<p>obviously being the georgia institute of TECHNOLOGY...the institute itself is particularly advanced in all of the engineering and technological domains....but how many of tech's students actually attend dental/medical school?! obviously its probably a low percentage..but is georgia tech a school that will prepare one..and help increase chances when applying to graduate med/dental programs?! i want to stay IN-state...so i need a college to attend in GA...and money is an issue so that throws out Emory...so as of now..its either UGA or Tech..and this post being in a Tech forum..i should expect some bias in the answer..but ive heard people say if ur not majoring in engineering dont bother...so will UGA prepare better myself and others aspiring to become dentists or doctors? or will both schools provide a fairly equal preparation. i need the truth! lol</p>
<p>If your ultimate goal is medical school, choose the school at which you feel you will most excel both academically and in extra-curriculars, and choose a major you truly enjoy, which brings me to the question, what do you plan on majoring in? If you wish to study english, Tech obviously isn’t the place for you, but if you have a passion for engineering, UGA will not offer you that. You should not choose a school because you think one is better for medical school. Both UGA and Tech have a long history of sending students to medical schools, including some of the best in the nation. You can get where you want to at either school. </p>
<p>You seem very set on medicine. While I do not know you, your background, or your reasons for choosing medicine, it is important you are planning on becoming a doctor for reasons outside of money, prestige, obligation, etc… unless you wish to become one of the 60% of doctors who comprise the statistic of those who would not enter medicine if given the opportunity to change their life path. A bigger question than where you should go to school is why you should enter medicine.</p>
<p>Among students at Tech who follow the advice of the pre-med office ~80% get accepted to some medical school. The overall rate is 52% at Tech compared to 53% at Emory. I do not know UGA’s numbers.</p>
<p>As for Tech and medical school:</p>
<p>As an anecdote, Robert J. Beaulieu, B.S. Biomedical Engineering, Emory University School of Medicine Class of 2011 had the following to say: “Attending Georgia Tech was the single factor that best prepared me for success in medical school. That’s not to say it was the only one, but rather that the style of education, the level of scientific inquiry and the expectations of the students characteristic of Georgia Tech have proven to be irreplaceable assets in my medical education. I doubt I would be in the same place now had I not learned those skills in undergrad”</p>
<p>Georgia Tech has a office specifically set up for Pre-Health advising which offers the following:
*a knowledgeable advisor and personal assistant
*appointments, walk-in hours, and email services for any questions you have
*a wide array of books/information on numerous health schools
*workshops concerning letters of evaluation, personal statements, and applications
*mock interviews
*a website/T-Square site/list serve
*a pre-health conference
*a chapter of the American Medical Student Association(AMSA)
*easy access to Grady Hospital, Good Samaritan Clinic, and various other hospitals and clinics where you can obtain experience/get a job/volunteer time.</p>
<p>For further information you can visit [Pre-Health</a> Home](<a href=“http://www.prehealth.gatech.edu/index.php]Pre-Health”>Pre-Health Advising).</p>
<p>Many of my friends planning to be doctors have chosen UGA honors over Tech in order to get a good GPA to have the best chances to get into a medical school. I don’t want to be a doctor so I really just know what I have seen a lot of my friends go through last year.</p>
<p>I’d go to UGA. Undergrad is a transition for what you really want to do. Pick an easy major, get a high gpa, and be on your merry way! From what I hear if your gpa is lower than normal, because you decided to study engineering, they don’t take that into account when reviewing you for admissions. So play it safe if med school is your ultimate goal.</p>
<p>If my goal was to be a doctor, and I was 100% set on that, I’d much rather attend UGA. There’s a national prestige drop off from GT, but it’s not that bad. Meanwhile, you can earn a very good GPA with not a ridiculous amount of work. To get in to the 3.7 GPA range at Tech, you have to be a genius. At UGA it’s not that hard. </p>
<p>To give you an Idea, here are approximate GPA breakdowns (based on how Honors designations are calculated):</p>
<p>Summa cum laude (Top 1% or so): UGA: 3.8 GT: 3.55
Magna cum laude (Top 10% or so): UGA: 3.7 GT: 3.35
Cum laude (Top 25% or so): UGA: 3.5 GT: 3.15</p>
<p>Good luck applying to med schools with a 3.35 GPA. On the other hand a 3.7 GPA opens many doors. </p>
<p>And remember, GT has the higher freshman admissions criteria, so the median GT student is probably more capable than the median UGA student when they arrive at college.</p>
<p>The only cases where I would choose GT over UGA are if I wanted to be an MD/PhD or if I wasn’t completely set on being a doctor. The big advantage with a biomedical engineering BS -> MD is that if the MD doesn’t work out, you can always make a very good living with the BME BS. The same can’t be said for a UGA BA in History.</p>
