Planning West Coast college visit - good premed schools to see?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>Wow, first, I've spent a good 3 hours reading old pre-med forum posts and want to thank BlueDevilMike, Norcalguy, bigredmed, ASMAJ, GoldShadow, curmudgeon and many, many others for putting such great advice into these threads over the years. There's already a wealth of info here!</p>

<p>So I've just spent the last year or so guiding/advising my older (h.s. senior) daughter in her college app process, and have kinda neglected my younger (h.s. junior) daughter in this area. It's way past time to try to narrow down some schools and plan a visit with D2, which is what we're working on now. </p>

<p>D2 is interested in majoring in something like biology/biological sciences/microbiology/neuroscience and minoring in something like English. She thinks she may want to be a doctor or researcher some day.</p>

<p>She'd like to visit some colleges on the West Coast, and has expressed the following preferences:</p>

<p>Molecular bio, neuroscience, open curriculum, strong English + writing, flexibility of switching majors, medium to small size (but that is not a deal-breaker), research opportunities, hospital and other health-related volunteer opportunities, good pre-med advising, potential for merit aid or relatively inexpensive (a must), prefer city, no religious affiliation, little to no Greek life, intramurals (frisbee and/or self-defense)</p>

<p>Schools that she'd like to see are some of the Claremont colleges, CalTech, UCBerkeley and Stanford. I'm sure we're missing some important ones (maybe Reed?), and wonder even if these first choices even fit her preferences above. Would people be kind enough to give advice on schools on the West Coast we should be sure to visit this June?</p>

<p>I do feel clueless in this pre-med realm after spending so much time researching art and design programs for D1, so your help is really appreciated!</p>

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<p>Should have maybe given some stats: </p>

<p>98.8xx gpa uw, 2400 SAT, 36 ACT, rank 1/~585 </p>

<p>ECs and awards revolve around chemistry, math and English/literature/writing</p>

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<p>Berkeley is out, since it doesn’t have an open curriculum, flexibility in majors, medium to small size, hospital, or good advising.</p>

<p>Whitman might be a good choice to add.</p>

<p>Of the Claremonts, Pomona’s probably the best choice for her.</p>

4

<p>For bio research and English, Reed prepares well ([REED</a> COLLEGE PHD PRODUCTIVITY](<a href=“http://web.reed.edu/ir/phd.html]REED”>Doctoral Degree Productivity - Institutional Research - Reed College)), is small, every undergrad must do a research thesis, Oregon Health & Science University is nearby, on the edge of Portland, no religion, no greek, has ultimate, BUT has a highly structured curriculum, no merit aid (and is not inexpensive). Doesn’t open curriculum contradict pre-med?</p>

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<p>does it have to be west coast?</p>

<p>check out the mcdermott scholarship at ut dallas. utd hits every single one of your points except west coast and open curriculum.</p>

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<p>Undergrad GPA is IMPORTANT in med school apps, so advise your D to go somewhere where she can acquire both a good education AND an excellent GPA. (Cal Tech and Reed might provide great educations, but not result in a decent GPA.)</p>

<p>Majoring in a science and meeting all the academic requirements for med school doesn’t really fit with the open curriculum idea.</p>

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<p>From <a href=“http://www.reed.edu/ir/medschool.html:[/url][quote][b]MEDICAL”>http://www.reed.edu/ir/medschool.html:

How does this compare to other schools?</p>

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<p>Thanks for everyone’s input so far - I really appreciate it! </p>

<p>We will look into Whitman and check out the possible merit aid (which is becoming increasingly important in my mind) in the others. I’m almost positive we won’t qualify for need-based financial aid, even with 2 kids in college for 3 consecutive years.</p>

<p>bookiemom and vossron, I guess I’m a little confused about what you meant about an inconsistency between open curriculum vs. pre-med. Are you saying “why bother searching for a school with an open curriculum if you’re going to constrain yourself with pre-med requirements?” If so, then I think I see your point. </p>

<p>My understanding from reading past posts is that there are only a few course requirements (6 or so?) that pre-meds need, but they can actually major in just about anything. D2 has a wide variety of interests and wants to take a wide variety of classes (her reason for preferring an “open curriculum”) and also do the necessary pre-med requirements including required classes, ECs, etc. </p>

<p>Please feel free to keep commenting - I learn from every post.</p>

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<p>4 chemistry, 2 biology (really, you want 4), 2 physics, 2 English, and 2 Math. (Math is somewhat flexible.) So really 14 classes. If she wants to major in something besides Biology, she’s going to find that most of her time is taken up between those two different obligations and she won’t have much time to play around. I recommend it nonetheless. =)</p>

<p>Of course, she’ll have even <em>less</em> freedom to explore if the school has strict general education requirements.</p>