<p>hey guys what ivy league school is the best school for sending its students to prestigious med schools like harvard, jhu, etc.
also if i want to be a doctor(surgeon most likely) what major should i pursue in college? i know you can be a music major and still get in but what is the best major that will most likely help me in a good medical school?</p>
<p>any ivy really will help you get into top schools. ivy league schools are really close with each other. being in an ivy would place you at an advantage when applying to ivy med schools.</p>
<p>although its not proven, there is the possibility that some med schools prefer a student to go to a harder school. if you got a good gpa at an ivy, then it might look better than someone coming from a state school (again, not sure about it).</p>
<p>major doesnt matter in college. you just need to fulfill the pre med course reqs (1 year bio, 1 year gen chem, 1 year o chem, 1 year math, 1 year english, 1 year physics). another unproven claim is that taking off-the-road majors like English or film or something will help you because you will bring diversity to the med school. also, apparently being fluent in another language will help (the amcas asks what languages you are fluent in).</p>
<p>bumping this thread</p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/202936-good-pre-med-schools.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/202936-good-pre-med-schools.html</a>
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/214387-what-should-premed-major.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/214387-what-should-premed-major.html</a>
Hopkins is not in the Ivy League.</p>
<p>^ When was it ever stated that Johns Hopkins was ever in the Ivy League...</p>
<p>There is no major that is exclusively preferred by medical schools. Med schools are trying to diversify, but the advantage it gives you is miniscule as its essentially a crap shoot because med schools say they can fill their class 2.5 times more with qualified students, to think that a major would give an advantage....is really not realistic.</p>
<p>By the stats, BME has the highest proportion of students accepted into medical school and Biology and Chemistry surprisingly has least successful acceptance rate into medical school. I cannot find the article by AMCAS where I read this from, but its interesting. BME tend to be very strong in the first place and everyone majors in bio and chem so that brings the acceptance rates down.</p>
<p>I'm personally doubling majoring in public health and economics at JHU...if that gives you some idea of the type of things and combos you can use or create while you are in college.</p>
<p>All of the ivies are exceptionally good at getting their students into med school, so worry about getting into a couple before think about deciding and whittle down which ones you'll apply to based on other, more important factors, like size and location.</p>
<p>The only ivy that I have a bit of a bias against as far as premed is concerned is Columbia. It has great resources of course, and is in NYC, but personally I think the notorious Columbia core curriculum, coupled with the premed requirements and major requirements, makes it very difficult for you to take classes just for fun, which i have a major issue with. Cornell, Penn, and Harvard definitely have the largest premed populations, which should not be surprising since they're the most pre-professional of the ivies, but the other schools do just as well getting their students in.</p>
<p>Major in what you want. This has been beaten to death and beyond.</p>
<p>All of the Ivies (and all of the top uni's as well) have the tools to get you into med school. I think you'd have to work a little harder at Cornell to get nice recs due to the larger class size but otherwise you'll be fine going into any Ivy League university.</p>
<p>
[quote]
^ When was it ever stated that Johns Hopkins was ever in the Ivy League...
[/quote]
In my imagination, apparently. Apologies.</p>
<p>
[quote]
^ When was it ever stated that Johns Hopkins was ever in the Ivy League...
[/quote]
[quote]
In my imagination, apparently. Apologies.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Actually it was right in the first sentence of the first post (I've bolded it):
[quote]
hey guys what ivy league school is the best school for sending its students to prestigious med schools like harvard, jhu, etc.
