Hi! I want to go to med school but I’m not sure if I want to go to UAB, Samford, or Auburn. Does anyone know which school has the best pre-med program and statistically has higher acceptance rates to med school? I want to go to UAB’s med school so I’m not sure if going to UAB for undergrad would increase my chances of getting into their med school or not.
Thanks guys!
First, visit each college’s website and search for pre-health and/or pre-med advising. This will give you some idea of what the school’s requirements of and assistance to pre-meds.
Second, have you calculated the cost of each UG? I ask b/c medical school, no matter where you attend, is incredibly expensive and most med students who aren’t wealthy have to take out loans. There’s very little merit aid for medical school, so keep your UG debt as low as possible.
Third, getting into medical school is very tough, so it’s best not-at this early stage-to say you want to go to a specific medical school. Most pre-meds are glad to get into any US medical school.
Here’s a link to the AAMC website; they’re the people who run the medical school application process(except Texas), and it contains a wealth of information.
Are you thinking of ED’ing Wofford?
Have you run the NPC on all 3?
You need to find a good fit for your personality, academic level, and budget.
Most would be premed never make it through the weedout courses and most of those who make it through don’t get into any med school.
Therefore, you must choose the college you like best and would be happy to graduate from if you don’t go to med school, where you’re in the top 25% stats-wise, and that’s affordable without parent or private loans.
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You should look at cost and what kind of college experience/campus/etc you want. UAB med will be very familiar with all these schools and I seriously doubt it matter that much.
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to start with, have you been volunteering or do you have other experience in medical care that led you to decide you want to be a doctor? Might something else in the medical field (physician assistant, nurse, etc) be a better fit? Is medicine even a fit? It’s worth thinking about before starting down a path that takes 11+ years of school and training and involves hundreds of thousands in debt. There’s an interesting thread on another forum I follow in which many actual physicians have posted, at Calling all doctors, kid wants to be a doctor!? - Bogleheads.org
As for your direct questions, “statistically has higher acceptance rates” is exactly the wrong way to look. This is easily manipulated, I guess you didn’t know that. Many schools have a premed committee and any school that wants to increase its admit rate simply refuses to recommend those with lower chances of acceptance based on things like their gpa and MCAT. There is no “best pre-med program” since premed is just a dozen or so lower-division math and science classes any college in the country can adequately teach. It’s what you do that will matter; do you do the work for good grades, have medical ECs, get to know some profs for good recs?
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My two cents. The best pre-med program is the one where you can get the highest grades, get the pre-requisites, and get out for the lowest cost! If the school has stats on how students did on the MCAT that would be the most important statistic I would care about.
Other than that it is about fit. Where do you feel you would thrive - very important. Are there opportunities at/near the school for shadowing or getting some patient experience. You DO NOT want to go into med school burnt out!
Next I will go over what others have said. Shadow, volunteer at a low income clinic, do anything you can to get some patient hours and see what different medical professionals do. My S’s gf went to college as a pre-med biology major. Her Jr. year just before COVID she started questioning her path (had top grades but wondered if she really wanted the 7+ years more of schooling after graduation and was that stress really good for her. She eventually decided what she wanted was to be a Physician’s Assistant and was just accepted at her top choice school. So you have time but remember there are lots of things to look at.
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Wofford graduates a lot of biology and chemistry majors and even other non-science majors that ultimately become doctors. My son is currently taking Biological inquiry as a probable political science major. The inquiry course was re-designed about 10 years ago to emphasize experiment, and scientific thought instead of an introduction to physiology which has increased biology majors → Biological Inquiry: A New Course and Assessment Plan in Response to the Call to Transform Undergraduate Biology - PMC
I believe you may be pleasantly surprised with the cost of Wofford when balancing the small class sizes, rigor and student life.
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One more point- sorry-
Do not take NPC verbatim. The colleges you are looking at may give you more or less merit depending on your fit at the school and who else they are recruiting!
What did you decide? My son is in the same position.
I am going to UAB. I’m majoring in biomedical sciences and I’m in their honors college.
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