<p>I love SLC. never visited but from what I heard about it. I know they rock at the writing/theatre/performance arts. but what about their pre-med? how many % gets accepted to top Medical schools? Would the fact that SLC is so artsy and so liberal arts related and having no letter grades make them seem less in the eyes of med school admission's offices?</p>
<p>SLC claims a 100% admit rate for its pre-med students -- or at least they did a few years ago. I think the reason for that is that they don't have all that many students in the sciences and the classes are so small that the students end up working very closely with their profs, and thus probably have great recs. Also, there are science faculty at SLC who have research grants in the sciences -- again because there are so few science-oriented students, there may actually be some interesting research opportunities for those who want to follow that route.</p>
<p>For the most part, school (and this I mean academics only) doesn't really matter in regards to med school admissions. The pre-med curriculum is big on breadth and small on depth (a year each of bio, gen chem, organic, physics, a semester of calc is standard everywhere, each med school may have additional requirements beyond this, but these are the basics). Most schools are not going to be great in even 2 out of the 4 areas, and even if a school is great in one area, most students are not going to benefit b/c they aren't going to major in that area.</p>
<p>Now the things that do matter in selecting a school in regards to pre-med requirements are the types of opportunities available outside of classes. Research, volunteering, clinical experience, on campus organizations and leadership positions are all important parts of the medical school application. Other things schools might help with are harder to quantify - pre-med advising, interview prep, MCAT prep courses either from the school or in the town (kaplan, TPR, etc), and so on. From an outsider's view it's nearly impossible to tell how schools compare in these areas.</p>
<p>One thing to be aware of, especially from small LAC's that tend to attract prestige driven individuals like those on CC - many schools advertising a 100% placement rate to med schools artificially inflate those numbers by only allowing students who have extremely competitive resumes to actually apply. They do this by having a pre-med committee that screens all potential medical school applicants and if they don't think you are competitive enough (ie they don't think you are assured of getting in at least one school) then they don't let you apply. Additionally they will write your letter of recommendation that will absolutely glow, making you sound like the absolute best human being alive. That's all well and grand if you are competitive, but what if you are borderline? What if you are competitive, but are not so astounding as to be assured admission somewhere? Well they might not let you apply, or they will let you apply, but simply not write a committee letter on your behalf. Some schools have the committee letter approach so ingrained in their campus culture that faculty are reluctant to write letters for students who don't have the committee's approval. I've heard of schools where faculty are banned from writing letters of rec for med school applicants b/c it detracts from the "power" of the committee.
the point of this is not to decry the use of screening committees but rather the use of placement rates in judging if a place is good for pre-med.</p>
<p>lastly, don't worry about "top" medical schools - there are only 125 allopathic schools in the US, and all of them are very good, all of them will educate you to become a doctor, and all of them will give you an MD that will allow you to practice medicine in the US. The passage rates for steps 1-3 of the USMLE for US medical students are in the 90-95% range on the first try. </p>
<p>In conclusion:
Don't choose a college based on how you think it will look to medical admissions committees, that's not a good way to make a decision. Instead look for schools that are a great fit for you, and that you'll love attending regardless of what you end up doing for a career. So many students change their major, and in particular the attrition rate for pre-med is astronomically high, that picking a school solely on how good their programs are is a mistake. Choose a school you love (which is sounds like SLC may be a good fit for you) and you'll be fine.</p>
<p>thanks a lot guys. i'm going to apply there early D #2 :)</p>