also if i want to be a doctor(surgeon most likely) what major should i pursue in college? i know you can be a music major and still get in but what is the best major that will most likely help me in a good medical school?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Uh, actually, it seems to me that the OP was asking about which Ivy League college was the best for getting oneself into a prestigious medical school, but said nothing about whether that med school had to itself be in the Ivy League.</p>
<p>My bad, I misread it.</p>
<p>christian,
Med schools do not require applicants to have any particular undergraduate major, although most applicants tend to be science majors, particularly in biology, biochemistry, chemistry and physics. Engineering majors are not uncommon, nor are those in the social and behavioral sciences. There is no wrong major for med school, as long as the prerequisite courses are completed, which may vary some depending on the school (Harvard requires a whole year of Calculus rather than just a semester..)</p>
<p>However, that being said, certain majors do seem to give an applicant an edge in the admissions process. Those students with high GPAs (and solid MCAT scores) in chemistry, biochemistry and engineering seem to enjoy a higher acceptance rate than those in the biological and social sciences. It may be because all the additional teaching and laboratory experience that they get, tends to increase their MCAT scores and improves their ranking in the applicant pool.</p>
<p>Also, some majors may bring more scrutiny from admission officers. If you think about it; arts, education, business administration studies, etc lack the analytical rigor that is deemed to be essential for med school. The adcoms may look closer to consider if the student has the capability of handling the large amount of reading required to succeed, like in biochemistry. Therefore, these applicants must have to perform exceptionally in the MCATs to demonstrate competency in these skills. </p>
<p>Academic rigor in undergrad is specifically looked at by the ivy med schools and other prestigious schools. The quality of the education you received at the school you are coming from will count as well. Do not take the easiest courses to increase your GPA and make sure you take challenging courses.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Academic rigor in undergrad is specifically looked at by the ivy med schools and other prestigious schools. The quality of the education you received at the school you are coming from will count as well. Do not take the easiest courses to increase your GPA and make sure you take challenging courses.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>*Myth #11.
I AM ALWAYS BEST OFF TAKING ALL OF MY
INTRODUCTORY PRE-MED CLASSES AT
STANFORD.</p>
<p>False. It is true that it is more difficult to get
an A in a Stanford pre-med class than it is at most other schools. This is easier to understand since you are
graded on a curve with some of America’s best
students. Consequently, an ‘A’ at Stanford can mean a
lot, particularly in science classes with a ‘C’ mean.</p>
<p>However, most of you won’t get A’s in every
class, and some of you certainly would have had higher
GPA’s elsewhere. It is also true that medical schools
know this and will take it into account.</p>
<p>However, this ‘forgiveness factor’ is not
infinite. Getting a 4.0 in your pre-med requirements at
a junior college will certainly make you a stronger
applicant than a 3.5 in your pre-med requirements at
Stanford. One admissions officer I spoke with
estimated the bump factor of attending a school like
Harvard or Stanford to be between 0.3 and 0.5 of a
grade point.</p>
<p>For some of you, an ‘A’ in high school could
be achieved through hard work and determination. This
is not necessarily true of the pre-med classes at
Stanford. Everyone is trying hard. They are all smart.
And the classes can be very difficult.</p>
<p>The upshot of all of this is that some of you
may be more successful applying to medical school by
taking most of your pre-med classes elsewhere. I have
known many applicants who would have been more
successful in applying to medical school if they had
pursued their academic passions at Stanford and had
taken their pre-med classes elsewhere, either in summers
or during a year off. I have also known students
at Stanford—who would have been fantastic physicians—
who quit the pre-med process in frustration
without exploring this option. If you want to be a
doctor and are struggling at Stanford, this option is
worth exploring.</p>
<p>I say this with some hesitancy because I know
it may cause controversy and it is difficult to know who
would be statistically better off focusing their pre-med
energies at a less competitive institution. I should also
add, however, that all such ‘core’ classes cover the
material required both for the MCAT and to be a good
doctor.</p>
<p>This in no way is meant to imply you made the
wrong choice by coming to Stanford if you are a premed.
Quite the contrary, Stanford may be the best
place in the country for pre-meds to attend college.
