<p>Awesome - feel free to use the forums!</p>
<p>I'm the premed site and forum admin, so let me know if you have any input.</p>
<p>My son is choosing between Stanford and Brown PLME. I've read the debate on Berkeley med school entrance rates, with some anecdotal evidence that Stanford is 75% to med school as a whole. Can anyone comment on:</p>
<ol>
<li>Stanford entrance rates to top 25 med schools. Not just all schools</li>
<li>Brown PLME v. Stanford -- which would you choose?</li>
<li>Enjoying undergrad (as a Brown PLME already admitted to med school) vs. Stanford experience - how com-p0etitive, a grind, etc.</li>
<li>He is just starting college, but was a Hispanic National Merit Scholar -- any thoughts on the role of affirmative action in getting into med school.</li>
</ol>
<p>Yes, it is true that approximately 75% of Stanford med school applicants were admitted to a medical school compared to the national figure of 46.7%.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I do not have the statistics for how successful Stanford students are at gaining acceptance to the top 25 med schools. All I know is how many actually matriculated (not how many applied or were accepted). Out of 225 matriculants (there were actually more, but data are missing) in 2005 (I don't have any more recent data),</p>
<p>6 went to Baylor
9 went to Columbia
5 went to UCLA
9 went to Harvard
7 went to Northwestern
12 went to Stanford
23 went to UCSF
14 went to UCSD
4 went to U Penn
6 went to UTSW
4 went to Cornell
5 went to Yale</p>
<p>This obviously does not cover the top 25, but perhaps this gives you an idea of how successful Stanford students are able to be.</p>
<p>1) Entrance "rates", per se, aren't published beyond the list Cel has put up. But clearly, we've sent 94 people to top places around the nation, and that's nearly half the matriculating med school population from Stanford. :-)
2) I also considered the choice between Brown PLME and Stanford...and my parents were all for the idea of already being accepted to med school for a while. In all honesty, the notion of "knowing" that one wants to be a doctor at the end of high school is kinda ridiculous. College is for exploring, and I've been far happier here at Stanford knowing that I have such a broad range of possibilities. Even nearly started a pharmaceutical company thanks to the potential of being in Silicon Valley. Still planning to be a doctor, yes, but now have a much broader know-how of applications of technology to real-world problems, and it's only going to strengthen my application (one of my advisors used to sit on the board of admissions for Harvard med school, she's been quite educational on what they look for)
3) Enjoying undergrad career--Stanford wins in every possible way. Better weather, nicer classmates, better extracurriculars, and just more exciting people overall
4) in the top med schools, because they're private, affirmative action generally doesn't apply. Med schools still do a good job of selecting a diverse class of the best people</p>
<p>Final argument: if a school has to GUARANTEE acceptance to its med school just to try and attract people, then their program clearly isn't very attractive otherwise, and isn't really worth it.</p>
<p>I absolutely applaud everything jwj said, especially point #2 and his final argument. Yay.</p>
<p>At first, I was actually somewhat against the idea of "exploring" in college. I came in as a determined premed (I have wanted to be a doctor since I was 6), and I thought I was going to be a chemistry major. I just wanted to get through college and move on with life. My advisor convinced me to pick a class that looked interesting to me and just take it; I decided to go for it, and I took Brain and Behavior my first quarter of freshman year. Before college, I had never even thought about going into neurosciences. It surely wasn't a topic that had been taught in high school. I actually fell in love with the subject, and while I'm still premed now (and about to start applying to medical school), I've become a biology major pursuing honors in neurobiology with a psychology minor.</p>
<p>My point is that many students come into college and find that there are classes available that they had never dreamed of. My high school had basic chemistry, US history, English, US government, physics, calculus, etc. There's so much more in life than what you see in high school, and you never know what subject you'll become passionate about until you get those opportunities to take those classes. Some people have fallen in love with unexpected subjects and decided not to be premed anymore. Others, like myself, have stayed premed but pursued majors and research that they had never expected to pursue. I think that it's very important during this time of growth to have lots of opportunities and options available and to not find yourself bound into a particular fate, which you may or may not appreciate. (I'm saying "you" to be general; I know that you were asking for your son.)</p>
<p>how does stanford medical school compare with other med schools like Baylor?</p>
<p>If you put a lot of weight on US News, Stanford is ranked slightly higher (#7, while Baylor is #10, I believe). </p>
<p>I don't think this is the best place to ask about med schools; try searching or asking in these forums <a href="http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=10%5B/url%5D">http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=10</a></p>
<p>Try checking out these threads <a href="http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=384103%5B/url%5D">http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=384103</a> and <a href="http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=351275%5B/url%5D">http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=351275</a></p>
<p>I have a few questions:</p>
<p>I heard that it's pretty hard to get research experience at stanford freshman year...is this true? If you're planning to major in biology would you have more of a chance...since the bio department seems to have a lot of money?</p>
