Needs Advice!

<p>OK, so here's the deal. I've applied to schools on the mainland and I was wondering if you guys could give me your opinion on how I should perceive the ranks of the schools I applied to; my focus is biology and pre-med.</p>

<p>Accepted: Case Western Reserve, Creighton, Whitworth, University of Portland</p>

<p>Waiting: Occidental (most likely accepted), USC, Boston College, University of Notre Dame</p>

<p>Here's another thing; I might consider applying to University of Hawaii-Manoa just because it's in my home-state and I think I could do well if I were to attend next fall. </p>

<p>My thinking is I could stay home and go to UH-Manoa and get a high GPA that medical schools are looking for; I'm also looking to go to UH's medical school, JABSOM. </p>

<p>Any suggestions, thoughts???</p>

<p>I'm not saying a high GPA is everything that medical schools are looking for, it's just one of the many factors; but hey, high GPA is a HUGE factor if you think about it...</p>

<p>UH's medical school has had some accreditation issues in the past. See <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2004/06/28/story5.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2004/06/28/story5.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>UH/UH medical school will be a plus for practicing in Hawaii, but practicing in Hawaii is difficult due to the poor reimbursement of HMSA, our dominant third party payor here.</p>

<p>Others will comment on the strengths of the schools you have listed. If you haven't lived on the mainland before, be sure to visit campuses and talk to Hawaii people on campus. Here is the link to the USC Hawaii club: <a href="http://www-scf.usc.edu/%7Ealoha/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www-scf.usc.edu/~aloha/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>my friend goes to occidental, he says its really nice, its a LAC, so you may like the intimate classes and such. However, USC, BC, and Notre Dame are all very accredited universities.</p>

<p>So would you reccommend staying here, in Hawaii, for school, or going to the mainland? (keeping in mind that UH med school accepts far more hawaii resident applicants)</p>

<p>would Occidental, being a LAC, be more rigorous in its curriculum?</p>

<p>
[quote]
UH med school accepts far more hawaii resident applicants

[/quote]
</p>

<p>If Hawaii works like other states, your leaving the state for college will not cause your residency to expire. In other words, you could come to the 48 for school and still be considered a Hawaii resident.</p>

<p>true, indeed.</p>

<p>What would you suggest in the school to go to?</p>

<p>bdm, are you currently in medical school?</p>

<p>The usual answer is that you need to go to the school with the best fit for you where you can succeed in all areas - academically, socially, emotionally and physically - with a great deal of balance in all those areas. </p>

<p>Creighton is a notorious pre-med factory in the midwest (I live down the street...) and does tend to look out for it's own when it comes to med school admissions, but not as much as it used to (they used to accept all undergrads who met certain requirements). Omaha's not a bad town, but it's not a college town if that's something you are looking for (ie, Notre Dame) but then again, most of your other schools aren't going to be either. It is small in my opinion, and can attest to the fact that everyone there is within two degrees of each other (blows me away some times). They love their basketball (overrated) and most of them are pretty devout alumni. I of course am looking at it from a completely different prospective than you are though and the things that turn me off about the school, might be the exact things you're looking for. If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me.</p>

<p>I think you'd do well at Whitworth. It's a small school, amazing faculty and resources, and it has a good reputation for pre-med.</p>

<p>If you got into Case, you should have tried Whitman (in Walla Wallla), Whitworth is equal if not better.</p>

<p>spartan - how do you know Whitworth has a good rep for pre-med?
(i think i saw that only 1 undergrad got into medschool in `06)</p>

<p>Whitman...too late. shucks.
Also, i think you meant Whitman is better than Whitworth?</p>

<p>Oh yeah..Whitman > Whitworth sorry about that.</p>

<p>It's been said on these forums that you can't judge how good a school is for pre-med based on how many students it sends to med schools because it's possible that there was only one pre-med that year (although it is highly unlikely).</p>

<p>Also, I live in WA and that is what our counselors/career specialist tells us.</p>

<p>Yeah, you can't make that judgment... within limits. i.e. Duke getting 85% doesn't mean it's better than Stanford at 75%. 1 is a pretty small number, though.</p>

<p>so bdm, what would be your best best? tell me how'd you rank the schools i've applied to on a pre-med basis?</p>

<p>So we've been over - repeatedly - how to evaluate a school for yourself. We have many, many threads devoted to this. It varies from person to person and nobody else can make that judgment call for you.</p>

<p>Furthermore, I don't know anything about any of the schools you've mentioned. I've heard of about half of them and can guess location based on names for another couple.</p>

<p>However, if you really insist that I put them in order for you, then I will do so based on how much I like their names:</p>

<p>1.) Creighton (Hard to spell. Should change it to Crayton. That reminds me of crayfish. I had a pet crayfish in third grade. I forget what I named it. I'll retroactively name it Crayton. Crayton the Crayfish.)
2.) USC. (You can always pretend you went to school wherever you like, to help bond with people. It's the chameleon acronym! University of South Connecticut, Carolina, California, Chile, Columbia -- i.e. DC. University of Santa Clara, San Cristobal, Saint Christopher. Uruguayan Secret-agent College.)
3.) Whitworth (Easily confused with Whitman, which can sometimes be a good thing.)
4.) Boston College (Boring name.)
5.) University of Portland (Even more boring name. Show some creativity, people!)
6.) Case Western Reserve University (Too many words. Schools should be one word, with less than five letters if possible. "Duke", for example, would be the perfect name. At the very least, any abbreviation should be pronounceable. CWRU? Cawru? What the heck?)
7.) Occidental (Sounds too much like "Accidental", and you should always go to school intentionally.)
8.) Notre Dame (I really hated the Disney Hunchback movie)</p>

<p>thanks for the humor in your ranking.
too bad the blue devils lost in the first round; now that's funny.</p>

<p>I'm beginning to think, based on that last post, and BDM's continual updates of his facebook profile that he's either on spring break, or - more likely - doing his best to procrastinate. Either way, I get a laugh...especially the Creighton comments (Over the weekend I might have fallen for the biggest Creighton fan ever - I bet she'll love it if I use BDM's logic!)</p>

<p>shot down!</p>

<p>what's BDM's facebook?</p>