<p>Hi. Im ending my junior year and I still dont have a list of colleges that offer a good Pre-Med program but is not tooo competitive. I messed up in highschool. My GPA is only a 86 and my SAT scores arent all that great (in fact i think they are horrible. 1550 the first time i took them. I took them today and i think it went well, i just have to hope for the best). I was wondering what Northeastern schools (particularly in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusettes) would be possible for a student like me. By the way I go to one of New York City's top public high schools. All my classes are honors. </p>
<p>Some schools I was thinking about were Stony Brook, Rider U. and Clark U.</p>
<p>Have you looked into Muhlenberg, in Allentown, PA? As I understand it, the pre-med track is rather popular there and it’s an SAT-optional school, as well.</p>
<p>Check out Colleges that Change Lives<a href=“the%20book%20or%20the%20web%20site”>/u</a>. Most of the 50 CTCL schools admit B students and are good choices for late bloomers.</p>
<p>Don’t bank on going the pre-med route, because the likelihood of you even applying, much less accepted, is low enough that you need to have a plan B. Every year 1000 kids come into my school with delusions of grandeur and 80% of them end up not even applying to med school. And if you’re not a good test taker the MCATs will be very, very painful.</p>
<p>That being said, beware that some school with “good” pre-med programs often get high med school admit rates by brutally weeding out everybody who is not a top-level student. You can apply to med school from any college, so I would recommend that you just look for a college that suits you and work from there. Pre-med shouldn’t be a huge concern.</p>
<p>Yeah my school doesn’t have a designated “pre-med” major, but pre-med advising is given to all who are thinking about going that route. As long as you take the required classes for whatever med school you’re applying to, you are not restricted to any specific kind of school or major.</p>
<p>Pre med is a bad idea to major in. Med schools don’t like students who do. Go into Biology which can be a pre med track but is much more well rounded.</p>
<p>Ray and Senior gave very good advice. The number of high school kids who plan on premed is astounding. The number of kids who get As in Organic Chem, Calculus, Physics, College Anatomy, Biochemistry, etc. is miniscule. The odds of being in the top 15% on the MCAT are also just that…15%. The number of kids whose college resumes are extraordinary (to distinguish them from the 80% of med school applicants who do not get accepted) is small. Med school applicants include recent college graduates, but also include individuals with advanced degrees, years of work experience, and people with compelling personal stories.</p>
<p>I’m a firm believer in reaching for dreams, but also believe in a Plan B, and even a Plan C. Look for schools with lots of majors. Visit some med school sites to identify their prerequisites. You might be able to pursue a degree as a physician’s assistant, a nurse, a nuclear medical technologist, a biomedical engineer, or a biology or chemistry teacher, while still taking the prerequisite classes for med school. (Even if you are at the top of your class, you may decide to work for a year or more while studying for the MCAT or to beef up your application.) Our family physician had dual majors in philosophy and biochemistry when an undergrad.</p>
<p>If you still decide to go the premed route, then check out the premed advising department of each school carefully. They will all tell you that a recommendation from their premed advisory committee is valuable to a med school application, and schools will boast about the number of their premed graduates who are accepted. (What they will not tell you is how many kids started out at the school in premed, and how many got weeded out before they got to the Committee at the end of the day). Still, it’s worth finding out if the premed department has any information that might give you more confidence in their ability to help you pursue your dream, like research opportunities or a special relationship with a medical school. There is no such thing as a noncompetitive med school track. By definition, anyone trying to beat out 80%+ of other applicants for those few med school spots has to be strongly competitive. A college may not be competitive overall, but the students who want med school will be competitive since they know they need to be at the top of their class…and there’s room for only so many at the top.</p>
<p>And if it’s really what you need and want to do, work for it with your whole heart. Good luck!</p>
<p>How about Alfred U in NY? PA has lots of little LACs - since there are so many, they compete with one another. Juniata, Arcadia, Moravian, Lycoming, Susquehanna, Westminster. Albright to name a few.</p>
<p>I couldn’t tell if money is a consideration in going to college. Around here, (the Pacific Northwest), it is easier to get into Medical School if you go to one of the private LACs than one of the State schools.</p>