<p>Currently I have my colleges narrowed down and am strongly considering becoming a pre-med student. However, i am having trouble finding information on the quality of these schools pre-med programs. My colleges are:</p>
<p>Marquette University, college of health sciences (apparently they are one of the few schools to have an undergraduate gross anatomy class)</p>
<p>Which of these schools have better pre-med programs? What medical schools would I be able to consider if i did well at these schools? If anyone can help me out with these question, I would be greatly appreciative :D</p>
<p>Also, if you know any good, specific questions I could ask these colleges that would answer my questions that would be very helpful as well! thanks :)</p>
<p>All of the above will provide you with a fine education. Med schools are mostly about grades adn mcat scores, so go where you can maxmize your gpa.</p>
<p>4.0, since i don't think colleges can weigh any class more than another. If you can get around 80% A's during your undergrad years, you'll have a great shot at some nice med schools.</p>
<p>I would not recommend the Marquette College of Health Sciences, which seems like a program for physical therapists, trainers and other similar occupations. For medical school, you want a regular liberal arts program, major in what you like, and take all the required prerequisites for applying to medical school. You don't need to take anatomy as an undergraduate, nor will it have any effect on a medical school application.</p>
<p>Above a 3.5 should be fine to get into a med school. For the most competitive med schools you would need to aim closer to 3.8. If you're looking into md/phd programs, you really would need close to a 4.0. However, in contrast to what a previous poster mentioned that med schools only consider gpa and mcat scores, the situation is less cut and dry. I won't bombard you with obnoxious anecdotal evidence to one direction or the other, but suffice it to say that med schools admissions committees place an importance on clinical experience, research experience, initiative, personality (as determined by the interview) and life experience along with mcats and gpas. Don't get so wrapped up in what the prestige of your undergrad program is and focus more on what it can provide you in the aforementioned areas. Are there undergrad research opportunities, hospitals to volunteer in or emt courses at a local community college, student organizations in the area of health, and other things like that. You'll probably find that all of the schools on your list will be able to provide what I mentioned except for maybe Marquette (unless that is part of the larger Marquette University).</p>
<p>^^concur that research and other stuff is important. But note, I specifically used the adjective "mostly." GPA+mcat scores are the first cut, and the relative "prestige" of the program/college doesn't much matter as long as the schools are roughly similar. In other words, great research and a 3.0 gpa ain't gonna be very competitive for med admissions; but, a 3.5 gpa + great research may trump a 3.8 gpa from a bookworm (nothing but grades and scores).</p>
<p>thanks very much guys. So are all of my schools relatively the same level of quality and difficulty when it comes to pre-med? And actually i think Marquette has a lot of research and intern opportunities with The Medical College of Wisconsin (idk how good that school is). But i think creighton may be the best of these because of its access to the resources of an on-campus medical school, no?</p>
<p>I have known a couple of people who went to med school at the medical college of wisconsin (I went to UW Madison and many graduates of UW end up at Medical College of Wisconsin). I can tell you that the research at Med College of Wisconsin is not very diverse and I would be shocked if it were accessible to undergrads from a different institution. The research operations at MCOW appear to have a strong translational medicine (as well as clinical research) focus as you might expect of a school like this. This is not ideal for an undergrad that needs training and constant mentorship.</p>
<p>but the number of labs is barely a blip as compared to the other universities on your list. Furthermore, the labs at Marquette appear to be centered only on molecular approaches.</p>
<p>I went to CU for undergrad and medical school. Both were great. The advantage of CU for undergrad is that it gives you an advantage when applying to CU medical school -- sort of like being a legacy is an advantage when applying for undergrad. It's not a guarantee, it's just an advantage over a similarly qualified applicant from another school. I'd advise picking a place where you think you'll be happy for 4 years whether you're pre med or not.</p>
<p>*Go for the least expensive and save your money. Med school is going to set you back about a quarter mil by the time you get there. *</p>
<p>^^^
This is the best advice. Any good (decently ranked) college that has good bio, chem, math, and physics courses can prepare you for med school. With a strong GPA (about a 3.7 GPA or higher) and a strong MCAT, you can get accepted to med school. </p>
<p>When I say “decently ranked,” I mean ranked within the top 150 or so National Universities or well ranked Masters/Bachelor/LACs. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend going to an unknown lowly ranked directional college unless I was certain that their science and math programs were strong and their grads were known to get accepted to med school.</p>
<p>Since med school is SO EXPENSIVE, do not choose an undergrad that will require big loans, otherwise you’ll run out of borrowing power when it comes to med school needs. Some med schools will NOT accept you if you already have big student loan debt, because they’ll be afraid that you’ll run out of loans. There is a max amount students can borrow. I would imagine that med schools would not want to accept students with much more than $20k of personal undergrad student loan debt unless the parents were qualified to co-sign big loans.</p>
<p>I have a son who’s pre-med, so we’ve researched this issue a lot. He’s going to a state flagship and will graduate debt free (a combination of merit scholarships and parents paying). He will have to borrow about $180k for med school; we (his parents) will pay for about $60k of his med school costs.</p>