<p>Hey. I started this thread on the College Admissions and search forum...but it's not getting too many responses so far and I want to know your opinions. Thank you.</p>
<p>Guys,
Thanks for those who’ve helped out with my question. From what I’ve been reading, looks like WashU is the better fit for me, and it seems like a great school for getting its premeds into medical school.
The Johns Hopkins students were helpful to me, too, but overall I’ve been hearing all positive things about WUSTL.</p>
<p>Glad we were able to provide some of our opinions, and glad you also checked out the Johns Hopkins CC forum as well.
I saw your stats, and they look superb (but remember, take my advice and apply widely and ‘top 15’ colleges are NOT safeties). You have a great chance- go for it!</p>
<p>This forum just might be slightly biased…but good choice muchoschoco ;)</p>
<p>Ummmm… WUSTL is a terrific school, but Johns Hopkins is THE pre-med/med school…</p>
<p>Lobzz, thanks for inputing, but really your comment is NOT helpful to me at all. If you read my thread, I wanted one of the country’s best premed schools + HAPPY students + beautiful campus. And I got so many replies back-- thanks to both WashU and Johns Hopkins students and some other CCers as well. It seems like the ending consensus is that WashU students, and premeds, are happy and also help each other out. Furthermore, it seems like WashU has a greater success at getting its premeds into medical schools, and top medical schools for that matter. I know Johns Hopkins is a great school for premed, for WashU seems to have both quality of academics and life for premeds. Anyways, that seems to be the mass majority of the opinions I’ve been getting around on CC. </p>
<p>So if you count better learning environment for premeds + success into medical school, I’d have to say WashU is the best premed school here. And I believe WashU has a top ranked med school as well-- #4 or #3…but seriously I don’t care about quality of med school at this point. I just want to go into premed first and then get into a med school!</p>
<p>The beautiful campus requirement pretty much rules out JHU.</p>
<p>From your post above it sounds like you have all the info you need…</p>
<p>I remember reading that Johns Hopkins may refuse to write letters of recommendation for some of their graduates if they’re not deemed qualified enough. Critics of this pre-screening policy point out that it should be up to the medical school’s admission committee, not to Johns Hopkins, to decide who’s qualified for that particular school. I don’t believe that WashU engages in this type of pre-screening, but I’m not 100% sure; maybe a current WashU student can clarify this. Anyway, just another data point for someone interested in comparing these schools’ premed programs…</p>
<p>TomisMom-</p>
<p>I have never, ever, heard of something like that being said about washu.</p>
<p>As a note, I also turned down JHU for WashU (bme, not pre-med).</p>
<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>Yea I already made my decision. If I get into both, I’m going to have to choose to attend WashU over JHU. A lot of factors went into my decision, but one thing I noticed is that all the people who are saying nice things about WashU are nice, police, and offered helpful information. Some of the people who said to choose JHU said very nice things about JHU but were sometimes…aggressive and bashed on other schools…and that made me wonder if there was an inferiority complex going on. Of course, a lot of students on the JHU forums were very helpful as well. But WashU students seem to be always…happy and helpful. I think JHU is really a great school, but I just think WashU is a great school and a happier environment.</p>
<p>My husband is a physician who has several colleagues with kids at WUSTL in premed who did NOT make it into med school and are discouraged as they believe WUSTL was competitive enough to bring grades down and make the students less desirable to med schools. I don’t know how much they applied themselves in college, but obviously they were good enough students to get in to WUSTL in the first place. I called WUSTL med school admissions myself and talked to a counselor and they said where you go to school does not matter, what grades, MCATs you earn does. U of Iowa said the exact same thing. So we are saving our dollars for med school. Now I am proud of my son for getting into wash U undergrad, but those same attributes also got him full scholarships to bradley U and u of Iowa, and the money saved can go to med school. I’ve lived through paying off med school loans and it is not fun at all. Coming out of residency with 100K of loans, no savings, no retirement, no house down payment. And nowadays, you can count on 200K of loans. Definitely do not want to add undergrad loans to the problem. Just my two cents. Enjoy Wash U! Especially if you are either super rich or really poor, because it is too much for those inbetween!</p>
<p>Where you go undergrad does matter, to some degree. Yes, grades and MCAT scores are the most important consideration (and so is the interview once you make it past the screening). However, as a member of a top med school admit comm- most of the files that pass my desk are from top schools, including WUSTL. Pre-med is competitive, and grade inflation/deflation is recognized.</p>