<p>I got into all three and now am thinking about a decision. Can anyone give me some thoughts. How is Stanford for pre-med.</p>
<p>To be honest, I guess it does depend on your personal preference. For instance, your decision might regard your city environment choice, etc. But, with that being said, if I were you I would honestly go to Columbia University. Columbia Rabi scholars!!! Man, I would be flattered!!!</p>
<p>OP, please note that the above person registered yesterday, has posted 3 times, each in “Stanford vs. ___” and each time he/she just advocates for the non-Stanford school with dubious reasons. edit: one of his/her posts was deleted. Trollery senses tingling.</p>
<p>Here’s what I said to another student regarding pre-med at Stanford that I think applies here as well:</p>
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<p>All these schools would be great for pre-med, so this should definitely come down to other preferences and fit. Do you want to be in or near a city? Do you like a natural landscape as well? What are your academic interests? What sort of extracurricular opportunities are you looking for? Are you looking to do research? What climate do you like? Are you interested in an intense environment or a laid-back one? etc.</p>
<p>Well I’ve never visited Stanford’s campus before. But I do like to keep busy. What’s the environment like there.</p>
<p>my main concern is that the programs at upenn and columbia guarantee me research over the summer. at stanford how hard would it be for me to begin research as a freshman</p>
<p>so it looks like stanford’s bio department for grad school is #1 in the country. does the undergrad department also the same?</p>
<p>At schools like Stanford, there’s often little difference between the quality of the grad portion and the quality of the undergrad portion. Some posters on CC like to draw a distinction, but the reality is that the two have the same professors, same classes, same facilities, same resources. The quality of a department in the grad portion “leaks over” to undergrad, which is why I think it’s always a good idea for students who know what they’re interested in to look at departmental rankings. (Looking at “overall university” rankings makes no sense, but subject-specific ones do.)</p>
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<p>While you don’t have a research offer in hand from Stanford right now, believe me, it’s extremely easy to get a position over the summer. Most departments offer an undergrad research program. See [url=<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/undergrad/cgi-bin/drupal_ual/OO_research_opps_ResearchOpportunities.html]this[/url”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/undergrad/cgi-bin/drupal_ual/OO_research_opps_ResearchOpportunities.html]this[/url</a>].</p>
<p>It’s not hard to get into research as a freshman. When I was first admitted, I was also concerned about this, so I talked to a few profs who assured me I’d be able to. Of course, you need to have some background in the subject, and you may be working more with a team of grad students at first, but if you are qualified to do research (as I assume you are), it’s not hard to get face time with profs as a freshman. Being on the quarter system also means that you’ll be able to advance in material quickly. I took my first grad-level class the second quarter of my freshman year and jumped into research that same quarter. I’m not special either.</p>
<p>@phantas:</p>
<p>Thanks for your input and your comments on both programs. I am also considering between Columbia (though I was not selected as a Rabi scholar - kudos to columbia76 btw) and Stanford, intending to apply to med. school after undergrad.</p>
<p>If you don’t mind me asking, how competitive do Stanford students get in terms of applying for med school? (it seems that a significant fraction of stanford undergrads go pre-med)</p>