I am a current high school student in Missouri and I am looking for premed schools in the Midwest, preferably near Missouri but I am willing to go further. I know about Washington University, I intend to apply there but I am looking for other strong universities to apply to in case I am not accepted there. I want to be a neurologist/neurosurgeon so I was also curious if a neuroscience degree would be better or if I would be fine with a biochemistry degree? Thank you
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I’d recommend that you do not overlook colleges such as Carleton, Grinnell and Kenyon.
Either neuroscience or biochemistry would be fine for your career aspirations.
This source may help you generate further ideas:
http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/lists/list/colleges-to-consider-if-you-want-to-study-biology/117/
Grinnell, Macalester and St Olif may be of interest.
https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/top-pre-med-colleges/
If you’re going to apply to Washington University, then you may want to consider the University of Chicago
https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/infographics/top-feeders-medical-school
It doesn’t matter what you major in. Neither one is better for med school. Just pick a major that you like and will excel in. You need a tippy top gpa. If that means majoring in history, then do that. If that means majoring in neuroscience, do that. If that means majoring in music, do that.
Pick a school, any good school, to go to where you will be a top student and get top grades.
How much will your parents pay for college each year
What are your test scores and GPA
Going to a school like WashU could be a disaster for a premed.
You’re taking on a mountain, why make it Everest? Pick Whitney
Learn what it takes to get into med school by reading thru the very informative https://www.rhodes.edu/sites/default/files/PreMed_Essentials.pdf. There is also a good handbook at https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/careers/gradstudy/health/guide and no doubt many other websites, as well as books.
Asking about “good premed programs” leads many into a trap, since they are told to consider acceptance numbers. For med school admissions the college acceptance numbers are meaningless. Impressive rates boil down to one of two things, great students or screening. It’s no surprise that kids that can get into elite colleges like Brown or Swarthmore do well in med school admissions 4 years later against much better odds of admission. Or the school aggresively uses their “committee letter” and only recommends the best kids. A regular poster used to chime in on posts like this to recommend one such school, Holy Cross.
Any college in the country offers the lower-division science and math tested on the MCAT. Whether you work work for good grades, get to know some profs so you get strong recs, take part in appropriate ECs, and develop compelling essays is up to you.
The real question to address at this point is not what college, but why an M.D? Have you looked into the medical field and considered the alternatives? From the day you start college it will be 11-15 years before you are a practicing doctor. Its almost a reflex action among HS kids, they think of a career in medicine and its “I’m pre-med!” Doctors are far from the only ones in the health field that help people. Physical therapists, radiology techs, nurses, speech pathologists, physician assistants, to name but just a few. Spend a few hours browsing on http://explorehealthcareers.org Unless you’ve considered the alternatives and have spent time actually working in a health care setting (which is an unofficial requirement to get into med school, BTW) its better to think of yourself as interested in exploring a career as a doctor rather than someone who has already made the decision.
Perhaps as a safety but still with an 88% med school acceptance rate, you might want to take a look at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. It also has a neuroscience major and as a LAC has ample opportunities for collaborative research with full professors as an undergraduate.
^^^ A great example of a school that screens. They even tell you they do.
Those without “supportive Committee Evaluations” know they are wasting time and money by applying. So they don’t. Voila! Eye-popping admit rate.
Let me write the evaluation letters and I can get any college in the country a 88% med school acceptance rate. I’ll just use the info from the charts at https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/157998/factstablea24.html which I’m sure every premed committee is quite familiar with. Too bad for those who had a 60% chance or or 50% chance that I’ll give bad letters so they don’t drag down the admit rate.
There is no such thing as a pre-med school. As noted above you can major in anything and be pre-med – you just have to take the prescribed pre-med coursework.
Look for a good college and consider affordability (with med school down the road), pre-med advising, and anything else you want in a 4 year experience.
And I agree with the above, that pre-med admittance rates don’t mean a thing unless you understand exactly what goes into the numerator and denominator of the ratio as not all schools calculate med school acceptance rate in the same manner. For example:
–Some schools have more “weed out” classes than others reducing the number of students who continue on the pre-med path for four years (lowering the denominator).
–Certain colleges have committees which pre-screen and recommend med school applicants. These committees generally only recommend students who have the stats, experiences etc. to make them very strong candidates for med schools. Students who are not recommended are left out of the equation. In contrast, other colleges support all of the students who want to apply to med school. So while the schools with the pre-screening will have a higher acceptance rate (because of the lower denominator), a schools that support all students may be preferable.
–It is also important to know what constitutes a med school acceptance for the med school acceptance rate. Some colleges just count US allopathic med school acceptances and other schools include acceptances to DO, overseas, podiatry etc. programs in the numerator leading to a higher med school acceptance rate.
My did kid has a friend that went to med school after Creighton. Check into their opportunities.
Right…no such thing as a premed school.
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Perhaps as a safety but still with an 88% med school acceptance rate,
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As mentioned, these results are manipulated.
Personally, I dislike reported acceptance rates because they are useless for high school students. It WRONGLY implies that if a premed student attends that school, he has a (in this case) 88% chance of going to med school…and that can’t be further from the truth.
Omg…that 88% rate INCLUDES a Caribbean med school. Therefore the reporting number is simply BS.