<p>For accelerated medical it might be, but would you give it all up for the chance to graduate 2 years earlier?</p>
<p>I have 3 cousins in various programs and the one in the 6 year ( UMKC) absolutely despised it and wish he hadn't, partly cuz of the difficulty of getting a really good residency if your in one of these programs.</p>
<p>idk, i'm pretty sure i won't attend. i can't give up the chance of the four years at such an intellectually stimulating environment as mit. plus, you only live life once, and college is supposed to be the best four years ever :)</p>
<p>yay. im in also. Waiting on MIT and others.</p>
<p>why would it be difficult to get into a good residency? jefferson is a respectable medical school. Once there, you're a normal med student.</p>
<p>I agree with Studyguide, Jefferson is a very good medical with top residency placements for its students. I know several doctors who graduated from Jefferson and are now working for several of the nation's top hospitals such as Children's Hospital of PA, CHLA, and Pittsburgh's Children's Hospital (lol I only know the pediatricians). As for students who believe that Jefferson is not good enough for them and that they want to attend a prestigious undergraduate, go for it...you do only get this opportunity once in your life. But, I know what's really important for me, not the undergraduate school, but saving a year of tuition, stress, and pure hell of the regular pre-med's lifestyle AND knowing that I'll definitely attend a good med school.</p>
<p>does anyone know how many they accepted and about how many end up attending?</p>
<p>I feel that an accelerated prog is the easy way out and I get a mediocre results. Yeah, sure I'm taking a chance, but I'll come out more learned from four years of MIT and four years of med school. I'm not knocking the school. It's a good school, just not one of the best.</p>
<p>I believe about 100ish are interviewed, about 50ish are accepted, and about 25ish actually matriculate. If you want to correct me?</p>
<p>Streetlight,</p>
<p>Although I agree that MIT will give you a great education, you should also consider the flip side. Financially, you would be saving 1 (or 2) years of tuition, which at 40,000 a year min, is a lot of money. Also, you are avoiding the stress and competition of being a pre-med student, which could diminish your undergrad experience. As a premed student, you will compete against fellow MIT students for the same spots in med school. Aside from your GPA (which needs to be stellar), you need an MCAT score at least in the 30s to remain competitive. With the program, you KNOW you are going to medical school, so your 3 (or 2) years of undergrad will be much more laid back. Sure, you need to maintain a pretty easy GPA (3.5 at penn state) and get an average MCAT score, but that shouldn't be too difficult for good students. Don't forget, medical school admissions are highly competitive, statistically more than the Ivies for undergrad. There is NO guarantee that you will get into a good medical school from MIT because it will simply be harder to stand out in such an outstanding school. As for your statement of "taking the easy way out," I would say there's nothing wrong with making your life easier. If you know you want to be a doctor now, why not go into a program and make your life easy? Jefferson is a respected med school, and it is what you make of your opportunities there that determine your success, not the name on the diploma. Once again, I just want to point out that coming from MIT does not mean you will get into one of the best med schools. In fact, many students from Ivies go to what you call "mediocre" med schools because the competition is so crazy. Hope some of this stuff helps in making your decision.</p>
<p>I agree with everything you say. First off, money isn't a huge issue in my family so I can take that out. Secondly, I don't want to be a clinical doctor really. My goals are MD/PhD and I would like to do MD-enabled cancer research in the future. While getting an MD from Jeff would be great, I'm not sure it would be quite the best route to achieving my final goals. MIT is one of the most premier research institutions in the world and I feel I would benefit greatly. I also agree that there is no guarantee that I will get into a good medical school....or any medical school at all! Only 76% of applicants from MIT get acceptances to at least one med school. However, if I go to Jeff, I AM guaranteeing that I will not attend a highly ranked medical school and completely black out my hopes of an MD/PhD program. Yeah I'll have to work hard. Through it all, even if I don't get into a med school, I can apply later on. An MIT diploma and education will give me something quite unlike anything else. The decision is hard. If my goals were to become a clinician, I'd prob sway towards Jeff. That's not the case though and that is why my reasoning is so.</p>
<p>ya tuition, board, and various expenses saved; plus still getting a 33 and 3.8 or watever gpa doesn't cut it, u still need volunteer, research, ec's that stand out...exact same thign as u did this year; but those are advantages of program i think, but if u like mit go for it; so who is actually seriously considering this program? i am unless like 1 or 2 program schools accept me and of course then im still considering this highly</p>
