<p>Ok. I was in a sort of similar situation when I was deciding on schools. </p>
<p>I was deciding between Berkeley, UCLA, and Wellesley (many people from CA find them in this situation). I think for the California schools you can pretty much decide which of Cal, UCLA, and USC you want to go to – Cal doesn’t have a pre-med track necessarily; most of the people there who are pre-med are MCB (molecular and cellular bio) and they do not have a medical school (they use the facilities at UCSF). UCLA obviously has a great pre-med program. And USC has a good program also. I chose Berkeley over UCLA but that was me and I am not pre-med.</p>
<p>Being on a pre-med track is very similar at Cal and Wellesley. Wellesley also does not have a medical school on campus. At Wellesley you cannot be just “pre-med”, you have to major in something … most people do Biology, Neuroscience, Chemistry, etc whereas some people are Italian majors. You can major in anything and still be pre-med. </p>
<p>Duke has a great pre-med program. Most definitely. I have lots of really close friends who are pre-med there. The Duke Medical Center is right on West Campus and you can do research there during the year and the summer. </p>
<p>I cannot say anything about service academies. </p>
<p>Compared to the California schools, Wellesley’s class sizes are much much smaller. In the sciences your largest classes will be introductory level classes (intro bio, intro chem, etc) and those lectures will about 30 people. Labs are capped between 12 and 15 or so depending on the science. You won’t be in a room with 600 other people for your lecture like at the UCs; your lecture with a professor at Wellesley will be the same size as your discussion part of the course with a TA at a large university. I think that’s great for student learning and for student interaction with the professor. Professors at Wellesley are completely accessible, almost at any time of the day – some professors are up at 4am just like some college students are! The personal attention you get at Wellesley is really unparalleled in my opinion. I have gone back to local UCs in my area and sat in on friends’ lectures and a lot of students are on their laptops on facebook or checking email. A lot of professors at large universities will post their powerpoint slides before or after class so students don’t bother coming to class at all. At Wellesley, you are expected to come to class and be active in lecture – yes, some professors will post their slides, but the information you get from the actual lecture is so much more than a few sentences on a powerpoint slide. </p>
<p>Class sizes at Duke are actually quite similar to those at Wellesley. Their professors are open with their students just like at Wellesley also. At both institutions, you can do research with faculty members in their labs. I think the difference is that Duke has their own medical center, so you could go in to shadow a doctor without leaving campus, for example. You can have those opportunities at Wellesley also (and many students do) – you just have to leave campus to get to them. Many students volunteer at Mass General Hospital or at Beth Israel or at Harvard Med School, among others. </p>
<p>I think the one thing that you can be certain about no matter where you go is that all of these institutions have great pre-med opportunities. And you will a great education at all of these schools as well. What is really really different about these schools is the culture. The UCs, USC, and Duke all have large campuses with tens of thousands of students. Wellesley has a little over 2000 students. The culture of each of these schools is soooo different. When I was looking at schools, I knew that the UCs were a lot larger than Wellesley but I didn’t look beyond that. Now that I’m here and I’ve had a chance to go to other schools as another college student, I can see how student life is really different at schools that look almost identical in a brochure. </p>
<p>If you want me to go into more about this, just ask on here or PM me. I have visited and been to lectures at Berkeley, UCLA, and Duke many times and have close friends at all these schools who are pre-med. And obviously, if you want to know more about Wellesley, you can ask about that as well. </p>
<p>My biggest advice to you would be to visit if you can. I know from California it’s a 6 hour flight to Boston, but if you’re coming to Wellesley this week for Spring Open Campus, it would be a great way for you to visit the campus. Visiting is soooo important! And don’t just stay with your host or hostess, wander around, meet other students… every student has a different perspective of their school! I think there might only be one more Duke Devil Days (and today might be the last one, since they’re all on Mondays I think)… and I heard Cal Day was last week… But I’m rambling now… just visit visit visit your schools!</p>