<p>I know there is not usually a official "pre-med" major but what are some top schools in the pre-med field besides the obvious Ivy Leagues?</p>
<p>Duke, Holy Cross, Tufts, Amherst, Hopkins.</p>
<p>I was going to post pars, but you beat me to it :) yayay tufts holy cross trolls~!</p>
<p>Search recent threads on CC; there have been a lot of discussions about this subject and a lot of useful information.</p>
<p>If you want a "top" school go Ivy or to the highest ranked school you get into where you can get a good GPA (i.e. choose Northwestern over hopkins). If you just want to go anywhere go where you can get a good GPA.</p>
<p>Generally, I would say the best pre-med programs are the ones with the strongest science departments. Beyond that, what makes a pre-med "program" good is selectivity, reputation, and an effective premed advising system. An effective pre-med advising system makes sure pre-meds take the right courses, probably would recommend molecular and microbiology and biochem in addition to the standard premed courses, make sure you take the harder physics sequence, help collect letters of recommendation and write the official premed letter of recommendation for you, help you choose prospective med schools and help prepare your applications, help arrange research experiences and volunteer experiences. A good premed advising system initiates contact with premeds at the right points in time and doesn't sit back and wait for the pre-med to come to them for help.</p>
<p>Yeah, but most of the top colleges will have this in place. Don't go for a good "bio program", go to the best school that isnt cutthroat. I.e. everyone knows Cornell is much harder than Stanford, but med schools weigh the GPAs equally.</p>
<p>I disagree. I think they really do put the institution into context. An A from Johns Hopkins or Swarthmore really means a lot more than an A at Stanford.</p>
<p>That isnt true at all but a nice thought. They index the schools (I know I work heavily with Columbia Business School's admissions office) and Stanford and JHU/ Swat come up exactly the same.</p>
<p>Nope, JHU is great is you're on top, but the competetion there is deadly competetive.</p>
<p>I personally know 3 JHU pre-med drop outs. My roommate went there and he even admits that for people who arent willing to be at the top it probably isnt the right place.</p>
<p>people look at jhu and go that's the place to be, but what a lot don't realize is that it's quite possibly the most cutthroat of all pre-med programs. I agree with slipper too about the mostdiifcult schools versus ones where its easier to get a higher gpa, I mean sakky has stats to back it up as well</p>
<p>u have to consider the percentage of people that get into med school from jhu.of course its a challenge, but if u get through it with a decent gpa, u probably will get in a good med school.</p>
<p>consider this, a lot of cutthroat pre-med schools will have it be like, "for those over a (insert number) gpa, (insert number)% were accepted into any medical school</p>
<p>Not only that, a certain GPA from JHU is so much harder to get. When you say you are Magna Cum Laude from Harvard it looks as or more impressive than Magna Cum Laude from Cornell, even though from Cornell its so much harder to acheive.</p>
<p>I'm sure it depends on the institution, but from what I understand, most (if not all) medical school admissions committees will "weight" your GPA based on your undergrad institution. OBVIOUSLY, a 3.9 from UC Riverside (the "armpit" campus of the UC system) does not require the same level of achievement as a 3.9 from UC Berkeley. A friend of mine who was on the admissions committee at UCLA SOM confirmed this. Undergrad GPA's are viewed in the context of the institution that you come from. It's only fair.</p>
<p>"That isnt true at all but a nice thought. They index the schools (I know I work heavily with Columbia Business School's admissions office) and Stanford and JHU/ Swat come up exactly the same."</p>
<p>Of course they index the schools, and Berkeley gets a lot higher index than Riverside. But Stanford gets the same as JHU/ Swat, i.e. they are viewed in the same category. Not a chance they get less, even though its easier.</p>
<p>slipper, don't think that people "dropping out" of being pre-med is anything excessively interesting - everyone and their mother comes into college as a pre-med student (gross generalization, I know, but it has some merit), and the truth is that about half of those (if not more) will not be pre-med by the end of the second year, for a variety of reasons.</p>
<p>As to "indexing" schools, it plays much less of a role than you all are making out. Of course reputation plays a small role in weighing an application, but its definitely a very small factor. If you think a med school adcom is going to see an A from JHU better than an A from Stanford or UCLA or UCR or UCI, you're seriously deluding yourself.</p>
<p>Wow, how can two people miss my point. A at Stanford = A at JHU = A at Cal, the only difference is how hard an A is to get at these places. UCR is much lower. Why do you think most top med schools have a significant majority of people from top schools. Top 20% at an Ivy is pretty much a path to a top 25 med school, you cant say that for UCR at all.</p>
<p>"If you think a med school adcom is going to see an A from JHU better than an A from Stanford or UCLA or UCR or UCI, you're seriously deluding yourself."</p>
<p>Negative. A 4.0 from Hopkins or Stanford is MUCH higher regarded than a 4.0 at UCR. If you honestly believe that medschool admissions committee will weight GPA's at Stanford similarly to UCR, then you've been seriously misinformed. That being said, a 4.0 at UC Riverside is still highly regarded. </p>
<p>Stay out of Riverside</p>