<p>Hello, I am a prospective physician and I want to know which school offers/is best for premed. Is it the college of agriculture and life sciences or is it the college of arts and sciences?</p>
<p>thx</p>
<p>Most of the premeds here are in CALS simply because CALS has a more typical biology major which is essentially pre-med at Cornell. However, I recommend you take a close look at C of Arts and Sciences. You can take every course you need for medical school in Arts with the added benefit of ready access to more diverse curricular options. Also, CAS is far more distinguished than CALS. It is also the individual college at Cornell that is the most comparable to the other ivy league schools.</p>
<p>Centuria is right about CAS and the flexibility of CAS may be important to you if you want to change your major. Although if you are a New York state resident, you will save at least $13,000+ in tuition by attending CALS.</p>
<p>CALS, CAS, and Human Ecology house most of the premeds at Cornell. You can theoretically major in just about anything and still be premed so it doesn't really matter what college you're in.</p>
<p>In what way more "distinguished?" Isn't it all Cornell? Is it that the term "agriculture" sounds too unsophisticated for an Ivy?</p>
<p>In the eyes of some CCers maybe. I seriously doubt med schools give a damn about what college within Cornell you came from.</p>
<p>The most academically diverse students are in CAS. CALS (and the other land-grant colleges like HumEc and ILR for that matter) are considered the "discount colleges" and tend to be filled with NY state residents seeking a tuition break. Also, the majority of Cornell's Rhodes Scholars and other prestigious scholarship winners have come from CAS. CAS is also home to the most distinguished faculty within Cornell, in terms of publications, awards etc. The other colleges lock you into courses and may have as few as one major. If you're considering pre-med, I see no reason not to apply to CAS. Med schools look favorably on an applicant with a solid grounding in humanities as well as science and CAS is best set-up to provide that. And on the off chance you decide you don't want to be a doctor you can easily change your major and the courses you want to enroll in.</p>
<p>i think all premeds end up taking a lot of the same core classes anyway (i.e. physics and chemistry from the CAS depts etc.) regardless of the college they are enrolled in. the college you enroll in will only determine the extra graduation requirements that you need to fulfill. for example CAS has foreign language, fine arts, social science, and humanities requirements. there is a limit to the number of classes you can take "out of college", but you will end up taking most of your pre-med-related classes with the same group of people regardless of which school you enroll in. an actual pre-med graduate will be able to advise you better than me on this, but i believe that when you apply to med school, your MCAT score and pre-med GPA will be 100x more important than which college you enrolled in.</p>
<p>If you have a lot of outside interests other than life sciences (ex: potential double major), go with CAS. If not, go with CALS.</p>
<p>There is no difference besides graduation requirements, which place a lot of distribution requirements and foreign language requirement on CAS students. </p>
<p>If you still really don't know, and you're in state, just apply to CALS. </p>
<p>If you're leaning towards CAS, and you live in state, but are concerned about tuition, talk to a financial aid rep. In some cases grant packages can be big enough to make up for the difference in tuition.</p>