<p>Hey guys- it's reaching the end of April and I desperately need to choose a college. Truthfully, I'm really leaning towards ND with UR in 2nd place. I would also like to mention that I got into UC Davis, Santa Barbara, and Irvine- should I even consider going to these schools? Please assume I got a good financial aid package to each school and just consider the pre med experience.</p>
<p>Give me some big pros and cons!!! I don't care about location, football, etc. I want a good experience that will boost my chances of getting into med school.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your help!!! I'm desperate :S</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply. Sorry if it sounded like I just wanted a good GPA. That’s not at all what I want from a college. I want a challenging experience, not an easy one. What I meant was a college that would get me the most prepared for med school through a good pre med program.</p>
<p>I like ND because I’ve read a lot on its pre med and its high acceptance rate to med schools. But I want to look at other aspects as well… I’m also Catholic but that’s not a big deal in terms of which school I choose.</p>
<p>ND - good alumni network, known more for football than academics, beautiful campus, middle of no-where (boring if you like a more upbeat lifestyle or city life), decent cost of living</p>
<p>BC - good alumni network, good connections to Boston area hospitals (some of the best in the country), small school, in a big city, east coast elite mentality, mediocre sports program, good reputation especially in the northeast</p>
<p>Rochester - honestly don’t know much about it. Not a school people talk about. Not as prestigious as the other two, but I hear it has a good pre-med program.</p>
<p>Notre Dame does have a very high acceptance rate to Med School. It doesn’t have grade inflation or deflation but the classes are challenging. The students are very bright (3rd highest ACT average of ANY school in the country) and you’ll be around smart peers. There is a class you take early at ND that weeds out the pee Ned students (maybe pre orgo or something) that has the best go on. So if your serious about med school and wanna put in the work and learn, ND is the best option.</p>
<p>Plus, it has the best reputation, great alumini network that rivals almost any school, has an awesome campus with great school spirit and huge sports. The students are pretty chill and outgoing. Everyone that goes loves it.</p>
<p>South Bend and Rochester sure are fun towns! You should have plenty of time to study in those places.</p>
<p>[Mis]Informative, BC has won 3 national championships in hockey in the last 10 years, and has been in football bowl games every year for the past decade. Its basketball team regularly makes the NCAA tournament. That’s the sort of “mediocre” a lot of colleges would like to have. BC is also bigger than ND and Rochester, despite your comment that it’s a “small school.”</p>
<p>…And… if you look at the last seven years of the BC - ND football results you’ll see that BC had a six-game win streak going until this past season when ND finally showed how much better its football program is…, yep that’s a fact…soooo much better.</p>
<p>While you are at it, infor-what?!, check out BC’s “mediocre” sailing teams.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for the input guys! I really appreciate it. I am not a resident of CA sadly. I’m from Alaska!
but one question I had was about Boston College. Do you guys know more SPECIFICALLY about their pre med program and the acceptance rate to med school?</p>
<p>Hmm one more question- does anyone know the acceptance rate to med schools for the UC schools?- Davis, Irvine, Santa Barbara
I know I’ve been asking a lot of the acceptance rates…truthfully, I’m very scared about being accepted into med school Huge fear…</p>
<p>The % of a college’s med school applicants who actually get accepted is a pretty worthless stat, as some schools put what amounts to limitations on who can apply to med school…</p>
<p>I don’t know about BC’s stats in particular…I do know there are a lot of students there who want to go to med school, a lot who get accepted to med school, and a lot who complete med school.</p>
<p>Actually, URochester is around the same academic ballpark as BC…with a definite edge in the sciences…especially the physical/engineering ones. As for humanities/social sciences…depending on what you want to study…it is either a wash or slight edge to BC. Incidentally, nearly everyone I knew who went off to Rochester was a STEM major with a handful of humanities/SS majors tossed in. At my NYC urban magnet in the early '90s…there was a slight bias in favor of Rochester due to their stronger STEM programs. </p>
<p>As for Notre Dame…it trumps both Rochester and BC in academic prestige even on the East Coast. However, they are close enough so that consideration should be given to fit and financial aid. </p>
<p>If you’re out-of-state for the UC schools…check the finances as they may not always be the best deal considering their budget problems and high OOS tuition.</p>
<p>"If you’re out-of-state for the UC schools…check the finances as they may not always be the best deal considering their budget problems and high OOS tuition. "</p>
<p>It’s good to know what you are talking about before you make such grandiose statements</p>
<p>THE FACT IS - most state schools are STILL LESS than private school tuition even in OOS. </p>
<p>Don’t worry about Pre-Med rates - worry more about kicking butt in class once you get wherever. I still say UCI or UCSB is a good choice if OOS is cheaper than tuition at ND or BC, but personally I would opt for ND - unless you need the city that BC has to offer.</p>
<p>Santa Barbara for 4 years is VERY VERY nice to have in your back pocket and flights to Alaska might be pretty cheap from CA - I know LA to Seattle on Alaska Airlines is dirt cheap.</p>
<p>thanks you guys…great advice. right now, nd is offering me a lot of financial aid and i believe i will receive at least 2 scholarships this year to make up for some money they left for us to pay. </p>
<p>cobrat- what is STEM?? everyone talks about it but idk what it is…</p>
<p>i think i’ve mostly made up my mind to go to nd because of it’s sense of faith and community. not COMPLETELY sure yet…</p>
<p>STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.</p>
<p>Also, check out access to medical facilities if you want to be pre-med. Rochester has a medical school so you would be able to do research or volunteer activities that may boost your medical school application. I don’t know if that is true for the other schools you are looking at.</p>
<p>First, the UC system has one of the highest in-state tuition rates and their OOS tuition based on what I’ve heard from colleagues is comparable to some private colleges…especially after some recent tuition hikes. </p>
<p>Second, you also need to factor in how California’s budget problems may cause shortages of required classes…especially in impacted majors which makes graduating in 4 years an issue. </p>
<p>Several California cousins with STEM majors had this very issue and ended up graduating in 4.5-5 years because the required classes for their major/core requirements was only offered once every year or every two years. That delay may effectively wipe out any tuition savings. Moreover…this was happening 15-25 years ago when California’s economy was in far better shape than it is now. This was also a key reason why several HS classmates who would have been OOS opted for private LACs/universities.</p>
<p>“Actually, URochester is around the same academic ballpark as BC…with a definite edge in the sciences…especially the physical/engineering ones.”</p>
<p>True, BC doesn’t do engineering, but it has shored up its sciences in recent years. Chemistry in particular is very strong and does some cutting-edge research. I think you’d find that the pre-med offerings are about the same at both schools. Regarding the location and sports, it’s not even close, with BC having one of the the best locations in the country (safe, quiet, pretty, campus overlapping a great city), and one of the better sports programs in the country.</p>
<p>"Second, you also need to factor in how California’s budget problems may cause shortages of required classes…especially in impacted majors which makes graduating in 4 years an issue. "</p>
<p>What do you know about CA’s budget. If you knew anything you would know that the UC’s take a small portion of its budget from the state. It’s good to have some facts to back up your points.</p>
<p>Rochester only has one required class: a freshman writing course. This makes it easier to have multiple majors and learn what you want to learn.</p>
Huge fear…</p>