<p>I hear that medical schools care mostly about GPA and MCAT and extracurriculars and im worried that if i go to princeton with their grade deflation i will not have as high of a GPA as one at Penn. Can someone break down and detail the strenghts and weaknesses of going to either school. Also Penn has the hospitals and research.
But who would pass up the chance to go to Princeton University?
I need some advice</p>
<p>Read this from Princeton about the grading policy:</p>
<p>[FAQ</a> - Office of the Dean of the College](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/odoc/faculty/grading/faq/]FAQ”>Grading at Princeton | Office of the Dean of the College)</p>
<p>at the botton you will find the following figure which should bring joy to your eyes:</p>
<p>percent of Princeton Class of 2010 applicants accepted to Medical School = 92.3%</p>
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<p>Apparently roughly 1/3 of people who have the opportunity to go to Princeton pass it up–about the same fraction as Penn.</p>
<p>Princeton is more prestigious in most fields, but that doesn’t make it better for pre-med or better for you.</p>
<p>I can only comment anecdotally – the only person I’ve met from our local High School that entered Princeton as a pre-med is in her first year at Hopkins medical school. You can’t do better than that. Princeton is smaller, has much, much more resource allocated to each student, is more undergraduate focused (that’s more important than every other factor), is more known for cutting edge scientific research, and I’ll bet has superior pre-med advising.</p>
<p>While it is generally true that med school adcoms look at unadjusted GPA along with MCAT, in Princeton’s case you’d have to have been living in the Himalayas the past ten years to not know, and not adjust mentally when evaluating an applicant from Princeton, for Princeton’s well documented 0.2 - 0.3 grade deflation in comparison to HYS.</p>
<p>^^^^Dunnin, excellent post…fully agree</p>
<p>My friend at Princeton says the competition/grade deflation are a real killer and definitely not fully adjusted for.</p>
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<p>considering the difference between the quality of an education at any of the ivy league schools is so small…I’d so a lot of people would. I have friends to turned down Princeton for Berkeley because they felt Princeton’s international recognition was too weak for what they wanted to do. To each his own</p>
<p>I don’t think that med school placement ought to be a consideration for you – grads of both schools do extremely well. This is a personal preference, location/campus atmosphere decision in my book. Have you been able to visit either or both?</p>
<p>I could be wrong but I don’t think Princeton is particularly known for its med program, whereas Penn’s med school is ranked #2</p>
<p>[Best</a> Medical Schools | Research Rankings | Top Medical Schools for Research | US News Best Graduate Schools](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/research-rankings]Best”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/research-rankings)</p>
<p>Either will be fine.</p>
<p>Princeton has a world class molecular biology and a culture of research (junior independent, required thesis) which will look great on an application. This is countered by the opportunity to do more medically related research at Penn. Also, your MCAT will be presumably the same at either.</p>
<p>That said, I don’t think there is much value to an ivy degree for premed. If you are going into deep debt for either school, at least consider whether a “lesser” school honors program, opportunity to do research, and merit $$ will set you up better for success in the med school application process. If you start med school with $100k debt from Penn/Princeton, then emerge with $200k debt, you are looking at a pretty miserable time during residency and the first several years of practice.</p>
<p>I say this as a Princeton grad and physician: Princeton was great, but the half-life on the prestige was measured in months. Once I was in med school, it didn’t really matter where I went to undergrad.</p>
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I like that line on undergraduate prestige. I’ll have to use it more often ;)</p>
<p>trust me… i wont be in debt at either school. Also i have visited both schools but i definetly know the Penn campus much better than the princeton campus even though i got to high school in princeton and go to the wawa on the princeton campus. I actually spent a summer at penn in a program. </p>
<p>In addition i have two friends going to princeton as well. Does that tip the scales.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t get gray hairs worrying about whether UPennsylvania or Princeton will get you into medical school. Both do very well in placing their UNDERGRADUATES in medical school.</p>
<p>If debt is not a concern, I really think the difference between the two as pre-med schools is negligible. The environments (big city vs small), campus feel, and being with friends vs putting some distance between you and home are perfectly valid reasons on which to choose.</p>