Pre-med at UMD or Tulane or Wake Forest?

<p>I've narrowed my choices to these 3 schools for doing pre-med. i have to make a deposit by Saturday. Somebody please convince me on either of these schools.</p>

<p>When my daughter and I toured Tulane the guide was a pre-med student from California. he said that he liked Tulane’s policy (maybe the other schools have the same one) that allows pre-med students to be liberal arts majors. So, if you really like studying history, you can be a pre-med history major. I believe a Tulane degree would help you get into Tulane Medical School–that sounds like a real plus. I also think that NOLA would enter into the equation. If you like that unique city that would be another plus. I don’t know anything about UMD and Wake Forest’s locations. Academically, my sense is that Tulane would be far ahead of Maryland (I could be wrong) and slightly behind Wake.</p>

<p>I know nothing about UMD or Tulane. But I went to Wake Forest for undergrad and really liked the pre-med program. They’re definitely a school that recognizes the value in being well rounded and having interests other than science (and if you’re interested in going abroad, there are lots of ways to make that happen even if you’re a pre-med). If you have any questions, I’d be happy to try and answer them.</p>

<p>Forget the “pre-med program”. You do know what premed consists of, right?</p>

<p>4 semesters of chemistry with labs (2 freshman chem and 2 organic chem)
2 semesters of bio with lab
2 semesters of physics
2 semesters of English with writing
2 semesters of calculus</p>

<p>That’s it. These are basic courses that are pretty much the same no matter where you go. That is why you can major in anything you want as long as you take (and do well) in these courses and take (and do well on) the MCATs. That is why the real thing to focus on is which school fits you best otherwise.</p>

<p>Academically overall the schools are very similar. Tulane is slightly ahead of both in average SAT scores, but the difference is just 20-30 points, not enough to really matter. So you need to look at the other aspects of the schools and decide. Obviously Maryland is much larger (26,500 undergrads vs 5500 for Tulane vs 4500 for Wake). New Orleans vs. Winston-Salem vs. suburban DC. Bigger time sports at Wake and Maryland, or at least more successful. Better weather overall in New Orleans. All or none of these things may be important to you. Figure out what is and take it from there, but forget about the “pre-med programs” as a criteria, there is no such thing. Finally, the money involved in attending each may be a critical factor. If it is, then go where your debt coming out is minimal or at least something you can handle.</p>

<p>My husband went of U. of Md. med school, and many of his classmates were U of Md. graduates. He went to a highly competitive undergrad and was just saying last night that his U. of Md. classmates were just as smart, but spent a lot less on their undergraduate education and probably had more fun than he did as an undergrad.</p>

<p>You only spend less on umd if you’re in state… or you get money.</p>

<p>Anyways, all great schools that are academically very close to each other. You will have to base your decision on other factors such as those listed by fallen. Me personally…I’ll be bised towards umd.</p>