My S is down to 4 schools and while we are revisiting each, I think it is still going to be a difficult decision. We live in Texas. He has half scholarships at Furman and TCU and plans to major in either Biology or Chemistry in hopes of attending med school. He is the top 10 kids of his 1,000 person class and is a dual sport student…his work ethic is impressive. While he really wants to do well enough to enter med school we are worried about the possibility of that not happening in which case he would like to do Finance/Economics. He is leaning towards Wake Forest but think that other, not as highly ranked schools might be more doable for pre med. My oldest S is at Rice and the testing/grading there has been ridiculous (with huge grade deflation) and it was solely a “weed out” pre med program with absolutely no early advising or encouragement. This experience has jaded us on what difficult means. He wants to work hard but not have it be impossible to make A’s. Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.
My son is in the same boat. My husband has been on numerous med school admissions committees and he says the two things they care about most is GPA (especially classes in the sciences) and MCAT. Undergrad school is much less important. Those two things being equal, they look at the quality of students’ ECs, volunteering, research, etc. They want an applicant who demonstrates that he or she will care for the whole patient. Hope that helps.
@Momofrlkj and @theforceisstrong: First, congratulations to your son. He is clearly a gifted student. It seems clear he will do well wherever he goes so long as he a) keeps focus especially in freshmen year when students often struggle with academic and time freedom plus personal decision-making and b) finds that he enjoys and is gifted in the courses needed to get you into med school, c) actually enjoys what he studies – I mention this because if I had a dollar for every friend of mine who said they wanted to do medicine who now enjoys/does something completely different… I’d be at least slightly wealthier, ha!
I graduated from Wake Forest now six years ago, so do be aware of that, but when I went there, I had/have several friends who went on to medical school. It’s not easy from whatever school and I think many people, including some of my friends who went straight into medical school, advise working for a few years which will likely improve your chances and make you certain it really is a profession you want to do.
I personally felt WFU prepared me well for my current career field and working hard definitely did happen, but it has made me a better employee and sharpened me for sure and did not keep me from going where I wanted (though I am not in medicine to be clear). These are all good schools and no doubt he would do well at any of them, but, if he decides he really loves medicine and he keeps up his work ethic from high school, he’ll have a very good chance at doing well at Wake and going to med school.
Good luck to your sons and hope they find a place they can believe in and want to change to be even better as I did. At the end of the day he is the one who needs to feel most comfortable with his decision.