<p>Are there any super chill schools to do pre-med in that are still held to a high standard like WUSTL and JHU??</p>
<p>I know this question makes me sound like a kid who wants to cruise through college but get all of the benefits, and not work hard and blahblahblah, but that's not me at all... I just don't want to be stressed out of my mind for four years. All this year, I've been pushing myself to be the best at every single little thing, even the littlest homework assignment , and my high school isn't really competitive at all... I'm sick of it. If I'm in a hyper competitive environment, I know that that will just bring out the worst in me. I'm seriously worried about my mental health... (jk... kinda)</p>
<p>The school can be hard, I don't really care about that, but I want to go to a school where students don't really compete hardcore with each other (sabotage, cheating etc.) I want to go to a school where people try to help each other out, and I won't feel bad if I don't get a certain grade... JHU used to be my dream school until I read more about it on CC and found out that most of the pre-meds are super duper redic cut-throat... I was thinking of trying for a LAC (definitely stereotyping them here, sorry) because they seem like chill schools, but I don't really know which ones have nice pre-med programs and stuff.</p>
<p>Sorry, this was a longer post than I thought it would be...</p>
<p>I go to a liberal arts college in the Midwest. I haven’t heard of anyone ever going out of their way to sabotage anyone else and I don’t think cheating is really a problem (I’m not naiive and think that it doesn’t happen, but I’ve never heard of a problem). While a very large percentage of the freshmen class is pre-med, I think that people aren’t dropping pre-med because of everyone being cut throat or anything like that. The classes are challenging so people are competitive in that they want high grades, but not at the expense of others. While the number of freshmen pre-meds goes down when application time comes around, my school has a pretty high acceptance rate.</p>
<p>So, to answer your question: from my LAC experience it isn’t as “competitive” between pre-meds are in other big name schools. I think it really depends on the overall environment you are looking for, which you can really only assess when you visit the school. Just look for a school with a good fit, and you should enjoy your experience in college.</p>
<p>Its hardly a “pre-med” factory and yet, its applicants do remarkably well in the admissions process. Reed is known for a “learning for the sake of learning” mentality. </p>
<p>While these numbers aren’t (on the surface) particularly high, there’s also no weed-out pre-med committee, and the 80% acceptance rate is with (at least) a 2.9 science GPA and a 28 MCAT. Pretty impressive. </p>
<p>Also, Reed’s tutoring resources are reportedly excellent.</p>
<p>mariomaniac… that sounds freaking amazing…! how hard is Reed to get into? I know it’s a top school, but what do you think the acceptance rate would be for a 3.9/2140 student? I’ll have to do some work on my parents to convince them to let me go across the country, but it’s a good thing I know now so I can get a head start. :)</p>
<p>hmm… I’ve heard rumors of Brown being chill, but I kinda took that to mean chill -for an ivy- I’m going to try to research more about Brown pre-meds…</p>
<p>I think there a few gems like Reed over the country, you just have to do your research. If Portland is too far away, try looking at similar schools in a range closer to where you live.</p>
<p>You have an excellent chance of being admitted to Reed. Your scores are around the average, and your GPA is top notch. Also, being a minority never hurts. </p>
<p>Let’s be honest there: the grading differences between schools are severely exagerrated. Go to the JHU and WashU forums and ask if anyone had ever seen premeds sabotage each other. The answer is likely no. You want to go to a school that is highly regarded? Well that school will have smart students. And if you have smart students, they are going to work hard and be competitive. That’s the nature of premed. That’s the nature of med school. </p>
<p>I’ve found that the level of stress premeds experience are often self-generated. Your premed experience is determined by yourself and how much pressure you want to put on yourself. Instead of asking other people about individual schools (you know people will just pimp their own schools), ask yourself what YOU want from a school. </p>
<p>The only red flag about Reed is that 90 med school applicants is a pathetically low number (especially for a LAC) to churn out in 5 years. That’s 20 students a year roughly from a class size of around 350. Why isn’t Reed putting more people into med school?</p>
<p>Reedies tend to be more graduate school oriented than pre-professionally…This likely accounts for the low proportion of students choosing medicine. </p>
<p>Also, I suggested Reed because the OP was inquiring about schools that are less cut throat but still prepare their students well for medical school. </p>
<p>It’s true that if you’re looking for a pre-med community, Reed isn’t it. Reed, though, will teach you how to think, provides excellent opportunities (scribe program, volunteer opportunities in Portland, research opportunities, etc…)if you actively seek them, and is highly regarded in higher education. </p>
