No yeah you’re completely right. UC Riverside is a great school and not a waste of money at all. UC riverside is certainly sending more kids to med school than UCI, UCLA, UCSB, Berkeley and Davis. I wasn’t trying to claim anything except for the fact that UCI, in my opinion, is the best choice. I was scrolling through and thought I would give a quick 1-2 sentence opinion. Look, Seton Hall is a great choice, but in terms of a holistic view point (i.e. money, resources, etc.) UCI is the best choice. It also doesn’t matter where you go to undergrad, as long as you’re happy and see yourself succeeding in the environment. Personally, as a SoCal native, I would hate to move to New Jersey just for my bachelors degree. UCI has great research opportunities, students to work with and a great medical school/hospital to ideally work/volunteer at.
So after attending a Baylor event last night I think I will be going there. The medical school acceptance rate is actually 71% and they do not require students to fulfill certain requirements to get advising. Overall, while it is more costly I think the welcoming environment and atmosphere is a better fit for me. Also, I plan on joining the military after college/med school, so they will help me a bit with medical school debt. Thank you to everyone who helped me by commenting on this post and voicing your opinions, I appreciate the time you put in.
^medical school acceptance rates can be manipulated so discount them (unless they’re super low, in which case it means that they’re so bad no one is able to make them look better :p).
However, Baylor is a very good university indeed.
If you can afford it without parental loans, it’s a great choice.
Baylor has requirements to be designated as in their premed program which may be a requirement to get advising – see https://www.baylor.edu/prehealth/index.php?id=930453
They also screen applicants who apply to med school. The college gets to choose the bar, and in turn this gives them an admit rate to med school.
Sounds like you’ve made a decision so I guess this isn’t important anymore.
There is nothing to afraid of if you get high grades, you can be anywhere.
Great choice, best of the luck.
Baylor Med is not associated with Baylor Univ. They just share the same name.
I doubt that UCI’s bio, chem, and physics courses are any/much better than any other good univ. It’s med school is certainly good, but little good it does a premed. People often wrongly think that going to an undergrad with a med school is some advantage. It’s not. Undergrads aren’t roaming the halls of the med school.
Don’t believe the “medical school admissions rate” colleges put out. They tend to be misleading and will vary from school to school in terms of how schools calculate this.
It’s especially manipulated for OOS in Texas since Texas residents have a LOT of options, which OOS don’t have.
All in all, Baylor is a good pick if OP does not become a doctor though. As long as she/he stays away from the biology major s/he can find another career using the Baylor network. And obviously if OP is conservative Christian it’s a great university in which to grow in your faith and be surrounded by a number of people who will support you in your faith. (Baylor is pluralistic but there’s a sizable number of conservative Christians, which can be very affirming for a student seeking that environment).
Wow, very strict. With expectations like this, any school would have a high med school admit rate. Interesting that there’s no mention of a target MCAT score. But if a student meets the above, and doesn’t have a good enough MCAT score, I guess s/he falls into that small group that gets shut out.
I’m shocked over the “cannot have C+ or lower.” Tons of students get into med school with a C on their transcript.
And med schools wouldn’t really like seeing a college take such a heavy-handed approach. Imagine someone who is under-represented in medicine with good-enough stats being weeded out by the almighty “Dr Moldow” because they had a C somewhere on their transcript.
I suspect that the above is really a guideline and that someone with high enough stats and a good MCAT score would still be allowed to apply and get advising. If not, then soon the new med school might be smacking Dr Moldow upside the head. (And why does my autocorrect keep changing her name to Dr. Mildew?)
At first I thought the “no repeats” mention was a statement that students can’t reapply to the same type of med school, but now I think it means that now both MD and DO schools don’t allow grade replacement.
^I understood it as “no grade replacement”, which is realistic for applicants.
Those are presented as guidelines (so, probably a way to keep expectations in check from the many premeds) and seem realistic too - I’m guessing a C+ in Art History won’t be seen the same as a C+ in Organic Chemistry, too. So, yes, that’s harsh, and tough, but a student who right off the bat sees this and thinks “I’ll never make it” may not be cut out for the premed process.
It’d be worth it to email the program director and check how absolute these are (guidelines or requirements?)
It wouldn’t be in Seton Hall’s interest to apply these guidelines like algorithms do!
The fact Seton Hall is opening a med school with no instate preference (AFAIK!) would make it a very attractive college for a strong student from OOS simply because many private med schools give a slight boost to their college’s applicants, whereas public med schools favor instate residents regardless of where they went to college. Obviously it doesn’t mean they admit anyone who applies from their college 
and I’m guessing the guidelines are there to temper the many students’ hopes (or sense of entitlement).
@socalgirl123
(already mentioned but it bears repeating)
Baylor Med School isn’t an offshoot of Baylor College and DOES favor TX residents so the situation’s different from Seton Hall’s.
Baylor is a great university in its own right but do choose it for the right reasons (ie., not for that med school acceptance stat).
@MYOS1634 ^Looks like Seton Hall is the better choice then especially because OP will have to take on more debt for Baylor.
