Premed Statistics

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
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<p>Hey, I don’t know if there are many current pre-meds on this forum, but I have a few questions about non-PLME pre-med at Brown. </p>

<p>In March, I sat in on an information session at Brown. The Admissions Officer conducting the presentation said something to the effect of “85% of Brown students applying to medical school receive admission to one of their top three medical schools.” I also read on the facts and figures page ([Brown</a> Admission: Facts & Figures](<a href=“http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Admission/gettoknowus/factsandfigures.html]Brown”>http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Admission/gettoknowus/factsandfigures.html)) that “Brown consistently ranks among the top five colleges in the nation in the percentage of its applicants accepted to medical school.” Is there any verification of the first statistic? Do these calculations also include PLME students who, through their successful application to Brown+PLME, received admission to Alpert? In general, how is the non-PLME pre-med advising at Brown? Thank you all so much!!!</p>

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<p>If you think that you need to “verify” this information (which is OFFICIALLY provided to you by the Administration) perhaps you should not even consider Brown. In any case, no one else better than the source to back up what they are saying. Just ask them to provide you with the data. I am sure they will be happy to do so.</p>

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<p>If you are a good student, happy to get into any med school, the Brown will be a good school for you. It is comparatively easy to keep the GPA close to 4. Brown has a high number of caring teachers who will go out of the way to help you. The school also has a fairly good support system for an average pre-med aiming for a MD admission. But if you want get into any of the top med schools, then Brown is definitely not a place for you. Brown pre-med support system is certainly not geared towards top pre-med students.</p>

<p>For med schools like Harvard, Hopkins, WUSTL, Penn, Columbia, Stanford, UCSF, Duke and Yale, the name Brown may not enhance your app. It may even hurt you. It is not to say that there are no Brown pre-meds admitted into these med schools. Try MDapplicant.com and search for the profiles of pre-meds applying to med schools on the basis of “interview” and on the basis of “acceptance” to any of these med schools, you will have a general idea. </p>

<p>Don’t worry about statistics. Good luck.</p>

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<p>::shrugs::</p>

<p>I have friends going to Hopkins and who have gone to Harvard med out of Brown… not really sure that I know where onomotopia is making the leap from one to the other.</p>

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<p>I interviewed an applicant from Brown for a top med school. The number of P/F courses he took worked against him, in my mind. So, if you do attend Brown, keep that in mind.</p>

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<p>But then there is the legend of the student from undergrad at Brown who took every class S/NC (Pass/Fail) and was admitted to Harvard Med School. Go figure.</p>

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<p>That being said, most students I know who are premed do not take any courses in the sciences pass/fail.</p>

<p>That also being said, there is a true story (which I didn’t believe until I asked the right people and heard it repeated myself) about a kid who took every class SNC and got into Harvard Med.</p>

<p>You’ll have to talk with your pre-med advisor about what balance and what decisions are right for you based on your goals.</p>

<p>Franglish beat me to it while I was posting in another thread and had this one open in a separate tab. That story is true.</p>

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<p>when i was an undergrad at brown i was a teaching assistant for brown’s famous introductory neuroscience course. there were 8 teaching assistants in total. 4 of them are now harvard med students.</p>

<p>brown sends a disproportionate amount of students to the top med schools in the country</p>

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<p>My post is directed to a single student (mknt77). I have no intention of drawing myself into a controversy regarding Brown’s strengths and weaknesses; ethics of the matter forces me to stay away from it. Modestmelody is doing a fantastic job of providing information about Brown and championing Brown among incoming students. And she is doing that from her busy schedule, and I applaud her for it. Of course she knows students who are in Harvard from Brown. My post does not contradict that.</p>

<p>The question is how many Brown pre-med students receive acceptances from Harvard, Hopkins, and comparable institutions every year compared to pre-meds from Yale, Hopkins, Penn, Columbia, and Harvard?</p>

<p>To be more specific, how many Brown pre-med students have received acceptances from Harvard this cycle (2008-2009)? I’m sure there are a few, but probably not as many compared to Yale, Hopkins, Penn, Columbia, or Harvard. Modestmelody could provide us with the real information.</p>