<p>I definitely agree with studyguy. MIT is a top knotch school, but no-offense it is going to be WAY harder to stand out amongst a crowd of super-smart kids. I don't want to dissuade you or anything streelight...def. go to MIT if you believe that there might be other better options than going into medicine. Afterall, MIT may just persuade you to do something else in a medically related field.</p>
<p>I think you should go for it. My son applied at MIT and was rejected. He is really upset becuase it was his dream school. Well, good luck to you.</p>
<p>Congrats to everyone who got in.</p>
<p>I hope I see you at Prog Weekend -- I am one of the people organizing it. It would really benefit you to come and check out PSU and get a glimpse of what it's like to be in the program, even if you don't think you're coming.</p>
<p>As for whomever said something about having to "stand" going to Penn State, it has everything anyone could possibly want in a college, and more. Socially it has something for everyone. It's one of the top party schools, which comes with the territory of being a state school, not to mention a Big Ten school. And if drinking's not your thing, fine. PSU is #1 in intramural/club athletics participation (I personally play on two athletic teams here). There are over 20 humanitarian/service organizations. Political/activism groups. Fraternities and sororities. Music. Art. You name it, we have it. And so do many other schools. But the atmosphere of Penn State (a.k.a. Happy Valley) -- that's what I came here for. I could drink or play sports or do community service any where else if I wanted to. But it's just not the same. And imagine going to football games, with almost 108,000 people shouting "We are...Penn State!" It's incredible.</p>
<p>But just because PSU is a state school, don't let that fool you. It can be academically rigorous if you choose to make it--which all premeds do, whether or not they are in the program. There are hard classes, easy classes, weed-out classes, and valuable classes that teach you life lessons more than anything else. The only drawback is that tenured professors teach only 14% of the classes here--but if you are a prog, you will get to have many of them because you are taking upper level classes. I'm not trying to say that Penn State is a better school than, say, MIT -- in some ways, it's not. But regardless of where you go, you'll get a good education, with completely different experiences at each school. I chose the Penn State experience because it fits me. </p>
<p>I could go on and on about Penn State but I have to run to class. IM me (waternoodles), reply to this, or whatever if you have any questions...</p>
<p>And, like I said, come to prog weekend. Expect a phone call from me in the near future.</p>
<p>PS: PSU/Jefferson ended up being higher on my list of choices than MIT. ;) MIT wasn't even close.</p>
<p>When do we get information about Prog weekend?</p>
<p>We just finalized the information half an hour ago, and Dr. Mitchell should be mailing out the letter tomorrow.</p>
<p>"does anyone know how many they accepted and about how many end up attending?"</p>
<p>Your applicant pool (this year) was about 600 people; 63 were accepted; and between 25 and 30 usually choose to attend.
In my year there are 30 or 31 people. I forget.
In the year above me, there are currently 22 or 23 -- 2 people have left the program.</p>
<p>"I feel that an accelerated prog is the easy way out and I get a mediocre results. Yeah, sure I'm taking a chance, but I'll come out more learned from four years of MIT and four years of med school. I'm not knocking the school. It's a good school, just not one of the best."</p>
<p>Sure, you might be more "learned" than someone such as myself. If that is the most important priority for you (for me, it isn't necessarily), then I congratulate your accomplishments and agree that MIT is where you belong. But I would not just write off any school below the top tier or two and call the results of going to such a school "mediocre." Sure, I agree there is a difference between Podunk Community College and Harvard, but really, nowadays the well-known schools--public and private alike--are starting to close the gap. Penn State is no Podunk. I'm not in any way claiming that it's on par with MIT and its ilk, but it's not so far off in such a way that would hinder anyone's ability to go far in life; nor is it debilitating to your academic career. I know people who went to PSU, not in the accelerated med program, who have gone to top tier med schools like Yale. I also know people who went to schools like MIT and did well but could not get into med school. It all depends on the student.</p>
<p>Like someone brought up earlier; if you were in the emergency room and the one doctor on call could save your life, would you refuse his care just because he is not a Harvard alum?</p>
<p>Good response waternoodles, I completely agree with you. This ivy-league over-hyped craze annoys me a little sometimes, but hey whom I to really judge? I also applied to 4 of the Ivies!
