thanks @dblazer for sharing the view. The only reason why we think that Penn/Jeff is slightly better is coz Jeff. But, then again, with UIC, there is an option to apply out with security. Thanks!
Congratulation to all who got accepted.
For those interested in grade deflation or inflation, I came across this website - which has long term trends on grade inflation for various public and private universities:
http://www.gradeinflation.com/
The data may be a bit old - pre-2015.
Interesting bits of info:
Average GPA range:
Brown >3.6
NW, Duke, Dartmouth: 3.4 - 3.6
Princeton, Emory: 3.2-3.4
Rensselear: 3 - 3.2
PSU: 3.1-3.3
@2beDoc Agree with your decision to go for UIC. GL.
UMich may not be bad for pre med for a bright, hard working student. Average GPA for a large under grad population seems decent, so for a good student upwards of 3.7 shouldnât be too difficult (but heard the engineering there is intense and tough)
Try to find out how far is the medical school from the main campus if you want to pursue ECs there.
Not sure if it is the case here but some kids do want to get away from home city or state to explore the world outside on their own (like my D was highly reluctant to apply to Princeton, even as 5 kids from her school got in there the previous year, she finally applied only half heartedly).
However the option to apply out of UIC is great and outweighs any other perceived drawbacks.
Thank you @GoldenRock and @rk2017. The only thing thatâs left is I canât brag about where my D goes to school. I couldnât go to a brand name school when I went to college so I really wanted her to go to top name school. Oh well.
Just wondering, who cares more about brand name school between the two, you or DD? You may want to relate to comments on this over the past week or so if you havenât already read them.
Also if I am not mistaken, another flexibility UIC offers on top of applying out, is to shorten the duration further by taking advantage of AP credits, college credits from high school and summer courses at UIC. So technically she can finish MD in 6 years as like in UMKC, though I am not sure if it is the right thing to do and wouldnât advise for it.
I mentioned earlier here that Penn State and Jefferson are quite far away in distance. The former in some sort of semi rural locale and the latter in the city of Philadelphia with a 3 or 4 hour driving distance between them. So not sure how much of a disadvantage it is in first 3 years, compared to other establishments having reasonable commuting distances between their main and medical campuses. This can be important factor as far as medical ECs are concerned for those interested in them (though there may be some sort of a mini medical facility near the main campus).
Trying to choose between at Emory and USC for pre-med. Is anyone familiar with either of these schools in terms of the pre-med experience?
Well, scratch the second advantage I mentioned earlier, looks like they have made it stricter lately. In their words:
Students may not enroll in the UIC College of Medicine (COM) for a period of three years from the time that they first matriculate into their undergraduate college at UIC. Students must enroll in the COM no later than two years after completing the baccalaureate degree unless otherwise approved by the COM.
Hello-
Is anyone familiar with the U PITT GAP program and how hard it is t meet the 3.75 GPA requirement at PITT UG?
Any experience with this program please post or PM us. Appreciate it - thank you.
As mentioned by me earlier, heard Emory pre med is tough. It seems they weed out a lot of even good students in courses like chemistry (general and organic). Also that if one survives, has good shot at their great medical school. If you are a really good and motivated student may not be an issue.
@MiCh408
Iâm sure you know thatâs what Emory is known for, I hope thatâs why you applied. Also smaller class sizes and personalized advising is essential to surviving pre-medicine in my opinion. I donât think youâll get that at USC. Also Emory has revamped the Chem department so that another plus.
@Shine27. The Pitt Gap is quite aggressive program and it is quite hard to maintain the 3.75 GPA. I have a very little direct knowledge of it though. Two kids of a friend of mine went to this program a few years ago. The older one could not stay in the program and ended up applying out and is currently in a low tier medical school. The 2nd one I believe is still in Pitt but not sure if she is still in the program. University of Pittsburgh overall is known to be a difficult school to get a good GPA at.
@MiCh408 another thing to note is that Emoryâs advertised med school acceptance rate is very low compared to its peer schools. However, I think this is because Emory writes committee letters (something you need to get into med school) for everyone willing to apply to med school while most peers will refuse to write a committee letter unless stats are above a certain range. When screening out the applicants whose stats arenât up to par, the acceptance rate is around 90%.
Something occurred to me about applying out option. Some schools though giving this option, are rather particular about the process. They want the kids to notify them in writing that they are applying out by early part of Junior year or so and will officially take out their names from the list of matriculants into medical school. So you need to find out how flexible UICâs applying out policies are. (I think GW is flexible in that regard).
If they are strict, then your DD has to target finishing MCAT in around 2 years from now with great scores. She will have to also stay very active with medical ECs and maintain competent GPA. Once she applies out she will be competing with others who would have been in college longer (some even with masters degrees) and with more exposure.
Very interesting piece of information. Perhaps that explains Princetonâs â96%â acceptance rate" :))
If you plan to apply out, then why do you want to do BS/MD?
You are as good as doing a regular PRE-MED.
One KEY reason for BS/MD is to avoid the regular MED admissions roller-coaster.
Why would you subject yourself to that process?
@2beDoc may be able to shed some light on that. My D never cared or wants to move out of her current program.
I am guessing that some kids in a guaranteed program who attempt MCAT and score very high, say 99%ile or something, then may rethink about continuing in the current program and may want to give a shot at getting into bigger names. So the apply out option gives them the freedom to do that instead of being locked into the current one. But it is questionable whether they can still continue with the existing program, if their attempts to apply out arenât that fruitful.
The point I was making was that there are different shades of apply out options and one needs to be careful about what they actually entail before getting carried away by the mere presence of the option in a given program.
Reading through UICâs program and by the fact they are giving some buffer time also if needed to matriculate into the med school, it appears the apply out option is flexible, but one needs to confirm with them anyway.
@rk2017 What you are referring is Binding vs Non-Binding. Each BS/MD program has so many flavors. Agree, students / parents must know ahead before committing what flavor that program is.
@2beDoc Your D should assume that the program is BINDING and if she is still 110% happy about this program before committing. Good to get it confirmed that there is no interview before matriculating to SOM, that is more critical. Applying out is not that critical if your D is happy about that school choice already. If it is non-binding it is a bonus.
@NoviceDad Here is the reason for this path. For example, my D committed to OU because she was happy and clear that she will do both her UG and MD at OU with no regret. That holds good now also. But now she came to know that OU program is non-binding and occasionally 1 or 2 students went out and joined some other school due to variety of reasons. So she may plan to apply at least for CA (home state) since any how she needs to complete the AMCAS app process and has to take MCAT. But she is not putting any extra efforts to compete with the regular MD applicants nor she is going to be worried if she does not get into any other school, because she is happy with OU.
UIC GPPA is NON-BINDING and I heard that several years ago, there was a program student applying out and got into Stanford Med. Also this program does not have interview for GPPA students; and as long as a student meet the GPA and MCAT requirements, s/he is in. Penn State/Jefferson is BINDING program and you will lose your seat if applying out.