<p>Pokm12, you could always contact Reed if you’re concerned and like the school enough to consider attending…</p>
<p>Who knows, though. Reed may very well not be a good choice.</p>
<p>I tend to agree with you in the aggregate (the discussion of grade inflation is overblown), but not for individual students and individual cohorts of colleges, which have very similar students. Take Brown and Dartmouth, for example. Both have statistically interchangeable student bodies. But the average grade at Brown is a A- (mean gpa 3.6+). In contrast, the average grade at Dartmouth is a 3.4. The differences may not be as critical for med school, but they certainly are for top law programs, where numbers rule. As reported here on cc Harvard, for example, has a ‘soft floor’ of a 3.8 for unhooked applicants. Boalt is also gpa-heavy. Now, between Brown and Dartmouth, which is gonna be easier to obtain that 3.8? Both have “smart” students…</p>
<p>Also you mention JHU (mean gpa 3.3). Sure, maybe no one is purposely destroying labs or ripping pages out of library/reading books (that does happen frequently at the UCs, btw, but it may be more bcos students can’t afford to pay the copy machines?), but a huge proportion of the Hopkins class are premed wannabes (WashU as well?). Perhaps a third of the class? Maybe more some years. But only a few of them are gonna make it thru the gauntlet. (Those that do can practically name their med school.) </p>
<p>In comparison to the premed-focused colleges, a LAC such as Reed (mean 3.1) or Amherst (mean gpa ~3.5) may have <20% premed wannabes. (Note, not saying that Amherst and Reed have similar student bodies.) Where is it going to be “easier” to stand out?</p>
<p>But the OP said he doesn’t care if there’s hard work involved, he just wants an atmosphere where students aren’t mean to each other over grades, right?
My son has told me that it’s considered bad form to talk about grades in Williams, so I guess that might make it less “competitive.” I’ve read somewhere in these forums (I think it was gadad who said it) that the students there are laid-back.</p>
<p>Besides, I think that Williams’ site boasts over a 90% admission rate to med school, although I couldn’t swear it is true. </p>
<p>So there, someone said in a previous post that people would be “pimping” for their own school, so I guess my post would make him confirm he was right. Hey, Williams is the only school in which I have first-hand knowledge, so it’s the only one I can talk about.</p>
<p>Which is my point. Most of us have only attended 1 school and the OP is asking us to compare schools. From talking to a lot of my classmates, it honestly seems like most of them had a great time in college, whether they went to Cornell or WashU or Hopkins or a LAC. I think many would-be freshmen really overestimate the competitiveness of doing premed. No one is stealing notes or hiding books. I’ve made a lot of friends in college from studying and working together.</p>
I notice the two colleges you referred to happen to have a highly ranked affiliated medical school. There are likely no lack of premed-to-be high schoolers who may believe they will have an edge if they go to this kind of school. This attracts a high proportion of premeds.</p>
<p>Another point about this kind of school is: It may be a good school for some students but not good for others. If your family has good connections to somebody in the medicine field and you do not need much help from the school to provide you any good EC opportunities or guidance (for example, one of your parents is a physician who knows a lot of other physicians), you can afford not to go to this kind of school. Actually, if you go to other schools, you may really stand out among your classmates because you know how to do premeds better than most of your peers from the same or a similar school. But if you come from a family who is at the bottom half of the society which could not give you any help in this regard, the abundance of resources available from this kind of school may be exactly what you need.</p>
<p>Another point is you happen to be one who will stand out even among the highly competitive environment so it do you no harm if you go to such a school (it may actually helps – assuming you still have time for your ECs.) I do not know whether this rumor is true: I once heard that at some “hot” majors in JHU, many asian americans who have devoted to academics and nothing else in their high school career — that is exactly the reason why ivies do not want to take them, basically own everybody else. Another related phenomenon at the high school level is that more and more kids from more affluent families fled from a highly competitive high school like Monavista (sp) in the bay area in order to avoid these hardcore academic students. (This was once reported on San Jose Mercury News.)</p>
<p>Wow, thanks so much for the advice guys! I’m so glad that many of you made some lengthy and informative posts. Maybe I am overestimating the pre-med intensity (hopefully). I heard a lot of you mention Brown, so I looked up some more info about Brown students, and everything checks out. However, I’m gonna have to do some serious stat improvement if I want a chance. Thanks again for all the information.</p>
<p>@ mcat2 - I actually don’t have any connections whatsoever, so do you think that I should just disregard rumours of cut-throatness and go to whatever school will help me get the most connected? Maybe I’m being a little too selfish?</p>