Premed at Case Western Reserve, Temple, Rutgers New Brunswick, or University of Pittsburgh

Hello. I am struggling to decide between these four schools. I will be doing the pre-med track. Which school do you believe I would have the most success in getting into medical school. How are the opportunities for research, shadowing, volunteering. Which college do you believe it would be easiest to achieve a good GPA for medical school? Case is more expensive, but I loved the campus and I believe its very good for tech and medicine, which are my primary interests. Is it worth going to Case when I can go to Temple for cheaper for premed track. Basically, which school is best for premed?

If you want to go pre-med then think about:

  1. The cheapest reasonable college so you/your parents can use the money for med school
  2. The college needs to prepare you for MCATs but still allow you to get a good GPA
  3. Access to volunteering opportunities (e.g., near a hospital)
  4. Success in graduates getting into med school
  5. Options if you don’t go to med school

I don’t know much about Temple or PItt.

Any of these schools will be fine for pre-med.
It is up to you what opportunities you take advantage of.

Rutgers is a large school. There are 32000 undergraduates. You have to take a bus between campuses. However, they do have the ability to make a big school smaller…like the themed learning communities.
http://ruoncampus.rutgers.edu/rulc/health/

I think you can take pre-med courses with the others in your community on your campus.

If you haven’t toured that, make sure to do that.

Rutgers is in/near a small city, New Brunswick. It is also ~ hour train ride in to New York City.

I don’t know much about Stony Brook except if you are an NY resident it will be cheaper for you.

Whichever college you pick, make sure to apply early for volunteering at hospitals.
You often need a recent check up, and references.

For Rutgers, you need to go through Rutgers to apply for volunteering opportunities. There may be more competition.
https://www.rwjbh.org/volunteer-opportunities-at-rwjuh/college-volunteers/

CWRU is a smaller school with 5000 undergraduates. There are 6 hospitals around Case. There may be more volunteering opportunities.
Case is outside of Cleveland and you can take a 15 minute train ride (you get a free transit pass at Case) to downtown.

Also think about Research. Case has the SOURCE program https://case.edu/source/ that puts you in touch with professors that want students for research. Medical schools will want some research.
What do the other schools provide?

What do you think you will major in? Will you be able to get in all the pre-med classes you want?

E.g., my DD was premed at another college majoring in Psychology. She needed to take a Bio class and wanted to fit it in during Spring semester. Bio majors had priority on Spring Bio classes so she couldn’t take it then. How hard is it for students to get the classes they want?

Flexibility: Case has a Single Door Admissions Policy. If you want to switch majors/schools you don’t have to “apply” to another major. So if you decided to start of in Chemistry but then wanted to switch to Chemical Engineering, you would just switch (making sure to take pre-reqs of course). At Rutgers, I believe you have to apply to the Engineering College. Check out the other schools.

Keep in mind that med schools don’t care where you went to undergraduate…they care about GPA/MCAT/Volunteering/Shadowing

Really where ever you go it is up to what you take advantage of…Apply early to volunteering (keep in mind they may need you to have a recent check up, flu shot, and be available year round). Do research. Get involved in the community. FInd doctors to shadow. Ask your parents if they know any doctors or if there are any at your house of worship. That is how my DD found some.

Keep in mind opportunities if you dont’ go to med school…I know tons and tons of people who started out as pre-med but didn’t make it through. Some couldn’t make it through BIo. Some couldn’t make it through OChem. Some decided it wasn’t for them. Some liked their major (e.g. Biomedical Engineering) and went with that. Some had bad MCAT scores. Some didn’t want the stress of medical school.

@NeuroJack What is “more expensive”? An extra 5K per year? An extra 30K per year? Are your parents willing and able to pay the upcharge? Would you have to take out loans? Would they? It’s hard to give advice without more details.

@bopper Super analysis liked it and you covered all aspects of pre-med and this will help many parents in decisions.

You should check the % of premedical applicants that are successful from each school. The GPA is important, but premedical advising is key. ,so also visit with or email each premedical advising office to see what they will provide you.

