Pre-med at Swarthmore?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Swarthmore College
1

<p>Anyone pre-med students care to share their experiences here?</p>

<p>Do many Swatties go to Dentistry school or Pharm school afterward?
How many go to Medical school?</p>

<p>I know Orgo Chem + the Pre-Med requirements are hard everywhere, but is it very much amplified here?</p>

2

<p>Daughter is a pre-med, rising Senior at Swat. In her experience, the pre-med requirements at Swat are as rigorous as all other Swat courses, which means you work your tail off in them and then some. Some Swat students (I don’t know the percentage) take one or more of these courses at other institutions in the summer in order to have an easier course/higher gpa. We don’t live where there are universities in driving distance with summer schedules that work with Swat, so my daughter took all her courses at Swat. As you will see if you read through the pre-med advising pages,
[Swarthmore</a> College :: Health Sciences Office :: Health Sciences Office](<a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/premed.xml]Swarthmore”>Health Sciences Office :: Swarthmore College),
Swat students can have a slightly lower gpa than other schools and still be competitive for med school. However, the first cut at most med schools is done by a computer and is gpa/MCAT based so you have to be in the ball park. On the positive side, my daughter has met no “stab-you-in-the-back” competitive, pre-med types at Swat. The pre-med courses all have study groups led by majors in the subject area; in a few, the professor comes to the study sessions also. Professors are available in their offices at what seems to be 24/7 frequency so you have a lot of study support. The pre-med adviser is excellent and needs to be consulted from the first year in order to keep up with everything. Daughter will take a gap year before med school because she wants her entire Senior year for her medical school applications in order to lock in her science gpa with the last four courses in her biology major. If you don’t go that route, you apply in June after your Junior year (and take the MCAT in April) because many med school entering classes are filled by October of your Senior year. My daughter has spread her major out in order to take courses in the many other areas in which she is interested.</p>

3

<p>OP, you can also see where graduates ended up by looking at the post-graduate plans of the classes of 2004-2010:<br>
<a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/postgrad%20plans%202010.pdf[/url]”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/postgrad%20plans%202010.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;