-med science course requirements, so there is less reason to major in biology there for convenience of fulfilling pre-med requirements.</p>
<p>Note that there are some lower cost LACs like University of Minnesota - Morris, Truman State, UNC - Asheville, and SUNY - Geneseo. Because medical school is expensive, you may want to consider keeping undergraduate costs down to save money and avoid debt for medical school.</p>
<p>Non-doctoral-granting universities may also offer smaller classes, due to the lack of PhD-student TAs to use to supplement large lectures. But check the class schedules to see if that is true for the specific school.</p>
<p>Personally, I would not go to a UC as a premed. There are just too many premeds there and the number of A’s awarded in the prereqs are limited. Plus, the UC’s do not write Committee Letters, which help with admission.</p>
<p>Have you considered any of the Jesuit schools in Calif? SCU? LMU? USF? </p>
<p>What are your stats? </p>
<p>Do you need financial aid? IF so, have your parents run the net price calculators to see if they can afford to pay as much as schools expect them to pay. Warning: If your parents are self employed or are divorced, then the NPCs may not work at schools that require Non Custodial Parent info.</p>
<p>Go to the best school (where you are in the top 25% of stats for entering freshman) that you can afford. Type doesn’t matter. Choose the type that fits you. Do NOT get loads of debt for either yourself or your parents. Med school is expensive. Also note that MANY students enter college thinking pre-med. I’ve seen many suggest that only about 15% of those leave planning on med school (NOT med school acceptance rate, but rather, more a reflection of how many of those apply to med school in general). Make sure your school has opportunities.</p>
<p>Middlebury and Bucknell not well known for great pre-med imo. Might try Holy Cross fellow Patriot League school rival of Bucknell. HC has one of the better pre-med programs with tremendous alumni network. Holy Cross(Don’t have to be religious) offers very good finanial aid.</p>
<p>This is more of a question that you need to resolve with your parents. It sounds like time to have a frank discussion about finances and determine what you can spend on your undergraduate education understanding that four years of med school could follow. A good LAC can be amazing and I like all the ones on your list (I think Bucknell is every bit as good as HC and has the advantage of having an engineering program) but cost is an important consideration.</p>
<p>My cousin went to an LAC in NY (Ithaca College) and was a bio major, and when she applied to med schools last year she didn’t get in anywhere. She called up one of the schools and asked for feedback and they told her that her MCAT score was competitive, but that they hadn’t heard of her college before so they couldn’t trust that her 3.9 GPA was legit. They said that there are some schools where a lot of kids get a 3.9 or 4.0 and it doesn’t mean much. Needless to say she was pretty upset, but she is planning to apply again this year and include a printout from Wikipedia, CC, etc about her college. So I would say that if you go to an LAC then you will have problems getting into med school unless it is a really really famous one. If I were you I would stick to a well known university.</p>
<p>There’s a vast difference between Ithaca College and the LACs on the OPs list. I don’t think the concerns raised in the previous post are at all relevant to this OP.</p>