<p>I got accepted to the following schools: Stanford, Brown PLME, Yale, Princeton (all the ivy's except Colombia and Harvard)</p>
<p>I am really interested in pursuing medicine and the PLME program offers an amazing opportunity to bypass the stress of applying to medical school. But I feel that it would be a shame to pass up schools like Stanford, Yale, and Princeton which allow for the possibility of a better medical school and stronger undergraduate education.</p>
<p>My undergraduate major would revolve around something biology related and I would like to do research. </p>
<p>Where would you choose? Which school offers the best prospects for a premed student?</p>
<p>You are incorrect in your assumption that going Stanford, Yale, or Princeton will make it possible to get into a better medical school or get a stronger education. Differences are nil between all four schools. I’m not necessarily advocating Brown here, but if you were to go to Brown you could always withdraw from the BS/MD program and apply to other schools if you decide you aren’t satisfied with going to Brown’s medical school. The advantage of this is you are essentially have a reserved medical school spot for you if you choose to not apply, and if you do apply you won’t be limited in your options because of Brown’s name.</p>
<p>LIFE will be different at any of those schools, but the education, not so much. Frosh chem is Frosh chem. Ditto Organic. Unless you don’t like Brown’s culture, and some/many do not, you are foolish to give up the guaranteed acceptance to med school. OTOH, if you have a 3.8 gpa after your junior year, you could easily apply to “better” med schools, assuming a great MCAT score.</p>
<p>Do what curmudgeon’s daughter did: turned down Yale undergrad four years ago but has now been accepted into Yale Med.</p>
<p>If I were in your shoes, I’d ignore the medical school guarantee. The vast majority of students who are accepted into a PLME-type program will be fine for an equivalent medical school when they come out.</p>
<p>I think there are good reasons for choosing Brown on its own merits. But the key here is to choose your undergraduate school on the merits, not based on an essentially-non-unique guarantee.</p>
<p>my advice is to visit each school and find the best fit.</p>
<p>The guarantee program seems very appealing, but i hope you have other good reasons for choosing Brown, instead of the “im here because of the program”- you will be there for a good 4 years (assuming you may apply out after to other med schools).</p>
<p>for what it’s worth, most people with this choice pick Brown PLME</p>
<p>medical school acceptance rates at yale, stanford, and princeton are only about 80% - you have to wonder what happens to the other 20%</p>
<p>also, quality of life is better when you are not part of the pre-med rat race. in classes like organic chemistry with mandatory curves, you are essentially forced to compete with your very smart and hardworking classmates to be part of the 10-20% of the class that are allowed to be given A’s.</p>
<p>also, it doesn’t hurt that brown is an amazing place with a reputation for excellent medical school preparation (is among the top five schools in the nation for med school placement), and is consistently ranked as the school with the happiest students by the princeton review</p>
<p>That may be/probably is true. But having to not sweat each and every midterm, quiz, lab write up, plus MCATs for four FULL years just has to be worth something. That rat-race is brutal. Sure, having Y on your resume will be life long, but having an MD is even better. I still think four years of stress-free premed studies is a no-brainer. Add in Brown’s grade inflation…not to mention that it is undergrad-focused (like Dartmouth).</p>
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<p>One of the (sole) reasons Brown offers the guarantee programs is for that very reason: choose Brown just “because of the program.”</p>
Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t Brown’s PLME students have to achieve a minimum grade of B in the required courses to remain in good standing with the program?</p>
<p>It’s not as if being in the PLME is going to mean you have no stress. You still need to do well. This is one of the biggest peeves I have with my own school’s combined program. I’m not sure how things are at Brown, but I have seen, on multiple occasions, people at my school get into the combined program and then pull Cs or even Ds in some of their courses. Being in a combined program simply means that you have a spot reserved for you contingent on your continued good performance. </p>
<p>To hammer in BDM’s point a little more, if you’re the type of student that will maintain a high level of performance in college, you will be a competitive medical school applicant, regardless of being in a combined program or not.</p>
Obviously. This is what I find objectionable: (1) find hyperqualified students who are virtually guaranteed anyway; (2) use the general statistics to scare the garbage out of them; (3) convince them to give up the things they really want in order to feel safe.</p>
<p>It’s the equivalent of marching over to a low-crime neighborhood, giving them crime statistics from another city, and trying to sell them an expensive alarm system. The price, in this case, is the undergraduate experience you would have wanted.</p>
<p>When the average science grade is an A-, if you cant’ do well at Brown, you can’t make it anywhere (to paraphrase Sinatra).</p>
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<p>Mike: I totally concur with your first point, and perhaps the second. But, the third really is personal preference. Some kids do choose Brown over HYP in the cross-admit battle (money and med school notwithstanding). There are a LOT of things to like about Brown – it’s not as if the decision was guarantee to an offshore med school. Moreover, those A’s come with stress and gnashing of teeth for four years. Perhaps that is the “undergraduate experience” that you wanted, but not all do. :)</p>
Is this because the science classes are relatively easy or because students at Brown tend to be higher caliber on average?</p>
<p>I feel like this has been posted before, but average grades/GPAs in these classes at other schools (of similar caliber) would serve as a good comparison.</p>
<p>The short answer is that it does not matter. No other college at the same “caliber” (or better) of Brown has that high of a curve in the premed courses. Not H, not S, not Y, not P, and certainly not MIT. :)</p>
<p>im just a junior, but if i was lucky enough to be in that situation, from what ive read, i would chose plme. Like the dude above said, this isnt a guarantee to a crappier med school, alpert is top notch if you look at what matters-which is residency matching. Their match list is just as good as a school like hopkins or yale or even harvard.</p>