<p>Would you recommend Rhodes College for a student believing themselves to be a "premed" undergraduate student?</p>
<p>Look for posts by Curmudgeon whose daughter graduated from Rhodes. She did PreMed at Rhodes and is now attending Yale Medical School. They were very pleased with Rhodes. As for the acceptance to Yale – she must have been well prepared!</p>
<p>The things that are good about Rhodes for premed:
- The premed advising is open to all comers regardless of major or even liklihood of getting in to med school. Apparently some schools screen those who can get premed advising.
- The faculty and students in bio, chem, and neuro are all really strong.
- The facilities are good.
- There are a ton of life-science internships and research opportunities. Some are at St. Jude, some at the Church Health Center, some at local biomed device makers, other local hospitals, and with the faculty themselves. Rhodes is about 5 minutes away from St. Jude and about six other hospitals.
- The students do really well in med school acceptance. Some don’t apply until after they graduate. Some do that because they majored in something other than a life science (say history) and are doing prereqs as a postbac student. You still get med school advising even after you graduate.
- The career services folks offer practice MCATs.</p>
<p>There are probably other reasons, but those are the ones off the top of my head.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Rhodes pre-med advising is very, very good. Dr. Jaslow (the Health Professions Advisor) is aware, connected, interested, pro-active, and knowledgeable. For a pre-med thinking ahead about the MCAT - Rhodes Physics, Bio, and Chem are all first-class. Rhodes emphasis on quality writing helps on the MCAT, too. </p>
<p>Just a few other things : Rhodes has a great relationship with the Med (for clinical exposure), St. Judes (St. Jude’s researchers teach a wonderful class and offer amazing term and summer opps), and Rhodes faculty research iin Chem and Bio is outstanding. Rhodes has pro-active mentors for national awards. </p>
<p>My pre-med kid felt supported, encouraged, empowered, and …ultimately, very, very grateful. She was well-prepared for med school and is holding her own (actually doing quite well ;)) among a class of very accomplished medical students from the finest institutions in the country. Her courses in Cell Bio, Biochem, and Histology set her up for her first semester med school quite well. </p>
<p>Rhodes emphasis on service to the Memphis community and the world at large should not be over-looked by a pre-med. The opportunities and encouragement and support for service to others are everywhere on campus. </p>
<p>There may be a better place for a pre-med, but you probably couldn’t get my kid to say that. ;)</p>
<p>Do you know if Rhodes has a better pre-med program than the University of Memphis?
I know that many people say that the U of M is a better pre-med option because it has a bigger campus, and therefore more resources. Also, their science department isn’t too shabby.</p>
<p>I’m an alumnus of both U of M (doctorate) and Rhodes (bachelor’s) and have taught at U of M. I will tell you that U of M couldn’t hold a candle to Rhodes if it used both hands. </p>
<p>U of M actually has fewer resources per student - they spend $9000 per student in instruction and research. Rhodes spends $14,500 per student in the two categories. At U of M, the spending per undergraduate will actually be less than $9000 because spending at universities is biased towards graduate students.</p>
<p>In the rare cases where the U of M faculty are better, they won’t be teaching undergrads. I have not seen their bio or chem facilities, but the deferred maintenance everywhere else does not make me optimistic. The fellow students will on average not be as high achieving, curious, or driven. Undergraduate advising is not done by professors, and I can’t even find anything about a pre-med advising program on their website. </p>
<p>I have a great degree of confidence that Rhodes is a better choice for a student interested in pursuing a medical career.</p>
<p>Thanks lynxinsider!</p>