Toughest decision I've ever faced: Which college do I go to for Pre-med???

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>I need serious help deciding which college to go to for Pre-med. My options: Saint Louis University or George Washington University???</p>

<p>Here's a quick summary of factors in both these schools:</p>

<p>Scholarship:</p>

<p>GW- No scholarship! GW, although prestigious, is VERY expensive!
SLU- Gave me an excellent scholarship, which my parents can pay for without taking out a loan. </p>

<p>Program of Study:</p>

<p>GW- I got into the Scholars in Quantitative and Natural Sciences program (which is an intensive research program) It involves lots of calculus, statistics and quantitative physics. I didn't take math in high school and I hate physics, but I’m willing to try.
SLU- Normal Pre-med, although I can still apply to the Honors program next semester.</p>

<p>Ranking:</p>

<p>GW- Much higher ranked (according to Forbes 2012, it is 88th nationally as compared to SLU, which is 257th) This big difference in ranking scares me = (</p>

<p>Early selection:</p>

<p>GW- There’s an early selection program for GW's medical school and if selected, I don't have to take the MCAT. (However, they only choose like 1-2 people out of 100 or more applications, so how big of an advantage would this be?) SLU doesn’t have this. </p>

<p>EMS volunteer work:</p>

<p>GW- There's this thing called GWEMERG, which, if I get into, lets me volunteer for emergency services. SLU doesn’t have this.</p>

<p>ResLife:</p>

<p>GW- I'm local to D.C so I have to commute from home.
SLU- Dorm life!</p>

<p>So what do I do? </p>

<p>A. Attend GWU as it's more prestigious, well-known and well connected with famous organizations in D.C (like the Red Cross, FDA, etc.) but end up with a huge debt.</p>

<pre><code> OR
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<p>B. Go to SLU and hope for the best. </p>

<p>My dream is to get into medical school and I want to make sure that the undergraduate school I go to will help me accomplish this! I want to practice medicine as an MD and I don’t plan on doing research. I’m aiming for the top med schools (JHU, WASHU, Yale, etc.)</p>

<p>Will GWU’s name and prestige get me into such schools or will going to ordinary SLU, but doing really well there, offer me a better chance?</p>

2

<p>Where you go doesn’t matter to med schools as long as neither is a community college. Go to the one where you’ll be happier and get the best grades</p>

3

<p>

</p>

<p>My guess is that being a premed will be extremely difficult for you. Gen Chem and particularly Organic requires strong math mental ability, as does physics (obviously). GW offers a lot of scholarships to the top xx % of their incoming class, and that will be your competition for A’s.</p>

<p>Thus, go to the school that you will like to be at for four years, regardless of med school.</p>

4

<p>The easiest one - go to the one that you personally feel fits you the best. Nothing else matters as much.</p>

5

<p>@Weeknd I actually do have the option of going to a community college for the first two years and then transferring to a top university. It’s not guaranteed, but it’s still a shot. Why would going to a community college lessen your chances for med school? </p>

<p>@bluebayou It’s not that I’m bad at these subjects…I just have to work extra hard. I’m confident about doing well in pre-med at SLU because I’m starting out with pretty basic courses. It’s just that GW’s SQNS program has more advanced courses and idk how that would turn out. </p>

<p>Med schools are constantly encouraging challenging courses but is it at the cost of GPA? If I did join GW’s SQNS and got like a 3.4 as compared to a 3.8 at SLU, would med schools be lenient towards the GW G.P.A due to the challenging cooursework?</p>

<p>Also, what do you mean by “GW offers a lot of scholarships to the top xx% and that will be my competition for A’s?”</p>

6

<p>That’s the thing. I don’t knw which college is the best for me. I’m so terribly confused!</p>

7

<p>"Med schools are constantly encouraging challenging courses but is it at the cost of GPA? " - I disagree with this attitude. The courses should be selected without consideration of level of difficulties. If you are interested in some classes and/or believe that they will help you in a future, take them and make sure to work your ----- off to get that A. Some will require more time than others, but no single class in UG will be comparable to difficulty level and to time requirements of classes in Med. School. Better get yourself prepared to work as hard as you can imagine, it will be harder later no matter what.</p>

8

<p>OP, it’s mid August, how is it that you are still considering this? Did you just get off a WL at GW?</p>