Here is a link to CWRU premedical advising, which prepares letters for you.

https://case.edu/ugstudies/students/pre-professional-programs/pre-health/letter-writing-services

Most schools should do this, but search for their services. Premedical advising services are key for you.

Also how will you study for the MCAT? Look for study plans, study groups, at each school. Your score
on the MCAT is a least as important as your GPA, maybe more so.
Here are some ideas of how to spend the 300 hours it will take to get a good score on the MCAT.
https://case.edu/medicine/msa-program/about-us/inside-our-program/blog/make-the-most-of-your-mcat-preparation

check each school and ask what support they provide for studying for the MCAT exam.

I have heard of premedical students in a small school in Iowa, not on your list, actually missing required classes because they got poor premedical advising.

If you are comparing premed applicants that get in to a school, make sure you are comparing apples and apples.

That % is not every freshman who thought they would be pre-med.
It is all the people who made it through Bio, Chem, Organic Chem, Calculus, Physics and took the MCAT…and did the volunteering and such and had a good GPA and MCAT…
and understand if a “committee recommendation letter” is basically required?

From UPitt: “Many medical, dental, and some other health professional schools require or prefer applicants to have letters of evaluation from their undergraduate school’s pre-health committee. This committee may be called the Pre-health Advisory Committee and is composed of faculty, administrators, and staff from across the university. The Committee Letter is essentially a cover letter, and part of the packet includes other individual letters of recommendation that are obtained from professors, instructors, research supervisors, and other mentors. As a cover letter, the Committee Letter serves several purposes: it introduces you to medical school admissions committees and it reviews your strengths and accomplishments. The Committee Letter is thorough, detailed, and individualized.”

So some college pre-health committee will look at your GPA, MCAT, Volunteering, etc and say “we will write you a letter”. Or we won’t. So they may basically select those who would be very appealling to medical schools and then they may have a very high % of students that are admitted to medical school. But they have basically filtered out many people before that.

Can anyone throw some more light on this topic at CWRU- Premedical advising services ? How they help and what is process for freshman to avail these and also do all pre-med students will have better chances to avail these at CWRU for pre-med .

I would suggest you search the CWRU webpages for more into.

** Case has a dedicated Pre-med Advisor, Wesley Schaub.**

The pre-health advisor also maintains a Pre-Health Professions Canvas page for current and past CWRU undergraduate students interested in the health science professions. The Canvas page provides additional resources for students and is used to communicate information about group advising sessions, application preparation and workshops, clinical and research opportunities, and guest speakers on campus. Students may request access to the Pre-Health Professions Canvas page by sending an email to Wesley Schaub.

https://case.edu/ugstudies/students/pre-professional-programs/pre-health

You will need to take the pre-med pre-req courses.
Info can be found here:
https://case.edu/ugstudies/students/general-new-student-information/recommendations-for-first-year-students-interested-in-pre-health

**You may want to get involved in research. **Info is here:
https://case.edu/source/

You may want to volunteer at a hospital:
Case is literally surrounded by hospitals. For example:
https://www.uhhospitals.org/locations/uh-cleveland-medical-center/volunteer-services/volunteer-opportunities

You may want to get more info about applying to med school:
You could attend activities such as:
https://case.edu/studentsuccess/node/346

You might want to join a medically related student organization:
https://case.edu/ugstudies/students/pre-professional-programs/pre-health/health-related-student-organizations

What are your specific concerns?

@bopper Thank you very much for your guidance, it’s truly been very helpful. You mentioned that the percent acceptance to medical school consists of the students who have gone through all the motions and applied to medical school afterward, not the initial pool of pre-meds. Speaking to a friend about why schools like Rutgers have lower percentages than schools like Case, he posed the argument public schools like Rutgers have a more diverse group of applicants who applied to medical school, many who were not qualified, but applied anyway, which could skewer the percentage. Is this a valid argument and to what extent? How should I evaluate the schools to decide which one will allow me to achieve the best GPA and MCAT score while also maintaining extracurriculars? If anyone has input, I would love to hear it.