You can attain a first-rate education in any field and
simultaneously approach your pre-med curriculum with
more flexibility and more creativity than at nearly any
other university.</p>
<p>Take home point: Consider taking some of
your pre-med classes elsewhere if you are hitting a wall
here. Many successful medical school applicants have
done this*</p>
<p>^^^I respectfully disagree. I would like to stress the fact that I am talking about gaining admission to Ivy Med Schools, which is what the poster is asking about. The pamphlet addresses concerns for "general medical school admission". Big difference.</p>
<p>Academic rigor in undergrad is specifically looked at by the ivy med schools and other prestigious schools. How can anyone question this??!!</p>
<p>A 4.0 from a regional university does not compare to a 3.3 from University of Chicago which is well known for its academic rigor. All Ivy Med school admission "coaches" will attest to that.</p>
<p>The fact that one should take challenging courses rather than too many easy gutter courses to bump one's GPA is well known and stressed by premed advisors.....especially if you are considering an Ivy. This point is really not worth arguing about.</p>
<p>^but going the other end and taking multiple grad classes doesn't help at all right?</p>
<p>
[quote]
I respectfully disagree. I would like to stress the fact that I am talking about gaining admission to Ivy Med Schools, which is what the poster is asking about. The pamphlet addresses concerns for "general medical school admission". Big difference.</p>
<p>Academic rigor in undergrad is specifically looked at by the ivy med schools and other prestigious schools. How can anyone question this??!!</p>
<p>A 4.0 from a regional university does not compare to a 3.3 from University of Chicago which is well known for its academic rigor. All Ivy Med school admission "coaches" will attest to that.</p>
<p>The fact that one should take challenging courses rather than too many easy gutter courses to bump one's GPA is well known and stressed by premed advisors.....especially if you are considering an Ivy. This point is really not worth arguing about.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The point is indeed worth arguing about, and especially for the top-ranked med schools (which is what the OP was actually asking about, and not specifically Ivy med schools), for the logic is quite simple, as those med-school adcoms will attest to: the top med-schools receive so many applications that they are all forced to use numerical screens as a first cut to whittle the number of applications to a reasonable number. Yet, sadly, what that means is if your grades are mediocre, even if you come from a rigorous undergrad program, you probably won't even get past the first cut. Sad but true. </p>
<p>I wish it wasn't true, but it is true. It's not fair, it's not right, and so I agree with you that that's not the way it should be. But that's unfortunately how it is. Fairness has nothing to do with it. Med-school admissions, especially to the top med- schools, is, sadly, a game. If you have mediocre grades, they're not going to care why. All they're going to see is that you have mediocre grades, and the screens will toss out your application.</p>
<p>To reinforce the point, this is why it has now become a general consensus among posters at CC that is is a rather poor strategy to attend difficult schools like MIT or Caltech if you want to go to med-school, especially a top med-school, and it is an especially suboptimal strategy to choose a difficult major like engineering, because, like I said, the med-school admissions process doesn't really care about the difficulty. They're just going to see your relatively low grades and then reject you accordingly. Again, it's not fair, but that's sadly how it is. Even fanboys like Ben Golub have conceded that schools like Caltech are probably not optimal places to go for premed for precisely this reason. </p>
<p>The real problem is with the med-school admissions process, including the process at the top med-schools. Unfortunately, I don't see the process changing anytime soon. Hence, the optimal solution, sad as it is, probably is to select easy coursework at easy schools.</p>
<p>^or...aim for a high MCAT score :)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Hence, the optimal solution, sad as it is, probably is to select easy coursework at easy schools.
[/quote]
Within the extremes. Taking nothing but the easiest courses a school offers is not an optimal solution either. You need to at least dabble in a few tough courses, a few advanced ones, and a few independent ones.</p>
<p>Going to an extremely difficult school or picking an extremely difficult major might be a bad idea -- but so is taking an obviously lightweight schedule. (Of course, some would suggest that the key is finding easy courses which look hard. I don't have an argument to this except that I think it's sad.)</p>
<p>The problem with the advice posted on the website link is that it contains a lot of half-truths and exagerations. Yes, you shouldn't be majoring in engineering at MIT and taking 25 credits per semester. But, that doesn't mean you should be taking every single science course at a local state school during the summers if you're a Stanford student. Yes, you don't HAVE TO take all of your premed prereq's before applying but if you end up applying with just 2 science courses on your record, then med school adcoms won't have much to go on. No, you don't have to do research...but 90% of your competition will have done research. He spends so much time dispelling myths that he doesn't give any caveats to his advice.</p>
<p>I am repeatedly disappointed that sakky, normally a staunch devotee of providing concrete data and well-supported evidence, insists on citing such a anecdotal source from an individual who clearly represents an outlier in the admissions process.</p>