9

<p>

</p>

<p>Don’t be so sure. SLU has a combined 7/8 program, which attracts a lot of high stat kids, but yet not all make it to the next round, i.e., acceptance to SLU’s med school.</p>

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</p>

<p>GW offers automatic merit scholarships to the top xx % of their class. Those kids come in with excellent backgrounds in math/science, including acing AP/IB science courses. Think about it.</p>

10

<p>@plumazul I paid minimum deposit at both these universities cause’ I wasn’t in the States when the time came to make a decision and I couldn’t visit the campuses beforehand =/</p>

<p>@bluebayou I didn’t get into the med scholars (7/8) program. Yea, i guess that’s why i didn’t get any scholarship at GW because i didn’t go any AP/IB stuff. So just to be sure, performance, rather than ranking, matters most to med schools? Even if it means doing well in just regular pre-med?</p>

<p>Cause’ then I think i’d be better off going to SLU, cause’ i don’t want to end up with like 100K debt in undergrad…</p>

<p>What would you guys do? Go where the scholarship is or go to the more higher ranked institution?</p>

11

<p>Follow the $$. It’s what I did and I have no regrets. :slight_smile:
Good luck.</p>

<p><a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/st-louis-university-2506[/url]”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/st-louis-university-2506&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/george-washington-university-1444[/url]”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/george-washington-university-1444&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

12

<p>follow the money… keep your undergrad debt as low as possible</p>

13

<p>

</p>

<p>Absolutely.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Yes.</p>

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</p>

<p>What I would NOT do is attend a college/town in which I did not want to live for four years.</p>

<p>Are you an international or US citizen? That makes a HUGE difference because many/most? US med schools do not accept any internationals.</p>

14

<p>Thanks so much for the advice guys! I rly appreciate it!</p>

<p>@bluebayou I’m a U.S citizen so all good there =) </p>

<p>So i guess i’ll try out slu for now (cause’ it’s HIGH time i pick one), but if for some reason, it doesn’t work out and i decide to transfer, will this have any effect on applying to med school? (in terms of coursework, extra-curriculars, or getting to knw ur professors?) Also, are transfer students eligible for honors and scholarships?</p>

15

<p>Just a reminder that “some colleges reserve the right to rescind an offer of admission if they discover that a student has made a double deposit” (from the College Board website.</p>

16

<p>I agree with the above. Here’s some more general wisdom from this board:</p>

<p>1) Name of undergrad doesn’t matter much–not nearly as much as GPA, MCAT, extracurriculars (shadowing, research, leadership, volunteer work), letters of recommendation, essays, interviews. GW probably isn’t considered a top school in the eyes of med school adcoms (even though it’s a great place!).</p>

<p>2) You probably don’t get much of a “boost” for having a low GPA at a higher ranked school as long as both schools are universities. You should avoid attending a CC if possible because they are not known for their academic rigor, and you need to go to a rigorous school.</p>

<p>3) It’s foolish to assume that because a school is “easier” you’ll have a higher GPA. Regardless of where you go, you’ll be competing against the top students there. In my experience, top students at top schools and top students at (state, for example) schools are quite similar.</p>

<p>4) “Aiming for top med schools” is premature for a variety of reasons, including the fact that all US MD schools are fantastic, med admissions are not like undergrad admissions, and you’re a long way off from applying (if you even make it that far!)</p>

17

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</p>

<p>Yes (honors), generally no (merit money).</p>

18

<p>And yes, transferring will affect coursework, ECs, and getting to know professors. Credits may or may not transfer, if you join an EC as a soph or junior transfer you may get passed over for leadership positions by people who have been there 1 or 2 years more than you, and if you are at any school for less time you have less time to get to know professors.</p>

19

<p>D1 was a soph transfer and is applying this current cycle. </p>

<p>Agree that honors are available and that merit scholarships are generally rare and for smaller amounts for transfers compared to fr admits; the exceptions seem to be for some IS publics.</p>

<p>Transfers need to make a concerted and immediate effort to make up for lost time at their new school. It’s not an impossible task, but it is real, so your reason for transferring should be a strong one. </p>

<p>IMO transferring is tough for all the academic and social reasons you can imagine, so I wouldn’t recommend it as a strategy when entering as a fr, only as an option if things don’t work out.</p>