<p>In Swarthmore, 20% (about 80 students) of the freshman students were pre-med (Swarthmore has no pre-med major, but those students expressed interest.) Half of the 80 either failed to get the good grade or change interest. For those 40 that registered to apply, the acceptance rate was about 85%. Duke has about 280 registered to apply. Do you know how many of the Duke students were weeded out in the process?</p>
<p>Again, it doesn't really make sense to talk about students getting weeded out. Some students just... find things they like better.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think that more often than not the reason that people stop being pre-med is that they find things they like better. I, for example, came in as a "pre-med" but have since changed my mind (I'm a rising sophomore). This has nothing to do with the difficulty of science courses, competition amongst pre-meds, or anything like that -- it's because I realized that though I'm still very interested in the health profession, I'd rather be on the side designing policies/eliminating health care disparities than on the side practicing it. I've spoken to a lot of people who dropped pre-med because they decided they were really interested in other things. There are always the people who are just going to find it too difficult of a path, but I really think that most of the dropoff is just due to pursuing different paths.</p>
<p>what about washu? it's got good advising & good professors, is at at the same level as duke & do the undergrads get into med school at teh same rate?</p>
<p>Last year admissions told me that about 1/3 of the BME in pratt went to med school and more than 1/2 of pratt is BME. Somewhat of a side fact.</p>
<p>Bump for surge of premeds.</p>
<p>How does duke compare to northwestern in terms of premed? any ideas?</p>
<p>I'm sure NU has a quality program as well. But we're the best. :D</p>
<p>In all seriousness, at some point you start haggling over minutiae. Do know that NU's hospital is not near its main campus.</p>
<p>I don't really think you can compare a "premed" program in this case. Duke treats premed as a track, meaning there's a set list of requirements that you need such as 1 year of bio with lab, 1 year of orgo, 1 year of gen. chem, 1 year of writing, blah blah blah. The rest is up to you to pick the courses that will satisfy the requirements. So you can't really compare the programs.</p>
<p>That would be an accurate thing to say if all we were assessing was the coursework. But premed depends heavily on advising, extracurriculars, letters of recommendation, and interview skills. These are all things that DO vary among schools and which some schools DO make much more accessible for you. That's what I mean when I talk about a premedical "program".</p>
<p>interesting.</p>
<p>wow thanks for the great post bdmike</p>
<p>the only that sucks is that it costs like 40K. that is hell of a lot. Just imagine after done with medical school. close to 350K in debt.....which is why i might choose something like U. of Michigan. </p>
<p>BDM, where do u get those statistics? Do u know of how i can get a list of colleges and their percentage of graduating class sent to med schooll? thanks</p>
<p>I know that the premed advising people like to talk about those statistic so he probably go them from them.</p>
<p>Hey guys, pretty new to the board, and I'm looking for some advice</p>
<p>I got into Duke, I was really happy about that, and they're giving me a lot of financial aid so $$ isn't a problem at all for me to go there</p>
<p>I also got into Ohio State's combined medical program, which lets you go 3 or 4 years undergrad at OSU then they give you a seat in their med school. In order to stay in the program, I need a 3.5 cumulative GPA as an undergrad and I don't have to take the MCAT. Nice thing is, if my GPA dips below a 3.5, I can take the MCAT and get at least a 29 to stay in the program.</p>
<p>So, with that information, where do you guys think I should go? I love Duke, and it's always been my dream school, but I don't want to just reject OSU because of the name recognition and stuff, because it's a fine school in its own right and a guaranteed med school seat is hard to pass up.</p>
<p>Any advice would be appreciated!</p>
<p>Go to your dream school. Odds are, if you go to Duke, you won't have that hard of a time making it to OSU med anyway.</p>
<p>Duke vs. UCB for pre-med. FYI: I am a pretty self-driven student who can find people, get stuff done, and doesn't need to be spoon fed everything. Keeping that in mind, the obvious "private school arguments" do not really sway me much. So are there any other reasons why Duke may be better than UCB?</p>
<p>Far less grad inflation, far more attention from professors, better pre-med advising. More socially tightknit, a stronger community.</p>
<p>I have the same problem. Duke has been my dream school since about age 3, but I also got into a combined med program at UConn. I have to keep a 3.5 and get a minimum of a 28 on the MCAT, so I'm in the same boat.</p>
<p>To borrow from the absolutely correct post above: Go to your dream school. Odds are, if you go to Duke, you won't have that hard of a time making it to UConn med anyway.</p>