Going by rankings and brand names have proven costly for many a pre med student in traditional route. Not meaning your talented and hardworking son/daughter can’t do well in these tough schools, but there are more sorry stories than happy ones. If medicine is just one of the few potential careers to be considered while in college, then it doesn’t matter.
Public: UCB, UCLA, UVA, Georgia Tech and (on the border line) UMich …
Private: Cornell, Princeton, U Chicago, JHU, MIT …
I may have missed a couple of more but mentioned on this thread in the past 2-3 months.
It gives you strong undergrad foundation.
You will also find research opportunities.
Most students who I know that have gone to UMich praise its environment.
Plus, UMich Medical School is known to take nearly 30% of its incoming freshmen batch from its undergrad.
Simple, cutthroat competition among ORMs at those three schools (for grades, ECs and research). Large class sizes, faculty more interested in research than teaching undergrads, competition with grad students for quality research positions etc… It’s not impossible to get GPA but you may not have time for ECs. I know few students who studied at UCB and UCLA. They all ended up in medical schools but was not easy (some took gap years).
BTW, USNWR has a separate ranking for undergraduate teaching and I checked that also when we were deciding.
Thanks for update. D was admitted to UCB and UCSD, wait-listed at UCLA a few years ago. D did not choose sunny CA. D seems to have made a wise decision.
Based on your preferences and financial capabilities, i would pick UMich, Davis and CASE. UMich is very good for pre-med path.
If slightest doubt with pre-med path, would stay with UCB, UCLA.
Since you are getting variety of responses which is natural. Want to add few points for the reasoning behind my response, which may or may not be applicable for your S or your family in the decision making.
It is known fact UCs are more competitive and too big (#of students) with more and more less funding. Student need to be driven and may need to be competitive even to get some research opportunities even if it is unpaid. May not get too much attention and time from folks who need to mentor.
If your S is born and brought up in CA, it is the time and age to explore new opportunity (whether it is a place, people or culture or food). Even if he didn't like, so be it, only 4 years, come back and do MD or job in CA.
Since @scarlet20 clearly called out the COA is almost same with UC IS and all other public and private schools COA (Except UM). So it does not matter attending UC or some other school from finance point of view.
If your S is ok with cold weather and can manage without support system close by, it is worth trying out. As @srk2017 mentioned if Davis easy to get research, definitely consider that.
But the feedback from other parents who are in CA, it is hard and few folks went to CWRU, Pitt etc., If your S is not a big city person, Madison is a excellent college town. Also CWRU, Pitt, Columbus are all small compare to LA/Boston/NY etc.
At the same time if a student is driven, can get research or MD or whatever he wants to do, from any where and any school. If there is a will there is a way. GL.
Cost being the same, I tend to recommend private schools to avoid over crowded class rooms and hassles in class registrations, competition for ECs etc. If weather is not an issue, BU will be my pick. From what you stated looks like son might have gotten some kind of non need based award and so guess it is presidential scholar award at BU. As a presidential award winner, he shouldn’t have any issue maintaining > 3.8 gpa. The course rigor enables the students to excel at MCAT. The opportunities for research and ECS are all over the place. Also when applying to med schools the mention of presidential scholar on the applications may have an impact too since people know how prestigious it is to get it at BU.
For pre-med courses, IMO one should not focus on brand name universities. One is not doing a PhD where it may matter. These are only lower level science courses in Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Math. Choose a school where one will shine academically and medical ECs ( including research) can be done without much hassel. One can easily get a MCAT score > 95% if one prepares well with profile like your S’s.
Hey guys congrats on your acceptances!!! I’m a rising senior interested in BS/MD programs. It’s been very hard for me to get research positions, but I have been able to (It was very hard because many of the labs said I was too young). I got one summer after freshman year and sophomore year but I did not produce any papers because it was more about the experience and not papers. This summer I was very excited that I got a research opportunity through NIH, but it got cancelled because of the virus. Does having published research papers really matter for BS/MD?
No, it is not even expected for regular MD route when you apply. This has been clearly stated by several SOMs. Every one will know what is your contribution in a paper at high school level. Focus on your essays and story to tell.
As per SDN wisdom, less than 5% of undergraduates have publication, so no one expects research papers from a HS student. However if you have a research paper and answer questions in interview you have a big advantage. Most adcoms know that it’s very difficult for HS students to get research opportunities unless they have connections and some are suspicious about the research papers.
@grtd2010@srk2017 thank you! That’s very relieving to hear! I’ve been reading some threads from previous years and all I’ve seen are high schoolers with 5 published papers. I’m not sure how everything will play out next year in admission. Do you think they’ll remove the testing requirements due to the virus?
I will be highly suspicious of a HS student with 5 published papers! Don’t assume anything. They can always rely on some test score or make it conditional. May be they will use PSAT score for everyone.
BSMD programs are few and most have few slots. They have to worry more about traditional path admissions first given the processing requirements.
@srk2017 yeah I guess I just assumed lol. But I’ve seen someone on here with 5 I think (maybe this thread or another thread). I was just wondering about that testing because I saw that Harvard won’t care about subject scores in the 2020-2021 cycle. I’m also wondering about subject tests because I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do them and some programs that I’m interested in require or recommend them.
