<p>Hey everybody!</p>
<p>This is my first post on CC! I've been lurking for a while and have a transfer question. </p>
<p>I'm currently a first-semester freshman at Towson University in Maryland. I'm planning on going to med school so I am working on premed reqs. The reason I ended up at Towson is because I love the campus (except for the hills) and I basically was set on getting a computer science degree because that's all I could see myself majoring in. </p>
<p>After taking some classes and researching my options, I decided that I do not want to have anything to do with computer science as it is very boring to me and not something I want to do. At this point (and this has been on my mind for years) I am set on going to medical school. College Park has so many more options for someone like me who isn't set on a specific major. I'm leaning towards some specialization of engineering which of course Towson does not have. Along with the "major" issue (see what I did there?) is the issue of which school will look better on a med school application. I think it would be agreed on that College Park would look better but my question is, what would you do?</p>
<p>SAT:
CR: 590
M: 610
W: 490
T: 1690</p>
<p>HS GPA: 3.3
No grades yet in college but I would guess that I am on my way to at least a 3.8 right now. </p>
<p>P.s: I have already applied to College Park for transfer and will get a decision in December.</p>
<p>bump? I need some opinions guys</p>
<p>I’m not sure… I didn’t get into College Park as a senior in high school (and got into Wisconsin & Texas) , with much better stats (~1950 SAT, 3.75 GPA) and it was instate… I’d hope for the best</p>
<p>You need to make an appointment with the pre-med advisor at Towson. That person can tell you which med schools have admitted Towson graduates in recent years. Med school admissions is based primarily on your overall GPA, your GPA in the pre-med courses, and your MCAT scores. The name of the college or university that you graduated from is much less important than the other factors. You don’t have to transfer to UMCDP just to be able to go to med school.</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice! While I realize that the name is not as important, I feel like having more options for majors at college park would beneficial because I don’t really know what to major in. I’m considering Towson’s Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics, and Biochemistry Degree (named the MB3 program.) I was told by my biology professor that I am very skilled in biology and would have no problem getting into that program (it is screened.)</p>
<p>The only problem is that I can’t help but think that if I can’t get into med school that I feel like a major in that field will not help me much. No offense to anybody but I don’t really want to explicitly be a lab scientist/researcher. It seems very boring to me. That being said, I DO love biology but don’t know what to do lol</p>
<p>Basically, I think too much. Obviously.</p>
<p>If you are actually speaking with your Biology professor, then you are probably in the right place currently. Imagine being in a bio class at UMCP, or Michigan, or any other public flagship, with 300 students of whom 60-70 must fail for the weedout factor to work. Only the top 30-50 will ever get face time with a Professor. With your SAT scores you posted, do you really think you’ll be top 10%-15% and UMCP?</p>
<p>Take advantage of the attention you’re getting at Towson… that is your best shot at med school. And figure out some way to improve your likely score on the MCAT… why do you think an 80% scorer on the SAT would score highly on the MCAT? I don’t know what the conversion is from SAT -> MCAT, but I suspect 80% SAT -> 15% MCAT, or something of that order. The fact is that some brains are well wired to perform top 5% on Standardized Tests, and some are not. The pool of MCAT test takers is composed of students who did extremely well in college, AND are good test takers in class and Standardized. Otherwise they would have had difficulty getting the support of the premed advisors in the school, or would have failed in running the pre-med weedout course gauntlet (especially Organic Chemistry).</p>
<p>Seriously, if I were in your shoes with a 1200 SAT coming into college, I would figure out some way to deconstruct a standardized test to the extent that I could rebuild it… understand how each question is constructed and what the trick is in each one. Since you weren’t born with a brain that intuitively picks up these Standardized Test tricks so you score top 5%, you’re going to have to do it the hard way… take hundreds of hours to dissect MCAT tests so that you could write one yourself. If you do nothing, well, history tends to repeat itself.</p>
<p>It’s sad too, if I was able to stay awake and focused 100% during the stupid SAT I would have probably done a lot better 
It makes me feel so stupid.</p>
<p>Last week I got a 94% on my first college bio exam. My prof and I talked for about an hour in her office about how she thought I was really good at bio and should rethink transferring. She was talking about how she got into med school but quit because she didn’t like it. That probably would help me out a lot to have someone like that push me in the right direction.</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>MB3 sounds like a really interesting program. Biotech is not just lab work. Think of all the people who work in that industry, from the folks in the white lab coats, to the pharmaceutical company personnel who spend their days reading research publications in order to spot the next big cure before a competitor finds it, to the lab equipment sales persons, to the MBA who is running the company. There are many opportunities waiting for you!</p>