Regarding medical schools screening applicants by GPA and MCAT score before passing applications to human readers, the following thread may be helpful (see post #0 and reply #2):
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/2058785-confessions-of-a-med-school-app-reader.html
You need to go where you will be happy, where you will do well academically and socially, and where you will have opportunities for volunteering, etc. In my opinion…it is important as a premed to attend a school where you are toward the top. You will find many smart students at these schools and you want to give yourself the best possible chance to get A’s. If you are confident that you will be the one who gets the A’s at places like Vanderbilt, Emory etc…then by all means consider them if they are affordable. Just make sure to have a plan B.
I assume UCD is UC Davis? My family member was there. He graduated, worked for a few years, and then decided he wanted med school. Took all the prerequisites, did all his shadowing etc…and is now in medical school.
@sophieee123
Ok, then
1° Case Western 2° Emory 3°GWU 4°NYU 5°Georgetown .
Honestly, beside Case Western, I wouldn’t really consider any of them great for premed. Rankings would include 1° are you among the top 10% at the school in terms of academic background/preparation, 2° collaborative atmosphere and support; very distant third, 3° presence of nearby health-related opportunities; (1+2)*5 +3 = pluses. Big minuses would be competitive atmosphere, weedout process, cost.
I think that one of the reasons that people have given such a range of answers is that your question is not as simple as it may seem. When you say ‘rank these pre-med programs’ do you mean 'rank the best quality pre-med coursework or ‘rank which ones get more students into med school’ or ‘rank which ones give the best pre-med counseling/support’?
For best quality pre-med coursework, all of the schools on your list are comparable, as they are all academically solid for those courses, so ranking is not meaningful.
For which ones get more students into med school, it is hard to rank for you, partly because it is very hard to compare med school success rates b/c the way different colleges count that can be so skewed and partly because we don’t know enough about you. For example, I would put Emory, Vanderbilt, GW and CW as a first tier amongst your list- if you are in the top 15-20% of your (university) class. But you would have to know (for example) if the kind of pre-professional competitive vibe at Emory would be a plus for you: there are students for whom that environment would be counterproductive. That’s where all the comments about ‘go where you will shine’ come in.
If you mean which ones give the best pre-med counseling/support, I am not great on the colleges you list- but there are others who can speak to that specific metric (most of the colleges who pre-med support I know much about are LACs). You might be best off going to the forums for your favorite two or three colleges and asking the specific question on those forums “how is the pre-med counseling/support at this university”?
If you want to go pre-med then think about:
- The cheapest reasonable college so you/your parents can use the money for med school
- The college needs to prepare you for MCATs but still allow you to get a good GPA
- Access to volunteering opportunities (e.g., near a hospital)
- Success in graduates getting into med school
- Options if you don’t go to med school. You think you are going to med school, but less than 20% of pre-med freshman actually do.
I think probably 80% of freshman pre-meds do “wash out”
the ones who get through Bio and Chem?
The ones who get through Organic Chem?
The ones who finish all the pre-med courses?
The ones who have a good GPA and good sGPA?
The ones who still want to go to medical school?
The ones who volunteer and shadow?
The ones who take the MCAT?
The ones who get a good score on the MCAT?
Of the ones who get that far…
The ones then who got a recommendation letter from the Health committee (if that is a thing at your college)?
@bopper, I disagree with your #2 and #3. A college does not prepare a student for the MCAT. And a student doesn’t need to be near a hospital for volunteering, there are many more that are NOT at a hospital.
Best pre-med school would be - the one you like/be happy, able to get high GPA, good support from pre-health office. The first two are a must.
OP, all of the schools you have listed are well established and students who graduate from them are accepted into medical school. If possible, visit all the schools to which you are applying, but only visit after having a long talk with your parents about how college is going to be funded.
And it can be a tough decision making process, deciding which school and what major. You will no doubt do best at a school at which you are comfortable and in a major you like.
And it doesn’t need to be near to or attached to a hospital; there are plenty of volunteer opportunities out there in other locations. And the 80% is a fiction; it has no basis in actual data.
One potential issue that has been highlighted is the difficulty in obtaining shadowing opportunities, as some physicians-understandably-are reluctant to participate. I know my applicants had difficulty in this area but were persistent and were able to participate in the shadowing hours.
You asked us to rank the schools, but we can’t. This is because we can’t rank them for YOU. All of the schools on your list have had students apply and get accepted to medical school. Getting into medical school depends on you, and not whether Case Western, UW, UCD, or Vanderbilt is written on your diploma.
Go where you will achieve a high gpa and where you will thrive and be happy.