<p>“A school with a friendly atmosphere is preferable, but I’m the type of girl who’d rather spend the night with some close friends doing something fun or memorable rather than getting wasted at a frat party. Lastly, which schools are known for giving good aid, both merit and need-based.”</p>
<p>High admit rates for medical school may just mean that the weeder classes are especially aggressive, so that doesn’t really mean much. What you need are schools that have strong sciences, good pre-med advising and a supportive atmosphere.</p>
<p>You should take a look at the midwestern LACs, especially Grinnell (which has merit aid, no distribution requirements and excellent sciences), Carleton, Macalester and Oberlin. The advantage of LACs is that the class sizes are small, you get to know your profs really well for letters of rec, they don’t have the ‘weeder class’ mentality where half the pre-meds are expected to bomb out, and the culture at all of these places tends to be a little more laid back and understated. Most top LACs don’t have frats, by the way. If urban is important to you, then Macalester is in Minneapolis. All the others are about an hour to one or more cities.</p>