I would never pay that for Baylor. Waco is a dank town that most Texans avoid (aside from visiting the popular HGTV site for like 45 minutes there is nothing to do there) except to drive through in order to get to Austin and San Antonio. Also, yes…it is very hot. 90-100 degree temps will greet you at move-in and will last through mid to late October.
Baylor seems conservative (and it is very much politically) but look at their campus crime report and you can see on a weekly basis that freshman boozing it up in dorms is every bit as much of a thing as any other college campus. The parents just feel better about it happening because it’s a “private” Christian school. I’ve seen drug deals go down in view of the campus (they weren’t students, but still…everyone is fooling themselves if they think Baylor is some oasis of goodness).
Save the $$ and go to your two in-state options.
I agree that Seton Hall is the better choice… the cost for Baylor just can’t be justified when an equally good choice with a much better cost is out there. If the student or parents are borrowing for Baylor, then that should eliminate that choice. Did the OP mention loans for Baylor?
I agree with @MYOS1634 that the SHU words are really just strong guidelines to help move underperforming students onto another path before they waste too much time as a deadend premed. However, since I deal with premeds and their parents on a daily basis, there are too many that totally freak out and think their lives are over if they get a C during their first year. It happens, and it’s usually recoverable as long as it doesn’t become a pattern. And many end up having to finish senior year before applying so that those grades can also bump the GPA and dilute the impact of a C or two.
Med schools get a year by year GPA from AMCAS, so that they can easily see an upward trend. Med schools are fine with seeing something like
Year 1 GPA 3.0 (because of one or two C’s)
Year 2 GPA 3.7
Year 3 GPA 3.9
Year 4 (if applying after senior year) 3.9
@MYOS1634 yes, it’s not great if the C+ is in Orgo, but it happens. I’m working with a student who’ll be applying this summer and she has a C from Ochem I, but she has an A- from Ochem II. Her MCAT is strong and her overall and science GPA is strong, so I think she’ll have a successful cycle because her overall app/ECs are strong. She’s applying after graduation, so her senior grades will make her GPA stronger.
If you want to go pre-med then think about:
- The cheapest reasonable college so you/your parents can use the money for med school
- The college needs to prepare you for MCATs but still allow you to get a good GPA
- Access to volunteering opportunities (e.g., near a hospital)
- Success in graduates getting into med school
- Options if you don’t go to med school
I would highly consider Seton Hall. The new medical school is already at a well known hospital system (the best in NJ Hackensack university hospital) and they are devoted to taking undergraduates from Seton Hall. It could be a good back up plan while still applying to other medical schools. Tuition is on the low side. The area around Seton Hall isn’t so great, but its super close to NYC. Smaller class size might be helpful when it comes to good advisement. They also will have opportunities for research and shadowing the new medical school ties.
Ultimately, the school you go to doesn’t matter for med school acceptance, its where you can succeed and get as close to a 4.0 GPA as possible and sets you up well for the MCAT. You can major in anything that will give you that high GPA, so pick something you like. You can take pre-med classes alongside any major you choose.
This is true: “I’d pick Seton Hall. You just need to get the best grades at the cheapest price for med school.”
Med schools get thousands of applications for seats (6,500 for 100 places is normal). No one reads 6,500 applications.
So, the med schools establish a GPA/MCAT cut-off screen and if you make it past that threshold, your application is considered. There is no looking at what school you got the GPA at! So, go to a grade-inflation institution with minimal competition and then study for the MCAT the entire time you are in college (starting Freshman year!), with a final push for three months of MCAT only study in your Junior year summer (taking the exam at the end of the summer). This is job 1 Job 2 is to get research papers published with good scientists and researchers. You have to find these at any University you attend. Finally, you have to punch your ticket on “community service” – this means helping out at local clinics (signing people in,etc.) to show you know that medicine is a caring and giving profession.
If you do all this, and do it well, you will get into Med School. Again, you need to understand that WHERE you go to undergrad has very marginal bearing on what med schools think of you. They want to see the SCORES! They want to see the committee recommendation (which depends on the scores and research!).
It really is this simple…
PS – all of the good work above gets you to the interview stage. At this stage, it is also easy to fail out, so just don’t be a doofus. Read fiction, know contemporary affairs, be an interesting person.
@socalgirl123: Baylor’s med school admission rate is impacted by the fact the Baylor med school (not part of the college) must take 95% Texas residents. And you’re not a resident.
I wouldn’t let not being an in state texas resident affect your choice. After 4 years of undergrad OP could easily switch their residency to Texas and be considered in state if they decided they wanted to stay in Texas for medical school. This happens all the time.
Texas residency for medical school purposes: https://www.tmdsas.com/medical/residency.html
It does not look that easy to get if one does not already have it.
Doesnt seem super difficult to me, just have to live and work in texas for at least 12 months, they will have lived there for 4 years so would just need a job for one year to be considered in state. Just something to think about. I have friends who changed in-state before applying to medical school to take advantage of states with many In state schools (ex: NY, Texas)