<p>D has been accepted to Bryn Mawr, Davidson and Grinnell. She plans to major in Biology or Biochemistry within a premed track. We know Grinnell fairly well, S is a sophomore there and loves it. D classmate and close friend visited Bryn Mawr last week and raved about the place and student body, she loved the place. However, D will not be able to visit Davidson before decision date. Anyone out there could please share how strong is the biology major at Davidson, how well equipped are the labs, how good is the premed track in terms of medical school acceptance and how competitive is the student body? D prefers to attend a school in a warmer weather place. Also, she has no problem with any perceived preppy or less diverse student body but she wants to be surrounded by open minded, laid back and not overly competitive peers.
Thanks!</p>
<p>Our S is completing his freshman year at Davidson and intends to declare a biochemistry major and Spanish minor, on a premed track. I don’t have the specific stats at hand, but our understanding is the med school acceptance rate is very high. He is very impressed with the quality of his professors and the infrastructure. Overall, he has thoroughly enjoyed the quality of life aspects of the school and has said very positive things about his classmates, who are no doubt very driven, but not viciously competitive with eachother. My impression is he’d give Davidson an A.</p>
<p>thank you aagdad! That is extremely reassuring, my D is even more excited about attending Davidson now. </p>
<p>Does anyone else have anything else to add about the overall atmosphere at Davidson?</p>
<p>congratulations on the fine choices your d has, al59.
My d is a sophomore at Davidson. She could not be happier with the overall atmosphere,
all the friends she has made, and the academics. The weather is an added bonus, and
I get very jealous when she tells me it’s a sunny 74 degrees in January or February and
I’m staring out my window at a couple of feet of snow up here in New England!</p>
<p>So on to the premed question. Davidson is chock full of premed students who I understand do exceptionally well in getting into med school. The advising system pretty
much begins day one of freshman year. I don’t know that much about the lab facilities
however I didn’t hear any complaints from my d and she has taken biology and chemistry
classes. She also came to Davidson from a high school with a new science building so
I figure I would have heard complaints and there were none. </p>
<p>I would say a good half of my d’s dorm mates (her floor - about 13 or 14 girls - they are
all good friends and chose to cluster together this year) are premed. I gather they are
all doing well. A few are also athletes which is saying a lot since Davidson is a D1 school.
I have had the pleasure of spending some time with them in the last couple of years. They are delightful, courteous, lovely young women from all over the country who seem
wonderfully confident and able. Davidson’s acceptance rate to med school is said to be
near 100%. Some students don’t go directly to med school as well, they work for awhile
in the medical field. There are also various internships available through the school.
One of my d’s friends spent time shadowing doctors at a medical clinic in Africa, an
experience she said she would never forget. My d looked at a number of other schools
with strong science programs (eg Johns Hopkins) and the friendly, low-key atmosphere at Davidson won her over immediately. This is sort of hard to describe however if your
d does choose to attend, you will sense this as well very quickly. </p>
<p>Hope this information is helpful. Feel free to PM me with anything else on your mind and I’ll do my best to respond. You just can’t go wrong with Davidson. Go Wildcats!</p>
<p>thanks eiffel13! yours and aagdad words strongly confirmed my D feelings for Davidson. Today she decided to join Davidson so we paid the tuition deposit, sent the dean of student form and she already joined the Davidson Class of 2015 Facebook.</p>
<p>Congratulations!</p>
<p>Wonderful!
wishing her a wonderful freshman year and don’t forget to let us know how things are going!</p>
<p>Question…</p>
<p>In another thread here on Davidson’s site there is a link to a survey sent to the 2010 graduating class. It had like a 93% return rate. I count 11 recent graduates attending med school.</p>
<p>Accounting for those who take time off, how do we getcloner 100%" acceptance rate for acceptance into med school? </p>
<p>The above poster mentions half of the 12-14 friends of his daughter on the same floor being pre-med. That’s 6-7 right there!</p>
<p>I understand attrition has something to do with it but with over 400 graduates in 2010 I would have guessed they had many more than 11 apply to med school!</p>
<p>We are visiting next week with our junior so you can bet I’ll be asking.</p>
<p>My son is a pre-med hopeful with two physician parents, one of whom went the BS/MD route. Davidson is without a doubt the most impressive pre-med program that I have every seen; including the Ivies, Cormell and Emory.</p>
<p>Lab facilities are excellent and the science support is superb. Toured the bio and chem labs and was most impressed. Medical Humanities concentration is very intriguing.</p>
<p>Excellent choice for anyone looking for a well rounded education in a small size school. I would definitely put it on par with Dartmouth.</p>
Bumping this to see if there are any more recent comments or observations about Davidson.
Davidson gets a mention in an online list, “The Experts’ Choice: Colleges With Great Pre-med Programs.” If the list serves its intended purpose, it would indicate that Davidson is generally successful in furthering the goals of its pre-med students.