<p>I got accepted into UGA honors and plan to go there over GT for premed. I was wondering if there are any UGA alum for premed that could provide their experience in the college and where all they got accepted for med school. I want to go to a quality med school out of state, but it seems to me that most UGA premed stay in state going to either Georgia Regents or some other local med school. Is this because UGA just doesn't have enough prestige and recognition (not trying to bash on uga here, I'm going there)? If anybody reading this from UGA could provide a list of med schools they got accepted into and their experience it would be extremely appreciated.</p>
<p>I know of several UGA Honor grads that are studying at Harvard Med. Reach out to the Honors college, I am sure they can give you stats on where students are applying and being accepted.They can probably put you in touch with a current upperclassman. Have you attended any of the Honors admitted students programs? </p>
<p>I would think that many med students remain in state for financial reasons.</p>
<p>@whatiscollege223: Or it can be that they are from Georgia and rather not pay the extreme expenses for medical schools out of state. It depends much more on your accomplishments than it does on the UG program. And UGA has a reputable enough UG program such that if you do very well, you will be a candidate at quality OOS medical schools. I also hope you aren’t choosing it over Tech because you perceive Georgia Tech as much harder. Maybe for the physics and math courses you have to take (or not, you may AP out of at least one math), but if you end up a natural sciences major (as opposed to CS, physics, math, or engineering), it doesn’t appear that intense and may provide quality prep. Though, if in honors UGA, that should give you much better than average prep for the MCAT and that sort of thing because maybe you can take honors biology courses or something that stress different type of thinking skills (less regurgitation and multiple choice). </p>
<p>With that said, I’m fairly sure a fair share who attempt to get into such schools end up at some of them. I wouldn’t let it concern you (I, unfortunately know someone who transferred away from UGA to Emory because she was actually concerned about that. I told her that her concern was misplaced and that her assumptions were not very good as I don’t think Emory or Tech would provide much of a bump over UGA honors for those sorts of schools. In addition, it’s harder to stand out). </p>
<p>(UGA alum currently in med school…I don’t think where I got into med school really matters, so I’m not going to say, but I can say I got into more than one.)
There are plenty of opportunities at UGA to shine and be a star student who is competitive for ‘higher’ out of state schools. I know many classmates who went to great out of state schools. Play the game right and the sky’s the limit, that’s what I think anyway. </p>
<p>How to get into med school: Do well in your courses. Do volunteering - both clinical and nonclinical. Do research - the earlier you start, the better. Try to find labs that will give you an opportunity to publish. Get shadowing hours. Get to know faculty member and doctors who can write good recs. Find some hobbies and push your boundaries. Be active and find leadership opportunities. Find your passion and run with it. Always stay productively busy. And when it comes time, do well on the MCAT. I will say that I think quality is better than quantity - there’s no point in doing a lot of things if you can’t say much about it. What I mean is - when you get to applying, you have a lot of room to describe what you’ve done, so you need to have good stories about your experiences, and you need to be able to communicate what you’ve learned and how it’s made you who you are. </p>
<p>I’m not familiar with the honors program and how they can help a premed (I came into the honors program late, so I really wasn’t involved), but I’m sure they have some things. Find an advisor in the program who can help you.</p>
<p>Good luck! </p>
<p>a note about choosing schools:
Financial issues play a HUGE role in deciding where people want to go to school. Med school is ridiculously expensive, and sometimes it simply doesn’t make any sense to go to a more expensive school. Eg, people who want to go into primary care who have no interest in academic medicine - why go to a more expensive school?</p>
<p>Wanting to be close to family or already having a family to worry about is also something people have to think about and may explain why people want to stay in state. </p>
<p>You’ll realize when you get to applying that it’s a very personal decision, and many people purposefully choose their school for reasons that have nothing to do with prestige. </p>
<p>UGA will provide you with all the resources but you will need to work to make it happen. Get involved in CURO, the Center for Undergraduate Research, form close relationships with your professors, and find a way to make UGA your own. There’s nowhere you can’t go from UGA, you might just have to work a little harder to get there. </p>
<p>A lot of people choose GRU simply for financial reasons. One nice part of doing your undergrad at UGA is that you might be in a better financial position to afford a more well-known med school which is the degree that matters more out of the two.</p>
<p>That said, I love being in the honors program at UGA. These have been my experiences so far. </p>
<p>Classes are much better. They’re smaller in size (my accounting class was 40 instead of 300, my geography was 20 instead of 300), taught by more experienced faculty (I’ve had teachers that totally changed my way of thinking about things and teachers that I just wanted to be best friends with and I’ve been at UGA for under a year), and are generally easier because the professors know you can handle busywork and instead give you meaningful assignments and non-memorization-style tests.</p>
<p>The honors program does everything they can to help you succeed. They have alumni events, honors speakers, an online networking system, the Center for Undergraduate Research, and many opportunities to get to know faculty better. You get early registration so you always get the classes you want and a special honors adviser to help you through your first 2 years before switching to an in-major adviser.</p>
<p>Myers is far nicer than any of the other dorms available to freshmen with the exception of Rutherford, which is available to students who are accepted to the Franklin Residential College. I live there now and if you ever come down to Athens, I’d be happy to give you a tour. For me it came down to what did I want to come home to. The high rises and Hill community might have been more social but at Myers I have clean bathrooms, a big room, a nice lobby, study rooms, and a community of people in the same classes as me. I always feel I can go out to socialize but Myers was definitely the right choice for me.</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any other questions and I’d highly suggest joining the UGA Class of 2018 page for more information.</p>
<p>Where you go to medical school matters little compared to where you do your residency and fellowship training. Go for the best price for medical school then excel to gain your residency of choice. Extern at your top residency choices, 3 is the usual limit, early in your senior year of medical school and when possible ask for the main campus, or what ever hospital the admission director or department director staffs, … Be very bright eyed and bushy tailed the entire 4 or 6 week externship. Excel in your residency and you get your fellowship of choice. Of course the practice of medicine and the training for medicine are different but everyone seems to survive one way or another. …even if their personal relationships do not. PS. many people choose their residency/fellowships based on location knowing that 80% of people end up practicing within a 100 mile radius of their final training location. Physicians do not care where their colleagues went to school or trained.; they want you to solve their medical
dilemma. Your reputation is based on whether you routinely are able to do so.</p>