<p>I'm hoping I can ask you all a few questions and bounce a few ideas off of you. I am a high school senior in Wisconsin, planning on going to either Madison or Northwestern as a pre-med, (some sort of Biology major)</p>
<p>I would like to get your opinion on which school would be "better." Now, I know both schools are extremely good, but I know that on average Northwestern is more "competitive" to get into, therefore the students may be smarter. I'm not implying at all that students from Madison are "stupid." Therefore, it may be harder to maintain a higher GPA at Northwestern compared to Madison. How important do you think this is? I know that medical schools weigh ECs, MCAT, and your GPA in making the decision to accept you or not.</p>
<p>Regardless of where I go, what is your advice on being a successful pre-med? I plan on researching, volunteering in a health care setting (with at least one "big" trip to a 3rd world country), joining pre-med clubs, and of course studying early, hard, and often for the MCAT. Is there anything else that you would say is important?</p>
<p>I guess all in all at this point I'm simply deciding NW vs Madison, it's basically a matter of the higher GPA at Madison vs the "prestige" of NW (how important is this in med school admissions?)</p>
<p>Don’t pick Northwestern over Madison if you think you’ll do better at Madison. If everything else is equal, you’ll have a better shot with a higher GPA from Madison.</p>
<p>^^^ That is complete ********. Most kids at top schools like (Vanderbilt, Rice, Emory, Cornell, Brown, Northwestern) who have at least a 3.5 overall gpa, a 3.5 science gpa, and at least a 30 mcat score have around an 80-90 percent acceptance rate to medical schools.</p>
<p>Medical schools understand how rigorous the classes are at top schools.</p>
<p>From my experience at Emory, if you are willing to put in the time, and give up sleep, you can do well in classes, have a social life.</p>
<p>Colleges, UW-Madison is a top school, with a great national reputation. I like all the schools you’ve listed ^^^^ but they are just not that far above Madison in national academic reputation. (I’d say they were “above” but I tend to favor private schools of moderate size.) IMO a 3.5/30 at Northwestern will not get enough of a bump over a 3.5/30 from a northeastern or California or Texas or Florida medical school to be measured under a microscope. They are both in a tight spot. </p>
<p>Edit: Illinois schools? Probably a bit of a bump for Northwestern . Wisconsin schools? Edge goes to Madison.</p>
<p>^^^ do you have any proof that 80-90 percent of the pre-meds from UW-Madison who have a 3.5/4.0 get into ONE U.S. medical school?</p>
<p>I am not comparing national prestige, you may be right, UW-Madison may have just has much prestige as Brown/Cornell/Northwestern, however, I am ONLY looking at stats. Rice/Vanderbilt/Emory/Cornell/Brown/Northwestern are all schools where 80-90 percent of pre-meds with a 3.5/30 mcat score are being accepted to medical school.</p>
I didn’t say they did. Stats like that are usually crap because we don’t know what screening games the schools play or who is counted. Juniata used to claim a 100% pre-med acceptance rate in 2005-6 on their website. Are they better than Emory for a pre-med because of a quoted “stat” without further investigation or analysis?</p>
<p>FWIW, some schools (not suggesting that any of the schools, above, do) game these stats by aggressively limiting the number of “supported candidates”, and then only counting the supported candidates to arrive at their “acceptance rates to medical school”. Some use the committee letter process to accomplish the same weeding. Some consider DO and foreign schools. Some are tricky enough to add in those accepted to other non-MD health science programs. While some schools count everybody and only U.S. allo acceptances.</p>
<p>I think he means that students with a 3.5+/30+ have a high chance of getting into med school from those places. But, you won’t have a 90% chance if you have exactly a 3.5/30. Those 3.5+/30+ stats factor in applicants who have stats well above that. </p>
<p>If you look at Cornell’s stats, the overall acceptance rate for 3.4+/30+ applicants is 84% (note that the data doesn’t include URM’s or acceptances to DO schools, both of which would raise that statistic). But, the acceptance rate for someone with a 3.4/30 might only be 50%.</p>
<p>^^ Which top 20 school besides JHU actually screens its applicants? NONE</p>
<p>I only have the stats for Emory and Cornell on my computer, I don’t know how to upload them.</p>
<p>For 2009: graduating seniors from emory with a 3.5/30 mcat score had a 80 percent acceptance rate.</p>
<p>For 2008: graduating seniors from emory with a 3.5/30 mcat score had a 90 percent acceptance rate.</p>
<p>For 2008: emory seniors who had exact a 3.5 and exactly a 30 mcat score had an 86 percent chance of getting into medical school.</p>
<p>My original point to the OP was, if you are smart enough to get in and truly work hard, then gpa shouldn’t be an issue. If gpa is above a 3.5 from NU, the OP will be fine.</p>
<p>Northwestern is a very demanding university. I know plenty of students at both Wisconsin & at Northwestern. The work demands & competition at NU may cause one to reconsider being pre-med, but if you do well & get a good score on the MCAT, you will do well when applying to med schools. Wisconsin is a very good school, but not as demanding as Northwestern for the typical pre-med student. If you do well at either school–and “well” is defined differently at NU than at Wisc.-- and get a good MCAT score, you should be a strong med school applicant.
Northwestern University has more National Merit Scholars in attendance than any college or university, other than Harvard or Texas, in the country. The competition is substantial, the quarter system fast paced & demanding & medical schools should be well aware of the academic rigor of each university.
Prestige may be of little importance for med school admissions, but the opportunities & funding that made the school prestigious are important.
To address your question as to which option is better: It may come down to money if you are in-state for Wisconsin.</p>
<p>As a side note: A major reason that Northwestern University admit rates hover around the 25% mark, and not at 10%, is that NU competes not only with the prestige of the Ivy League but also with strong state funded schools that offer great in-state tuition rates in the Big Ten.</p>
<p>Northwestern certainly has plentiful extracurriculars as well, but you’re not going to get the variety and opportunities that you will at Madison. Madison is one of the top-ranked research universities in the world, and though Northwestern isn’t too far behind, the opportunities really don’t compare. There are also numerous clubs and three major hospitals downtown at which to volunteer. Plus, you have instate tuition, which is drastically less than private tuition at Northwestern.</p>
<p>^^^ What is the basis for this claim. According to U.S. News Rankings OF RESEARCH BASED UNIVERSIITES, NU is ranked considerably higher than Madison</p>
<p>Athletically both schools are in the same league, academically the undergraduate programs are in different leagues in terms of quality of students & academic rigor. Both are top research universities. Access to graduate & faculty research is an area worth investigating for those interested.</p>
<p>Have you considered NW’s 7-year honor program in the medical school. It is probably a good choice since the students do not need to take MCAT and you can save one year’s expense. Both my nephews went through that program.</p>