Please Help i am planing on going to grad school possibly med school… want to know which is better for science major and getting into med school. Occidental college or overlain college
PLEASE HELP: trying to decide which is better Occidental College or Oberlin college. I want to major in science and go to med school.
For your purpose either is fine. Pick the one you like best or gives you the best financial package.
I like Oberlin. Their Chemistry and Physics departments are first rate, by reputation, and if other sciences are similar, I have no doubt that will give you a superior science education. They are among the top LACs for turning out PhD graduate students as well, so they punch above their weight in academic circles. I don’t know much about Occidental, but that may be an indication of how Oxy is perceived outside of California, i.e., not much. (n.b., I don’t subscribe the cult of CC posters who say that you should go to the bad/easy school in order to get a good GPA and thus make it easier to get into med school. I think this theory of med school admissions is dubious.)
Yes… But it is true that a poor GPA will keep you out of med school. You need strong MCAT scores, a high GPA, and some kind of medical experience (volunteer, summer, etc). And keep your debt down, med school is very expensive.
I don’t know much about Oberlin, other than it’s in a small town in Ohio.
Occidental has a very bohemian vibe. Students there are very “chill” and laid-back. It is a very liberal school, and progressivism is big there. It allows for dual-enrollment at Caltech, which is a good opportunity for someone interested in STEM. It is a bit outside of LA, a huge city. It is in a suburb of Socal- so you’re going to want a car, if you can drive- otherwise getting anywhere outside of the campus will be tough. You didn’t say where you are from- do you want stronger connections on the West Coast or Midwest/East Coast? Do you love or hate cold weather/winter? What kind of financial aid/merit packages do you anticipate from these schools? They seem to have about the same sticker price.
I am actually from San Diego. The financial packet will be the same. I want to go to school which is going to put me in the best spot for med school.
Oberlin is perhaps even more liberal and progressive than Oxy. Both schools are terrific, with Oberlin having a slight edge, imo.
I would likely pick Oberlin, but getting into med school is more about you.
Would you get merit from Oxy? If you’re from San Diego, I would go with Oxy. Oberlin is most likely a better overall school, but that’s a pretty big distance, and winters in Ohio would be very cold. The difference between their quality, in my mind, really isn’t enough to justify the sacrifices you would be making to go there. Just my opinion.
Academically, they’re equivalent, so choose the one that’s the cheapest after doing (tuitiont, fees, room, board) - (scholarships, grants).
Do not count any loan.
. I don’t think that’s true, especially in the science field. Oberlin has a much better reputation in the sciences and especially in graduate schools. Oberlin is one of those schools like Reed, Swarthmore, Carleton and Grinnell which send outsized numbers of students into graduate programs in comparison to their size and US News ranking. In the sciences and graduate programs, Oberlin is clearly a step above Oxy. If the choice were between Pomona and Oberlin, then it would be a much closer call.
I think Oberlin is the better reputed school overall - but I think that the differences between them are small enough as to not matter, particularly for grad and medical school admissions. In terms of students, the students at Oberlin and Occidental have very similar entering average SAT scores, GPAs, and class ranks. Colleges like Oberlin and Carleton and Grinnell send lots of students to graduate school for a variety of reasons, but one of those reasons is because they attract the kind of students who would’ve been more likely to want to go to graduate school in the first place. I’m not denying the colleges’ quality or prowess in preparing students for graduate school or med school or whatever - but I do think that a sufficiently motivated, bright, ambitious student could be equally successful coming from Occidental or Oberlin.
Besides, Occidental is on the list of top 50 PhD producing colleges, too. They’re ranked right after Dartmouth and a couple places ahead of Vassar and College of William and Mary.
So I think it becomes about what you want, OP. Oberlin is a small rural Midwestern town, population about 9,000, a 40-minute drive from Cleveland. I don’t think that’s a minus - small college towns can be really great because the students will make their own fun on campus and you can have a really vibrant campus life that way. I went to a small college in a big city and after sophomore year, people tended to go off-campus to make their fun, which kind of stunk if you lived on campus. On the other hand, some urban colleges are not like that - it really depends on the student body. Occidental might be closer to more hospitals and clinics at which you can shadow doctors and such. Or maybe one or the other of them has some special curricular offering that you’d like to partake in. Decide on those factors, because you can get into a good med or grad school from either of them.
Taking into account the opportunity to enroll in classes at Cal Tech while at Occidental…I think Oxy is your best bet.
Do you know that it is done often and is convenient? I wouldn’t be too sure. Plus you might likely get creamed by the students at caltech.
Both good schools. Some differences I see are that Oberlin has the conservatory so it is 800 students bigger. It offers 47 majors vs Oxy @ 31. Oberlin has a January term while Oxy is traditional semesters.
My daughter is at Oxy. Pre-med is top notch with grads getting into a variety of acclaimed medical schools. Additionally, bc of LA, there are lots of opportunities for internships in the area. They are big on undergraduate research and just named in the top five liberal arts colleges (nationally) for producing Fulbrights. Oberlin is a great school too, but in Ohio…
You’ve two good choices. I lean toward Oberlin, too, for the sciences, but there’s no telling what you’ll actually major in. To go to med school, you can major in anything as long as you do well in all your courses, including the science and math courses required for med school admission. Good job getting to this point where you have this decision.