There seems to be a lot of outdated information on this site regarding NYU’s viability as a pre-med school. As a recent NYU graduate, and incoming medical school student, I wanted to shed some light on NYU’s pre med program. Until a few years ago, pre-med’s at NYU were predominately rich, children of doctors. Debt wasn’t their primary concern, and they made sure to have fun in NYC, while also taking advantage of all the laboratories and opportunities in the city to maximize their med school admission chances. Things have changed, however- mainly as a result of NYU Medical School’s skyrocketed ranking after its decision to subsidize 100% of the cost.
As stated before, NYU isn’t most high schooler’s vision when thinking of pre-med schools. There aren’t lots of pre-med at NYU. To be frank, NYU is a selective school, but most pre-meds are in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), and admission into CAS isn’t nearly as selective as Stern, or Tisch, or maybe even Steinhardt. Lots of the pre-med at NYU aren’t your high school 4.0, 2300+, type A students. Among the crowd, however, are a handful of type A students that are extremely intelligent and motivated to get admission into top MD programs. These students get research opportunities all across NYC (NYU, Mt.Sinai, Columbia), volunteer opportunities in the many hospital networks in the city, and leadership roles in many on campus organizations. These kids tend to also have close to perfect GPAs, because there competition isn’t as competitive, just because NYU doesn’t attract the highest achieving high schoolers, aiming to be future doctors.
Since NYU has become a global powerhouse and most pre-med’s dream medical school after its announcement last year, NYU pre-meds have joined the selective inbreeding of NYU, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc. Harvard wants to send it’s premeds to NYU Medical School. In return, inoffically, Harvard will have a quota for NYU premeds. Same applies between Yale and Harvard, NYU and Yale, NYU and Stanford, etc… NYU premeds are given special consideration to the top medical schools across the country, and given the relatively small class of pre meds at NYU, and even smaller class of type A pre meds at NYU, every hardworking pre med gets into a top program. On top of this, NYU Medical School has an inofficial quota of spots reserved for its own undergraduate students.
So to summarize, high schoolers who are top of their class, top BS/MD candidates, and might traditionally go to state schools to save money and eventually attend a top medical school, definitely consider NYU. It’s an expensive school for sure, but if your goal is to go to Harvard Medical School, Yale SOM, it’s one of the most underrated, and best platforms to help get you there. Good luck to all this years applicants!