<p>Can someone tell me more about the University of Portland and Lewis and Clark College, and Reed in regards to the academics, people etc? If you could tell me everything you know about UP, Reed, and L&C, that would be great! </p>
<p>I'm interested in double-majoring in Biology and French (or at least obtaining a minor in French), as a Pre-Med student. UP and L&C are definitely "match" schools for me. The majority of my classes are Honors and AP (where applicable). My WEIGHTED GPA is 4.37. I think Reed is going to be my "reach" school. </p>
<p>I attend a very liberal catholic school (weird seeing those two words together huh? (: ) so I think that I'll be comfortable at any of those schools... but the smoking rumors about Reed and L&C do worry me. </p>
<p>Which schools have a better Pre-Med program? I'm currently really interested in UP, but I heard their Pre-Med program isn't very developed yet. </p>
<p>Son looked at UP last spring, did the overnight visit. Enjoyed the visit, liked the current students he met. Didn’t feel there was much diversity, and felt it was a little too controlling compared to his other choices. As you are a liberal catholic just reminding you it’s not Jesuit. Campus is small and a ways from downtown in a suburban area.
Don’t know anything about pre-med, but at several presentations students gave the impression double majoring was common and not that hard to accomplish. I was impressed that the school made an effort to let their students talk about their experiences. Final decision was for another school based on the major offered, but overall impression of UP was positive.</p>
<p>Reed is definitely known for its drug use and L&C is probably not far behind, but at both schools you won’t be pushed to participate. All of those schools should be fine for premed prep courses. Premed is NOT a program but a set of courses you have to take.</p>
<p>And these days Medical Schools want to see more variety in an applicant’s roster of coursework. Simply majoring in Biology is no guarantee of acceptance to med school. Of course they want to see the basics (G. Bio, Organic Chem, etc.) but people like Math majors and such are increasingly being admitted to medical school.</p>
<p>Do UP, L&C, and Reed have challenging science (bio) programs? I enjoy and thrive in a challenging environment, but not a cut-throat, competitive one. </p>
<p>I realize “pre-med program” wasn’t very specific… what I meant to say was: Are their science classes any good? Are they developed enough to prepare me for grad/ med school? How is the school support and advisory system?</p>
<p>French and Biology are genuinely my two favorite subjects, so regardless of what a med school admissions officer thinks, I plan to double-major (if I can manage to do so).</p>
<p>If you can look farther away, Dickinson College in Pennsylvania (in case you don’t know it it’s more selective than UP or L&C but less than Reed ) has excellent departments both in French and in the sciences.</p>
<p>I would say all those schools will have challenging courses. I know one young lady from L&C last year graduated to go directly into a Biology PhD program. She was in the running for the Raitte award for top graduate. Reed is also well known for getting students ready for PhD work.</p>
<p>^: I think OP wants to major in something scientific for career preparation, and in French “for fun”.
Op: The #1 factor will be GPA + MCAT scores, then research and internships/shadowing.
Everything else will be cherry on the cake. If you don’t have the fundamentals, it won’t help you.
However if you can hack a double major, some med schools actually do care about that as it shows the ability to handle a heavy workload with a high average (double major with a B = no good), and some of the “top” med schools appreciate foreign language fluency, especially when it combines with an international medical experience.</p>
<p>I agree that med schools like to see fluency in another language, but I’m not sure that French would move any of them since we don’t have a significant population in the US that mostly only speaks French.</p>
<p>I think it’s fine to take some classes for fun, but to do a double major at a risk to GPA is dangerous. A person can better their fluency without majoring or even minoring in the language.</p>
<p>That’s another story… but actually some areas like French speakers because they pick up various forms of creole very quickly. There’s a sizable number of Haitians or other creole speakers in the US. French is also spoken by a variety of immigrants (as a second language, but spoken better than English). There’s also everything dealing with Canada (where French is required and there’s some “loi 101” business). Ultimately, I think it’ll also serve in distinguishing the candidate from those who speak Spanish only (not that it’d be pointless to learn a little Spanish.) I’d also recommend Somali, Hmong… but these aren’t frequently taught languages.
re: French, it all depends on the school - how broad is the curriculum? how traditional (ie, 1-th century lit, 18th century lit, etc)? how easy is it to access internships? I recommended Dickinson to OP because their curriculum is culture-based, not literature-based (as is the case for a few schools) so it’s more relevant for a potential premed student, and their science department is great.
I don’t think French would be a threat to the GPA. But all in all, most high school students underestimate what a major is, and end up doing exactly what you say, ie, taking a few courses in the subject they like, rather than majoring in it.</p>
<p>We know that typically, med schools are GPA/MCAT driven, so, no, very unlikely that it’ll be taken into account. You’ll be expected to have the highest possible GPA, period. In addition, students who wish tyo go to med schools do well when they choose a school where they’re easily top 50% and typically top 25% <em>as long as</em> the other students have good work ethics (so that there’s minimal " negative peer pressure").</p>
<p>Only about 7% of Reed alums bother with applying to med schools, it seems. Lots go to get PhDs in biology, though, even in sheer numbers.</p>
<p>Reed has fantastic science programs. You should create a new list. If you like Reed, look into schools like Carleton, Grinnell, Whitman and Vassar and other selective LACs. L&C and UofP have only one thing in common with Reed: they are all in Portland. </p>
<p>where you go to school is not going to have much effect on whether you get into medical school. the stats you’re requesting are meaningless for a lot of reasons. schools can have 100% of their applicants get in, but that’s only because the schools would write letters of rec for those few students. no letters, no support, no admission, as far as the school is concerned. </p>
<p>Go anywhere where you’re not the bottom feeder, do some research, get good pre-med advising, score a high gpa, do well on the MCAT, interview well, and take your chances. Without the high gpa, it doesn’t matter where you go.</p>
it’s more selective than UP or L&C but less than Reed ) has excellent departments both in French and in the sciences.</p>