<p>i will be a pre-med and want to know how many students from Duke get into medical school? where can i find this data?
also, how will Duke stack up against Berkeley (which I was awarded regents for) and Johns Hopkins for pre-med?</p>
<p>please help!!! what a dilemma!!!!</p>
<p>The Health Professions Advising Office at Duke use to have a bunch of compiled statistics from previous years but they seem to be updating their website so a bunch of links are currently non-functional. Duke has a good track record of placing students into medical school: its always been about an 85% acceptance rate into at least 1 medical school. The premed curriculum here tends to be grade deflated relative to the rest of the school. Successful premed applicants from Duke need only about a 3.5 overall GPA, 3.3 science GPA to get in. Regents at Berkeley is hard to pass up (I'm a Duke student and even I say that). However, you may want to consider the fact that Berkeley has no med school so shadowing/clinical experiences may be harder. I can speak for Duke when I say that the opportunity to get good research experience, good clinical experience, and good community volunteer experience is outstanding. Duke Medical Center is right on campus and they have established volunteering and internship experiences for virtually all premeds here. Many basic and clinical departments in both the University and Medical School are willing and encourage undergraduates to join their labs. There are also many community projects to get involved with, especially tutoring and mentoring local schoolchildren. DukeEngage is new and they fund any undergraduate to do service work at multiple sites around the world, all expenses paid. I think that the ease with which these experiences come and are organized for student accessibility make Duke a great for premeds, since ultimately, your GPA and MCAT are only for screening purposes and the core of your med applications comes with the ability to engage yourself in such experiences.</p>
<p>I would say Regents Berkeley = Duke > Johns Hopkins in terms of academic life. I am premed myself and some of my premed friends at JHU are not having such a keen time with all the intense competition there among those aspiring for med school. But definitely talk with current and former Berkeley premeds and perhaps their advising office to get more info. The more sources of info you have the better. Congrats and good luck with your decision!</p>
<p>thank you so very much for such a wonderfully detailed response...i really love this site and all the helpful people here....
looks like you convinced me to stay close to home and be comfortable at Cal as a Regents Scholar!</p>
<p>I gotta go with Duke on this one. JHU is wayyyyy too cutthroat and it's not even worth it. </p>
<p>..and Berkeley? WHat?</p>
<p>what do you mean what?</p>
<p>Duke, seriously. In terms of academics (and pre med) it doesn't matter where you go, JHU, Berkeley or Duke but Duke beats the other two schools in terms of social life handsdown! Plus, it's very easy to engage in research -- a big plus for medical school.</p>
<p>I wouldn't say that Duke beats Berkeley in social life hands down. Berkeley is in a much more exciting area with lots to do. Duke has a more community feel to it though. So, it depends what you prefer. They both beat Hopkins in regard to social life though - cut-throat competition + Baltimore....ewww. But you can NOT beat Hopkins in regard to the opportunity to do research - something like 90% of undergrads do some sort of research. It's out of this world. You'll have plenty of opportunities to do research at Duke and Berkeley with Regents though, too, just that doing research is expected at JHU unlike Duke and Berkeley.</p>
<p>Edit: Well, it seems as if you've already made your choice of Berkeley. (<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/484731-pre-med-berkeley-johns-hopkins-duke-2.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/484731-pre-med-berkeley-johns-hopkins-duke-2.html</a>). I'm sure you'll be very happy there and having a free ride to such a fantastic school is a pretty amazing deal. Good luck!</p>
<p>see, the thing is that at Berkeley, i will not be just another pre-med, i will be a Regents scholar which entitles me to a lot of benefits. I even get the faculty sponsor/advisor (which is something only privates typically offer) who will help me plan my course; furthermore, i already have research lined up even before my frosh year (heavily due to my previsious research experience and Siemens competition standing); so, all the good things I am hearing about Duke (or those which Berkeley lacks) I have already matched at Berkeley, thus making my choice clear.</p>
<p>Unless there is something major I am missing, I think I will be a bear.</p>
<p>leejwc --</p>
<p>You wrote: [I am premed myself and some of my premed friends at JHU are not having such a keen time with all the intense competition there among those aspiring for med school].</p>
<p>Can you add some more observations regarding the pros and cons of the two programs based on your experience and that of your friends? Thanks.</p>
<p>I think that in santabarbara's case, Berkeley is the way to go. Being a Regents at Berkeley is like being an AB at Duke. You get handed access to amazing resources that others might have to proactively seek out.</p>
<p>sxm2872 - My sense of Hopkins premed is that it is cutthroat because they extremely limit the number of applicants from their school that can apply in order to keep their admit rate high. Duke, I might add, does the same thing, albeit to a lesser extent. How do they do this? By refusing to write a premed committee letter of rec for you, which for schools that do such a thing, means that you are pretty much at great disadvantage since other applicants from your school will have one and med schools know that your school has such a thing. At Duke, getting a committee letter is essentially a GPA thing: I've heard that the cut-off is about a 3.5 overall GPA, otherwise they ask that you consider other health-related options (e.g. DDS, DO, OD, DVM, etc.)</p>
<p>For pros, like I mentioned before, its easy accessibility to things you will need to prepare for med school: research, community projects, and medical opportunities. They are not hard to find at all, unlike the case with some premeds I know at larger state universities. In my time at Duke, I have had 3shadowing/internships at Duke and Durham VA, in my 5th semester of research in a cell lab, have worked with 2 tutoring and mentoring projects in innercity Durham, and gotten a summer fellowship to study public health policy research in Kansas (mad cow disease). I feel that these opportunities are what makes Duke great and why Duke premeds are so successful outside of academics. Academically, since Duke premed classes have grades that are somewhat deflated, having several Bs and even a C won't necessarily screw up your chances for med school like at other programs where you need to get strait As essentially to be competitive. Classes prepare you well for the MCAT too, the average Duke student scores a 33 on the MCAT, despite having a below average (compared to other schools ) 3.3 science GPA.</p>