<p>Someone with all P/F courses getting accepted in Harvard is not a general rule but an exception. He (or she) might have published a brilliant research paper or spent 5 years in the Amazon jungle doing research with someone famous. It is not because of taking all P/F courses at Brown, it is in spite of taking all P/F courses at Brown. </p>

<p>By the way, do “talk with your pre-med advisor” as often as you could, but verify and translate that info tailor to your own need. Remember that he doesn’t know you as well as you know yourself.</p>

<p>Again my post is directed to a single student who is trying to gather information to determine his (her) own path.</p>

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<p>@MyOpinion</p>

<p>Perhaps “verification” was not the right word. I just wanted to know if that figure took into consideration PLME students. I wasn’t questioning what Brown was publishing, just clarifying the context. I’m apologize for my wording.</p>

<p>@onomotopia</p>

<p>Hmmmm. What sort of schools, in your opinion, are “geared towards pre-med students”? Thank you for your reply and the wish of good luck! God knows I’ll need it applying to med school.</p>

<p>@modestmelody, dufay, franglish, and dcircle</p>

<p>Thank you so much for the info!!! Since you all seem to have great knowledge of Undergrad @ Brown (and I know modestmelody is intimately involved with Undergraduate affairs), what would you say about the “quality of life” (I don’t know if this is the right term, my apologies) of a Brown pre-med? I have friends at other schools (Cornell, JHU, Duke) who say that pre-med takes on an almost “cut-throat” air at their colleges. College becomes a fight to stay on top rather than an experience. This seems as though it really wouldn’t fit with what I perceived, when I visited, to be the more collaborative approach to academics found at Brown. Are Brown pre-meds “like the rest” in the sense that they are always competing with each other to “make the cut”? Do your pre-med friends get a chance to enjoy other facets of the Brown experience? I really chose Brown for its unique academic, social, and cultural offerings, offerings that I would like to take advantage of while maintaining a goal of medical school acceptance.</p>

<p>Thank you all so much for the help!!! I thought the hard part would be waiting for decisions to come in, but deciding between great schools is quickly becoming the most excruciatingly difficult part of the process.</p>

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<p>While Brown pre-meds are, in my opinion, more concerned about grades than the general population, the collaborative atmosphere makes it far from “cut-throat”.</p>

<p>In no student population do people consider getting a good grade a process that should involve stepping on others. We all are better off if everyone knows the material well.</p>

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<p>^^^ So true.</p>

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<p>I was a Brown pre-med, not in the PLME program. Definitely not cut-throat, not by a long shot. My lab partners, and classmates really helped me out, especially since I was an athlete who was constantly out of town for swim meets. They photocopied notes, assignments, kept me in the loop for group things, etc. The profs were especially supportive. I don’t think I could have swam varsity and done the pre-med thing at a cut throat place.</p>

<p>It has been a while since I graduated (2000) but out of my many pre-med friends (around 30), every single one of them got into med school, around 15 went to top tier schools. I had about 10 PLME friends who were admitted to the medical school out of highschool. They are all doing great residencies or fellowships all over the country.</p>

<p>I ended up at Albany Medical College, my top choice based on financial aid and my personal life (my now wife- a Brownie as well, got a full ride for grad school at RPI which is near Albany). From there, I did my residency at Stanford, and now at Univ of Utah in Salt Lake City for a sports medicine fellowship, again, my top choice out of 18 schools that I interviewed at.</p>

<p>In a few days, I am doing a 2nd round interview at UCSF in San Francisco for a clinical professor position in Orthopaedics.</p>

<p>At every step since Brown, the common comment is, “Wow, you went to Brown, blah blah…”</p>

<p>Don’t worry, if you end up at Brown and truly decide you want to do medicine (most “pre-meds” don’t), you will more than likely get in somewhere. The 85% stat is true.</p>

<p>One word of advice that has already been stated. Do NOT take your science or classes within your concentration/major pass/fail. (FYI, I interviewed for med school, residency and now fellowship). </p>

<p>Outside of this, please DO take some classes pass fail. Two reasons. It encourages you to venture out of your major and get a broad liberal arts education. 2) That way you can take a random, difficult class based on your interest but not necessarily your expertise, and it won’t hurt your application, only strengthen it.</p>

<p>Good luck, keep an open mind, think critically at every fork in the road, and you will do fine!</p>

<p>Hope that helps.</p>