<p>You know, maybe I’m thinking about it wrong. The above is true if you were a student that went to UGA/GT then decided half way through to pursue medicine. </p>
<p>If you went to GT, and decided to prep yourself for MD admissions at the start, it wouldn’t be so bad, especially if you had someone to guide you (as there apparently is). First of all, you’d want to major in biology or chemistry, which automatically has a higher GPA than engineering. Then, you’d want to start researching over in the Biomed department and spend time with some of the Emory Med School professors. You could use AP credit to avoid Calc I, and/or transfer in Calc II, Physics I, and Physics II from other schools over the summer (or just major in management). Then it would be entirely possible to graduate with a 3.7+ GPA and be in a very good position for an MD program.</p>
<p>The more I think about this, the better it gets (I need to stop thinking about this):</p>
<ul>
<li>Enroll at Tech as a Biology major</li>
<li>Come in with AP Credits (Calc I, English I, and US History are standard)</li>
<li>In the summer before your freshman year, enroll at a community college as a transient student and take Calc II, CS I, Physics I (check Oscar to make sure the classes transfer)</li>
<li>Take a typical schedule (32 hours) freshman year</li>
<li>In the summer after freshman year, work or research, and enroll at a community college as a transient student and just take Physics II (or take more classes if you can’t find a job / volunteer opportunity / research opportunity)</li>
</ul>
<p>Under that situation, you’d start sophomore year with 57 credits and a high GPA (since B’s and C’s in Physics I/II, CS I, and Calc I/II didn’t weight you down). For Sophomore and Junior years, you could take light course loads (12-15 hours per semester) to keep your GPA high, you could take an entire semester off to devote 40 hours per week for MCAT prep, you would get 2 semesters of internship/research experience, and you would graduate in 4 years. If you were a top 25% student, you could graduate Tech with a 3.55+ GPA pretty easily (since you wouldn’t take the “GPA killer” classes) and graduate Summa cum laude, whereat UGA, you would probably have a similar GPA and graduate just cum laude. </p>
<p>Overall, you’d have an easier college experience, a better med school application, and a more marketable degree by going to Tech. This assumes you plan out your path at Tech vs. just showing up at UGA and taking pre-med classes.</p>
<p>Every year there are GT students graduating with 3.9-4.0 GPAs and going to great medical schools. Several have gone to Wash. U. in St. Louis on scholarship!</p>
<p>If you want to be the best, train with the best.</p>
<p>The only way it’s even remotely possible to graduate with a GPA that high is to be a freak of nature OR plan things out as I listed above. </p>
<p>If someone can walk into Calc I, II, III, Differential Equations, Physics I, II, CS I, II, etc, and earn all A’s, that’s just insane. I have a PhD in engineering from a top 10 school and I couldn’t even do that.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you’re careful and avoid those classes (by being a MGT major or transferring them in from other schools), then it’s certainly possible. And that’s the thing - if you tell someone you have a 3.9+ GPA from Tech, they think you’re a genius, when perhaps you just planned it to work out that way. At UGA, a high GPA doesn’t get the same response.</p>
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<p>Lol please feel free to continue G.P. I’m in an eerily similar situation to the OP and it’s nice to be able to hear your thoughts on such a relavent (to me) topic.</p>
<p>Anecdotally, I had my PSP interview last week and talked to a biochem (not biochem engineering, but just plain ol’ biochem) major who was premed. He talked about great the program was/how much it had helped him, etc. Of course he was biased, but he seemed to generally think it was awesome. He also mentioned that the premed advisor was Emory Med’s admissions committee for several years, as well as Emory’s premed advisory board before coming to Tech.</p>
<p>I intend to major in bio not simply because I think it’ll be easier (which, granted, it would be), but also because I genuinely love the subject matter, so I’ve thought about that a lot in regards to Tech. Tech has the Applied Physiology Department, which, while I’m not totally clear on, is definitely relavent and interesting to anyone who is premed. It goes in depth into motor physiology (again, from what I understand) and there is definitely some cool research to do there. Plus, Tech has awesome bio study abroad programs in NZ and Australia.</p>
<p>Also, you couldn’t be in a much better place for premed than Atlanta. Grady and the Emory Hospitals are nearby for volunteering, and the CDC/American Cancer Society are there for internships. Plus, Tech being a smaller school, it would probably be easier to get involved on club boards and in student government programs, which is always a plus for med students.</p>
<p>. . .I think I just convinced myself to go to Tech. x_x</p>