<p>I'm trying to decide between Columbia and UPenn for Premed. Which one is better for med school placement? Is the core curriculum at Columbia a grade killer or a grade booster, for pre-meds? How are the research opportunities around each respective campus?</p>
<p>Look up the med school placements of both schools - I’m sure they’re both extremely good. I have also been told the workload at Columbia is higher than that of Penn, meaning being a pre-med is harder.</p>
<p>A few things. </p>
<p>The Core Curriculum at Columbia College is neither “a grade killer or a grade booster” unless you are particularly poor or good at close reading, critical thinking and academic writing. You should be clear though that the Core is something that you are interested in before deciding to go to Columbia as it is fairly rigorous and time consuming. It’s a fantastic general education program, especially for science majors as it will broaden you in ways that simply meeting distribution requirements at other colleges won’t, and it builds great camaraderie among the students, but you have to want to take it on.</p>
<p>Another point to take into consideration is this. It is generally accepted that Columbia has a somewhat more rigorous academic program than Penn. As an example, most students take 5 couses a semester to meet graduation requirements, at Penn they take 4. </p>
<p>The biggest issue for you has nothing to with the Core or the relative rigor of the undergraduate programs. It is this. Many students go to elite universities to study pre-med, a very small number (perhaps 10-20%) actually stick with it and go to medical school. The courses are very difficult, time consuming and not fun, the competition is intense and the schools actively weed people out (really). If you want to become a doctor, my advice is to go a decent liberal arts college where you will have a comparative advantage and where the professors will want you to do well and get through. </p>
<p>All this said, you should visit Columbia and Penn and make your decision based on the overall enviroment and the culture of each school. They are very different places.</p>