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

Pre-Med & Medical School
1

<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>

2

I know of couple of NC state grads with success in getting into Med schools - Emory and UNC. My understanding is that where you get undergrad degree is not important - what matters is your GPA, MCAT score, clinical experience (intern/shadowing/research) and quality volunteering activities

3

Generally speaking, where you do your undergrad has very little impact on your ability to get accepted into med school. GPA + MCAT will get your application looked at, but it’ll be your soft factors (interview skills, LORs, EC, personal statement, etc) that will net you an acceptance.

See: https://www.aamc.org/download/261106/data/aibvol11_no6.pdf

If you’re happy at NCState–stay there!

BTW, the double major and triple minors----will have no impact on your med school admissions. Adcomms are not impresses by multiple majors/minors.

4

Don’t transfer. Pre-meds should only transfer if their current environment is so bad that it is hurting their academic or emotional well being, or some other extraordinary circumstance arises (drastic change in finances, need to relocate for family/medical care, etc)

You’re probably taking freshman/intro classes, no? Take harder classes if you’re finding them too easy - go as high as you need to go, you could probably even take graduate school courses (many schools allow it, I don’t know if NC State is one of them but I would assume they are).