Stay at NC State or Transfer to UNC/Other University?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>Hi! I'm a current freshman at NC State University majoring in Biology and Psychology with minors in Health, Nutrition, and Economics. My question is, should I stay at NC State all four years or transfer to UNC (or another university) my sophomore or junior year? I am currently doing well in all my classes, have met some cool people, and explored campus. I am hesitant about transferring because the classes here (so far) have been fairly easy for me and I foresee myself maintaining a high GPA with almost all A's. Also, if I transfer, I'm not sure that the credits required for my double major and three minors would be met as they are now. I plan on applying for medical school, and I'm trying to figure out if it's better to do really well at a school that is not known for its biology department. Or, would it be better to go to a school that is more known for this field, but may be a lot harder, causing my GPA to drop? This also brings up the question of whether the classes at NC State and UNC differ that much in terms of workload and rigor (which I'm sure they do). From what I've heard, engineering and physics classes are much harder at NC State, which makes sense. However, the classes I need to take for my majors would probably be a lot harder at UNC. So, the main dilemma for me right now is to transfer or not to transfer? What's better: really good grades at a good school or ok/good grades at a great school for my field? Thank you so much for reading! I appreciate all help and input available!</p>

<p>Sidenote: UNC is not my only option for transferring, I'm trying to look into other universities that would well prepare me for medical school. Please feel free to suggest other universities that might be a good fit for me. If I could transfer to Duke that would be amazing, but I feel that my chances of transferring from NC State to Duke would be slim to none, as the acceptance rate is very, very low.</p>

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<p>I don’t think premed classes are easy anywhere. </p>

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<p>Schools don’t “prepare you for med school”. Transferring isn’t going to make a difference as to how well you are prepared. </p>

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required for my double major and three minors </p>

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<p>Biology and Psychology with minors in Health, Nutrition, and Economics.</p>

<p>Don’t over-burden yourself and jeopardize your GPA. If you like a few classes in each area, then fine. But don’t feel the need to complete a second major or extra minors if you don’t need to.</p>

<p>Stay where you are…excel…and your profs will write excellent LORs.</p>

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<p>@mom2collegekids Thanks for your advice! I’m aware that two majors and three minors may seem like a lot, but I figured out a way to take required classes for my majors (both which I am very interested in) and be able to add on the three minors without doing any extra work. I also have interest in the three minors I am pursing and think they would be beneficial for my career goal in the future. Basically, I’m not overloading at all :slight_smile: I have a normal schedule all throughout college that still allows me to complete all course work for my majors and minors</p>

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<p>Are you in-state for NCSU? Asking because med school acceptance to UNC and ECU is heavily dependant on in-state residency in NC. ECU’s med school ONLY accepts NC students. And they are looking for student’s that fit their mission.</p>

<p>Do you belong to the honors college at NCSU? What EC’s have you thought about doing? Do you enjoy the general bio major course concentrations or would you be more interested in the biochem, genetics, or microbio depts? I only ask as that the NCSU’s genetic degree is one of the few offered in the state. Duke discontinued their program and NCSU scooped up most of their dept. NCA&T and UNC Greensboro has the new school of nanosciene and nanoengineering which is just fascinating especially in the medical fields. Penn is doing the same type of research but A&T has opened a new school just for this!</p>

<p>Embedded in the biochem/micro/genetics degrees are also minors in genetics and biotechnology. Use the majors tool in your pack account to see what classes double count for each. </p>

<p>So son has a degree from NCSU, biochem/micro/genetics which he completed 2 semesters after he graduated from another university with a degree in economics. His previous uni did not allow for double majors nor did they accept most of his 82 AP units which NCSU gladly accepted, hence the 2 semesters for degree completion.</p>

<p>While at NCSU he was able to TA, complete previous research and do some shadowing so I know there are plenty of opportunities for a pre-med. However he had plenty of friends within his classes that were not admitted to any of the NC med schools with 4.0 GPAs, decent MCATs and ECs (son is a med student in NC). The schools have missions and are looking for physicians, not just studious students.</p>

<p>And yes most med schools don’t have a preference for which school you graduated from for UG BUT they do not make the decisions in a vacuum. Son was able to keep a 4.0 at NCSU with all upper-division sciences with 24 units, TAing and research. He did NOT have a 4.0 at his previous university, he worked his hiney off. He says even now that his undergrad classes at p’ton were much, much more difficult than his classes at NCSU. MUCH HARDER. And the med school adcoms knew that. So be mindful that your GPA is not the end all and be all.</p>

