<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>My name is Jake and I recently finished allopathic medical school in Arizona and am about to start residency. Feel free to fire away any questions about med school. I'm here to help.</p>
<p>Jake</p>
<p>This may seem like the most redundant question ever, but is it really that hard? I plan on going onto the pre-med track after highschool. But im worried that if i get a C in Undergrad i won’t get into a med school and I would lose my dream of becoming a surgeon.
Also, does where you go to college matter? For example getting Straight As at a lower University in your state (still a good one) or getting maybe a C at the best University in your state</p>
<p>Hi Jake, </p>
<p>Congrats on recently finishing up! Im glad to hear you are open to offering advice. I am currently still fairly early in my process of working towards my undergrad with a focus in pre-med. No major decided yet but looking somewhere along the lines of biology, chemistry, life sciences etc., mainly dependent upon what the college I go to has to offer. I have been trying to do as much research as I can on my own, but as I am sure you have experienced, information and advice can vary quite substantially out there. I have applied and been accepted to ASU and Grand Canyon University for transfer starting up this fall semester. My main concerns are if there are any benefits of one compared to the other when it comes time applying for med school. I know from what I read, the school does not matter as much as the individual, GPA ect. but assuming all else the same is what I am looking to find out. I currently have maintained a 4.0GPA and take school very seriously. I know realistically keeping that the whole way through will be extremely challenging, but knowing my capabilities I would expect it to be at least somewhere very close. From what I’ve been reading, I have come across quite a few horror stories for GCU. Unfortunately I know the majority of people who have good to average experiences usually don’t take the time to tell about it, it is the people who have horrible ones that do. So that info can also come across as misleading. The second thing for them is when I look for online reviews, comments, stories etc. of their pre-med students, nothing can be found. Kind of makes it seem like no one really chooses to go there with the intent of pre-med, more just to get an easy, quick online bachelors knocked out. This makes me wonder if they’re graduates would be looked as serious contenders come med school app time. As for ASU, only real downsides I’ve heard is obviously larger class size, not as much one on one time(could be harder for letters of recommendation), considered “party school”(even though I would be going to West campus), and just from stopping by there I haven’t had a very warm feeling from staff. Anyways, as you can see I’ve got a lot on my mind lol. Pick apart anything you want. Like I said I am still very early in the process so any and all advice, suggestions, direction etc. is greatly appreciated. </p>
<p>Look forward to hearing back from you or any others out there!</p>
<p>A college rep from GCU came to my high school when I was a junior, the presentation was nothing I’ve ever seen in any college presentation before (tons of stuff given away, and these were not your average pen, sticker, or key chain. 
There were GCU beach balls, backpacks, and other toys/gadgets. Let’s just say, most of the students at the presentation were “impressed”. ;))</p>
<p>Anyway, this may or may not be of any help but the biggest turn off for me was their for profit institutional status. For-profit and education just doesnt fit to me. After searching the web, for-profit universities seem to have a bad reputation overall (thought it was just me).</p>
<p>Hey Jake, don’t know if you’re still answering questions but I have a few.
- Are the 7-8 year early assurance medical programs better than the traditional route?
- How do medical schools view engineering majors who will probably have a worse GPA than say a biochem major because of the rigor of coursework?</p>
<p>hockeydude–both your questions have been repeatedly discussed on this forum. Use the search function.</p>
<p>RE: question #2 </p>
<p>The answer: engineering majors won’t get any GPA slack or sympathy from adcomms because of their major. And engineering majors faced a bit of dilemma --in that the adcomms will ask do you really want to be an engineer or a physician? And if you want to be a physician why did you major in engineering? (Hint–if you can answer the latter without referencing engineering as a fall back career position, you’re on the right track.)</p>
<p>TrentH, </p>
<p>Thanks for your response. What you said matches up with quite a few of the horror stories that I have read. Basically they seem like a “used car dealership” almost. There all nice and friendly trying to get you in there and then once they have your money you never hear from any of the advisors or counselors. I hear they are terrible at returning email and calls when you need something but the second you owe money they are all over you calling multiple times. I’ve have never really known any major differences between public, private, profit, non-profit so all of this helps. I am looking more fro a school that wants to make an effort to see me successful rather than to just get my dollar.</p>
<p>Oh Jake, we hardly knew ye; started with such promise, but have left us adrift, to once again answer each other’s questions.</p>
<p>As a former ASU student now in medical school, I would definitely say that ASU>>>>GCU in terms of opportunities for a pre-med. Very few people seek out the professors during office hours, so I didn’t find it hard at all to get to know them.</p>
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</p>
<p>As often happens since CC does not permit self-promotion.</p>
<p>Perhaps he was selling what his screen name indicates. ;)</p>
<p>Also, shouldn’t the title be “Medical School Advice?” I would think that current medical students (or ones about to matriculate) would be better equipped to answer the pre-med questions than someone who is 4+ years out of the process. :-P</p>