i currently go to BC and im thinking of transferring to Rutgers next fall.
if im planning to do premed, would it be better to attend rutgers instead of bc?
i’d save about 10k/year if i go to rutgers. is it worth it to just stay at bc to get into med school?
i also heard that rutgers has merged with umdnj. does attending rutgers as an undergrad give u an advantage in getting into umdnj or RWJ? (I’m from NJ)
does Rutgers have any grade inflation in the sciences?
thanks!
Chilly, the main point of doing premed is to go to med school, no? BC’s premed program is probably better than Rutgers’. Med schools, like all schools, worry about rankings. MCAT scores are a big part of that. A partnership with a med school could help. You should probably worry about getting into the best med school possible, not just one in NJ unless there are urgent family reasons to stay. As far as grade inflation, you might be better off posting on Rutgers’ board, not BC’s. In general, I think you’ll find much less grade inflation in the sciences than in the humanities.
Finally, 10k per year is nothing to sneeze at, but compared to the cost of med school, it’s probably not a huge amount. There are people that leave med school several hundred grand in debt.
Dear chillychilly : I will leave the money issue aside since it is either the driver for your decision and will trump all other considerations or it is an outlier data point. Effectively, you are asking whether a school ranked #31 nationally is the same educational experience as university ranked #126 (depending on campus attended). Taking that significant a downgrade in the hopes of landing at one particular medical institution is a recipe for failure.
chilly:
med school admissions is all about MCAT+GPA+EC’s. (generally in that order.)
(Actually, the MCAT is mostly important for scoring an interview, after which the test’s importance declines precipitously. Of course, you have to be interviewed before you can be accepted…)
No, attending Rutgers will not give you a leg up in acceptance, since it will come down to the above factors. So the question really is, where can you maximize GPA+ECs. (MCAT is a lot of your own prep time, regardless of where you attend undergrad.)
yes, and no. ALL allopathic med schools in the US are excellent. Unless someone wants to conduct research, and/or be an academic, there is no real need to attend a top 20 med school. Even a graduate of the bottom-ranked med school is still addressed as, “Doctor.”