<p>Do well in your classes and absorb, process and keep the knowledge you learn. But also try to grow as a person, try new things, take classes out of your comfort zone. Develop your mind and your soul. Go to football and basketball games. Keep your eye on the ball and get involved. NCSU offers through the animal science dept. 7 or 8 learning labs that allow for hands-on participation for 1 to 3 semesters in beef, equine (horse breeding), dairy, small ruminant, swine and a few others. You live on site, receive free room and have a full kitchen while working there for 10 hours a week. The work can be raking stalls or researching the genetics of thoroughbreds, infectious disease through birds and swine or meat production. A great way to set yourself apart and to do research that you could follow for 4 years.</p>

<p>Son did research in the botany department that worked perfectly into his previous public health/cancer research. NCSU is a great school for science and engineering, do not overlook this particular strength. Esp. ag and the animal sciences. Each professor is always looking for assertive scientists to help with their own research. They will be the ones to write great LORs for med school for you. Having the Dean of a particular college at NCSU write your LOR REALLY helps with med school admissions and possible scholies/fellowships.</p>

<p>ECU’s med school is big on rural primary care. UNC considers their top ranking in primary care a REAL big deal. Duke is great on their cancer research but is changing their curriculum. Wake gets thousands (tens of thousands) of apps from all over the country and their facilities are not the same as Duke’s and UNC.</p>

<p>If you like NCSU I would stay put. You have some wonderful opportunities, you just need to really look around. Son also took a golf and then tennis class to fulfill the PE requirements but would have liked the kayaking class even more. He also took classes in ancient greek which he truly loved. Explore.</p>

<p>This is your time to discover who you are, where you want to go and how you want to do it. Just be mindful of your GPA, don’t do anything STUPID and try not to add or subtract to the population. But have fun, learn to appreciate your surroundings and take advantage of every opportunity NCSU offers. </p>

<p>Do well.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

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<p>@katwkittens‌ Thank you so much for your thoughtful, well-worded, and thorough response! I really appreciate it :slight_smile: and yes I am an in-state student. Thanks again!</p>

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<p>I am not sure that you have a clear cut reason for transferring. I did not get it while reading your post. Unless you have a valid clear reason to transfer, why would you transfer?
Anyway, if it is easy now, maybe you are placed into incorrect level (for you) of classes. They should not be easy. In fact, some programs have very hard weed out classes right in the first semester, so that students do not waste much time being on the wrong (for them) track. No upper level Bio are easy, you will need to take few to better prepare for the MCAT. Orgo is not usually easy, but some (exception, not the rule) have easier time with Orgo than Gen. Chem. College Physics usually is not easy either. Again, there are variety of classes that one can take and at least some (at D’s school, it was Gen. Chem.) are determined by your math pacement test.<br>
Another point. No UG will prepare you for Med. School. Yes, you need some general foundation, but as my D. compared academics at UG vs Med. School, she simply said, not comparable, leap upwards of epic proportions…for everybody, no matter where you came from and her Med. School class has many from Ivy/Elite and even several MS, at least one PhD from Harvard…
Since your reasons are not clearly defined, I would just stay where you are now, continue doing very well, try to get mostly As, prepare well for MCAT, participate in medical ECs, have fun with your new friends, grow personally and you will be all set. And classes will get much harder…well, unless you are a genius, everybody work hard to get the A that they are dreaming to have in every class. Well, be cautious though, do not go overboard. For example, D. was missing having some kind of art in her life (after taking private lessons for her entire pre-college life). I warned her that art at college level art was very time consuming. But…she took a paper making class (just for fun that she was missing in art department, mind you she already had Music minor, I guess, it was not enough). Yep, ended up one of the most time consuming classes, and I bet at the end she was worrying about grade, pulled an A but with enourmous effort and time. Your spread seems to be a bit thin, do not go overboard, classes will get challenging, very challenging. And, yes, D. also graduated from in-state public, where she was challenged plenty but with the great effort was able to pull college GPA of 3.98 and graduated with the Music minor, but that was all that she could pull, had to drop her other Neuro minor being 2 classes short of completion. </p>