As to the Open House at PSU--is it a formal program or just a selected weekend where accepted kids can just visit Penn State and stay overnight if they want to? I have so many questions about this program, I just hope that I'll have a chance to ask somebody at PSU and visit a class.</p>
<p>Tigger,
I applied to Ivies and turned down a couple. I mean, it's for some people. Just not me...</p>
<p>I don't think you guys have received any info on "prog weekend" yet -- it's an informal weekend made for you all. We encourage you to come during the weekend April 8-11 because you would meet some of your potential classmates. Dr. Mitchell picked April 8-11 because it works best for him; some people come before prog weekend or after because of other commitments or whatever. I honestly think everyone should give PSU a visit sometime if they aren't familiar with it.</p>
<p>You can come whenever you like, for however long you like. The visit is purely for your own benefit. I wanted to get a good look at the program (as best as one can in a few days!) so I showed up on Thursday around noon so I could go to a few classes on Thursday and Friday. I stayed till Saturday morning. Some people showed up on Saturday morning and left that day; some came on Thursday and stayed until Sunday. It's all up to you!</p>
<p>If you can come on Thursday and Friday, I would recommend that, especially if you're interested in attending classes because different classes meet on Thursday and Friday, so you can see a variety of classes. My favorite class of all time (Sociology 5) is on Thursday, so I hope I can take a couple of you guys to it. The professor has a really laid back teaching style and he's insightful -- there is no other class like it at PSU.</p>
<p>Just to give you an idea, on Tues/Thurs I have Physics (optics) at 1:25pm, Soc 5 at 2:30pm, and chem lab from 6:30 to 10:30 pm (very painful -- I wouldn't suggest tagging along for that); on M/W/F I have ballroom dancing (FUN class) at 12:20pm, psych at 1:25, organic chem at 2:30, and gen chem at 3:30. Some of my friends are taking Biology of Sex, Physiology, and Histology ... so think about what kind of classes you want to sit in on!</p>
<p>Anyhow, we are also planning a pizza party or something like that for all of the people who do show up, just so you can meet everyone else who comes (usually about 30 or so people show up to prog weekend). We also want to do something fun on Friday night--nothing scary or formal. I think some ideas that people tossed around were going out to the frats, dropping in on some school-sponsored activities, or doing something sports-related -- just a bunch of options for different people, since everyone might not feel comfortable doing something. Personally I may go to a party or going dancing (Salsa!)--and anyone is welcome to come with! Or, if anyone feels like doing nothing and just talking, that's cool too!</p>
<p>On Saturday morning, we have an informational meeting planned -- bring your parents to this if possible, because we want to talk about the program and the school, and answer any and all of your questions. The meeting is the only part of the weekend that we let the parents participate in -- we want you guys to get a feel of what it's REALLY like here, without the stress of being cautious around the folks.</p>
<p>As a side note, if you choose to visit, we will house you in our dorms (I guess you should bring a sleeping bag). Guys in guys' rooms, and girls in girls' rooms. If you are uncomfortable with that (I don't think anyone had problems with it last year) there are hotels on campus that you could stay at too.</p>
<p>I feel like everything I'm saying is really unorganized, so feel free to IM me if I confused you or if you have any questions. :)</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Sounds awesome. Can't wait to come!</p>
<p>Hey guys -- we made a mistake -- prog weekend will be April 7-10, Thursday through Sunday.</p>
<p>Sorry for the confusion.</p>
<p>I'm going to email everyone some time today.</p>