<p>Also, how early is it for someone with no prior research experience to begin research at Stanford? end of freshmen year? How do you go about finding opportunities? through URP?</p>
<p>And lastly, why does the intro bio class requires chem and calculus as prerequisites?</p>
<p>sorry for a bunch of random questions guys....</p>
<p>It's not easy, per se. Just e-mail a bunch of profs and hope for the best in your responses. It doesn't matter what you say you want to major in if you're a freshman, because statistically speaking, there's a pretty good chance you're gonna change. Not to say you will, but saying you plan to declare in bio isn't going to help you. Just ask to meet with the prof sometime, and if they're willing to meet with you, be really energetic and show them you're motivated.</p>
<p>It's hard to say when's "early". I would say to hold off from doing it fall quarter, I don't think adding the new factor of a research job will do you much good as you're trying to get used to college.</p>
<p>Opportunities: sometimes through classes when the profs will announce that they have research positions available, sometimes through seminars in the same way, sometimes through an advisor who has a spot open, sometimes through the URP, sometimes through random e-mailing of profs. It's more a matter of luck in a lot of cases. :-)</p>
<p>Just to be sure, the bio core is for sophomores, so if you're even thinking about trying to take it as a freshman, please don't, it will not be a pleasant experience...the competition is not something you want to deal with freshman year. >.< Anywho, it requires chem because it makes some explanations in bio 41 easier, and calculus because bio 43 involves math when dealing with population genetics. You can take bio core without taking chem or calculus, really, it's supplementary at best, but it certainly helps to have whatever advantage you can when competing with 300 other students.</p>
<p>And ask away, yo, you're providing the perfect study break from my fyzyx problem set. :-P</p>
<p>I agree with jwj that you probably shouldn't try to hop into research right away, though if your heart is set on it, go for it. I got into research with no prior experience simply by emailing lots of faculty members and asking to meet with them to discuss their work. Several of them liked that I had no previous experience because it meant that they could train me from the ground up in the style of their lab and that I might stay for a long time (in contrast to a senior having experience but planning to stay in the lab for less than a year). Like jwj, I have not heard that it's easier to get into research as a bio major, though there are a lot of research opportunities in biology-related fields (ranging from biochemistry to plant biology to genetics to brain tumors to clinical research). I actually got involved in my neurosurgery lab while I was a psychology major (I have since switched to biology).</p>
<p>I know many people who participate in research, including freshmen, so it's totally doable and I feel that Stanford has many wonderful research opportunities. The UAR can help, and so can the professors of your classes.</p>
<p>I don't think you're even allowed to take the bio core as a freshman...</p>
<p>I'm thinking about doing SLE, but my only reservation is that it takes up so many credits my first year. Does anyone know of people doing sle and not being able to finish their med school requirements? I would like to complete my requirements by the end of junior years so that I can be prepared for the mcat. </p>
<p>Will is count as the english requirement for med schools (i read that most accept ihum and pwr)?</p>
<p>thanks so much.</p>
<p>Haven't heard of anyone not being able to finish med school requirements because of SLE. You can definitely complete them mostly by junior year. If you'd said sophomore year, I'd be a little more worried.</p>
<p>Most med schools accept IHUM and PWR, but "highly recommend" another English class by the time you graduate.</p>
<p>i've never worked with the quarter system so if a med school wants 6 semester credits in english is the PWR 1& 2 enough and is 1 year of statistics= 1 quarter? also i was looking and some schools dont take ap credit for calc so do i have to take math 41 and 42 or math 51,52,53?</p>
<p>I would definitely ask a premed advisor to clarify your questions about prerequisites. Ruby Mason <a href="mailto:earsm@stanford.edu">earsm@stanford.edu</a> and Patricia Lewis <a href="mailto:patlewis@stanford.edu">patlewis@stanford.edu</a> are very helpful. You can also check out <a href="http://premed.stanford.edu%5B/url%5D">http://premed.stanford.edu</a></p>
<p>I think 1 year of stats would mean at least 2 classes, probably 3. Which school requires a year of stats? That is an atypical requirement; most schools don't care about stats, or they ask for one quarter.</p>
<p>For calculus, depends how much you need... again, schools differ in their requirements. Taking 3 math classes is the safest way to go; you'll cover pretty much any med school's requirements this way. I did Math 51 & 53 and Stats 60. You're right about some med schools not accepting AP credit... Boo.</p>
<p>SLE and premed here. You'll be fine.</p>
<p>Yesss...SLE and premed = possible! :D So there is some hope for me...</p>
<p>Hi...Is it possible to graduate in three years here at stanford and still be a premed?</p>
<p>Yes, but it'd probably be limiting to a major that mostly consists of pre-med requirements. Bio or chem, basically.</p>
<p>How much emphasis do med schools put on the non-science GPA because PWR (B - ) didn’t go to well for me. Also does it matter which IHUM quarter we can choose to count as our 3rd quarter of the English requirement.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Does anyone have any experience with majoring in econ and being pre-med? I'd like to know what would be the best way of picking classes next year to do it.</p>