<p>I am a Vandy freshman who just finished my first semester at Vanderbilt. I am pre-med who plans on majoring in English. I was wondering what my chances are for transfering to Cornell for my sophmore year.</p>
<p>First Semester Stats
Asian Male-Parents are Texas Residents
GPA- 3.55
Took 18 Hours my first semester.</p>
<p>Ecs in College-
Intramural Football
Pre-Med Club
Youth Club
Did Research for 3 weeks at Vanderbilt's Medical Schools
Shadowed a Doctor for 100 Hours at Vanderbilt's Hospital</p>
<p>High School Stats
Unweighted Gpa - 3.8/4.0
Weighted Gpa-4.1/4.0
Class Rank- Top 14 percent at a Huge Public School---fml
10 A.P.s
Sat Score - 2210/2400 (Total)
1490/1600 (Reading and Math only)</p>
<p>Ecs in High School
Pre-Med Club
Tennis
Asian Club
Youth Club
National Honor Society</p>
<p>^ What kind of gpa do I need for transferring?</p>
<p>I know that Cornell kids who have a 3.5 and a 30 mcat score stand a 90 percent chance of getting into medical school. This is the same at Vandy.</p>
<p>Your statistics about Cornell pre-med students does not appear accurate.
I think it is too generalized.
Frankly, a 3.5 and a 30 is pretty low if you’re trying to get into a decent
medical school.</p>
<p>once you mention pre-med, the adcoms put their pre-med caps on and you need to show both why your prospective major and why medicine. as for gpa, humec told me that they expected at least a 3.6 to even consider you if you’re pre-med, though they don’t really like taking anyone with below a 3.7. my friend in CALS confirmed that the transfer advisor in there said the same thing. CAS is probably even more strict about that. if you want, you can say you’re not pre-med, though your gpa would still be low for CAS admissions and your ECs would probably give you away. </p>
<p>ps 90% getting into med school doesn’t mean all GOOD med schools… so that number doesn’t mean much unless you really want to go to arkansas for med school. just saying :)</p>
<p>^ An MD is an MD. Going to medical school in Arkansas won’t make me any less of a Doctor than if I had gone to some name brand medical school. My goal is to get into 1 U.S. M.D. medical school.</p>
<p>eh… i don’t go to doctors who don’t go to top 20 med schools. maybe i’m just paranoid and thoroughly research all my doctors and no one else does. just my 2 cents. </p>
<p>but take my transfer advice seriously, even if you don’t agree with my view on med schools/doctors. i’d be happy to look over your essays for you if you want when the time comes.</p>
<p>Well I guess I won’t be having you as a patient! Also…ditto to norcalguy’s sentiments. I was thrilled to even make it in to one U.S. M.D. program.</p>
<p>OP: CAS is extremely competitive for transfer admission. A 3.55 is on the low end of the spectrum. In addition, your ECs are generic (especially for a pre-med applicant). Vanderbilt is a fantastic school…what will Cornell offer you than Vanderbilt cannot? Think about that, because I can guarantee the adcom will be wondering about that as well.</p>
<p>As if they lay public can really discriminate between specific residency and fellowship programs. I choose my doctors by asking my doctors who they would go to.</p>
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<p>What’s wrong with Vanderbilt? You aren’t going to get in unless you can clearly communicate why Cornell will be a better environment for you.</p>
<p>no offense meant dewdrop. i just had a bad experience with a few doctors in the past and have started researching them more thoroughly, that’s all. i’m sure you’re a fab doc and i do know how hard it is to get into med school, so i’m not trying to knock it at all. </p>
<p>i also want to know why you want to leave vanderbilt actually. what would you write in your essays?</p>
<p>edit: i actually know lots about med school and all that jazz. i’m family friends with a lot of adcoms at med schools, med school profs, and deans of admission at med schools. my mom also lectures at a med and dental school, sooo… you know. what i said was entirely my own opinion and i was just sharing how i felt. i’m a bit neurotic when it comes to stuff like doctors. but good idea cayugared. maybe i should start doing that lol</p>
<p>In general, the medical profession is not nearly scientific enough, in that so many doctors go on their hunches rather on established fact. And they often do not like to tell their patients that the situation may be uncertain. Especially when it comes to medicine, as opposed to surgery, the most important doctor is yourself – you need to know your own body and become an advocate for yourself.</p>
<p>I can remember three years ago, when I first started showing some weird symptoms of what would end up being a fairly rare disease. When I showed up at the doctor’s office (who did who residency at U of R, for what it’s worth) I wanted blood tests and biopsies done. Did I get them? Nope. I was laughed at.</p>
<p>Well, six months later I couldn’t walk. So little good that diagnosis did me.</p>
<p>Now granted, probably 99 out of every 100 patients who come in with the same set of symptoms as I did would have been fine in a couple of weeks. But the doctors (and I saw four of them that spring) never tried to put all of the symptoms together.</p>
<p>mmmm dewdrop, you’re always very helpful i remember your posts in the fall 09 thread when i was a silly newbie to the transfer (and cornell) world hehe</p>
<p>and wow cayuga. that’s rough and really scary. i’m sorry that happened to you.</p>
<p>This is partially correct in the sense that medicine is all about managing uncertainty. There is no diagnosis that is 100% certain. That’s why when you present with a set of symptoms, the doctor forms a differential with the most likely diagnosis at the top and the least likely (but still possible) diagnosis at the bottom. It’s not that doctors don’t use facts. It’s that one 40 year old woman presenting with pelvic pain and dysmenorrhea can have one disease while a 40 year old woman presenting with the same symptoms can have another disease. Doctors work with probabilities but that means there is uncertainty.</p>
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<p>Absolutely. As they tell us in med school, 85% of the diagnosis comes from the history you take from the patient, 10% from the physical exam, and 5% from lab results. The story the patient gives is very very important in forming the differential diagnosis. Unfortunately, some physicians don’t spend enough time listening to the patient.</p>
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<p>I can’t speak to your specific situation but as I said above, medicine is about managing uncertainty. Many patients come into the office demanding blood tests, antibiotics, MRI’s, whatever. For the physician, particularly a primary care physician, he has to manage costs. Yes, your headache could be due to a brain tumor. But, the physician is not going to order a MRI unless there’s something else that indicates a possible tumor (increased intracranial pressure, cranial nerve defects, etc.). There are other causes of headaches that are far more likely. Hence, if you are the person who does have a brain tumor, your disease may not be diagnosed immediately.</p>
<p>As for the OP: a 3.55 GPA is slightly low but if you have a decent MCAT (30+) and coming from Cornell or Vanderbilt, you should be okay for low and perhaps mid-tier medical schools as long as there aren’t any red flags with the rest of your application.</p>
<p>If only life were that simple that we could say with certainty that the best doctors come from the best programs…but it’s not.</p>
<p>I know a surgeon who went to top programs & received the highest grade in the country on his boards. Trouble was he wasn’t great with a scapel. After several botched surgeries (not life threatening) his license to operate with taken away. So much for choosing doctors that went to top programs!!</p>
<p>Now, about getting into med school - the competition is fierce & getting harder each year. Look at the MD applicants forum - it’s quite sobering. Med schools probably don’t care that much where you went undergrad or what your major was. GPA, MCAT & experience are what count most.</p>
<p>It’s interesting. In my case I was given an MRI, but it was inconclusive. The right test for me should have been a bone scan. I suspect they did the MRI because they got more $$$.</p>
and i do know how hard it is to get into med school, so i’m not trying to knock it at all. </p>