I took a summer class at my local state university (calc II). It was a joke compared to calc 1 at Rice. Made me think there was some truth to going to an “earlier” college to ensure a high GPA. Just my anecdotal experience though.
Read this book : Where you go is not who you’ll become, by Frank Bruni.
Give you a true perspective on this subject.
Many posters when they come on CC define the “top” pre-med schools to be Duke, WashU, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Penn, etc. The reality is that these schools have the same weedout classes with a forced grading curve and limited As and B’s that a state school would have, but the competition is much more intense since everyone who attends is a top notch student. While the students who successfully matriculate into med school from these universities are top quality, there are many who did not make the cut that otherwise could have been successful in a different college setting.
IMHO, the best of both worlds would be schools like Harvard, Yale and Brown that are known for grade inflation. These schools place a very percentage of their classes into med school, and have sufficient “prestige” to boost a non-med school career.
@MurphyBrown with respect to your question regarding the best top schools for premed, here is one available source:
http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/lists/list/the-experts-choice-colleges-with-great-pre-med-programs/199/
http://www.gradeinflation.com/ No recent data for Yale.
I used to care about prestige until I realized that if I wasn’t getting into the top schools then it wouldn’t matter. Then I shot for wherever is cheap and has an employable location. I’m barely happy and probably not successful, but at least I have money.