Does anyone have any information on Wesleyan’s preparation and support for students planning to pursue a career in the medical field? How are the sciences as Wesleyan, especially for the Molecular Biology & Biochemistry major? I heard that they have great research opportunities and a generally high acceptance rate to med school, but I don’t know much else.
I’m choosing between Wesleyan ($15k/yr) and two in-state schools (0k/yr for one, 10k/yr for the other), so I need to compare price vs. educational opportunity.
Any info would be so helpful!
The sciences at Wesleyan are superb. Wesleyan spent the better part of the late 1950s and early 1960s retrofitting itself for a future that would be clearly dominated by Big Science in general and by research universities in particular. To that end, it did something that was fairly scandalous at the time, especially in the tiny world of small New England colleges - it added a small number of doctoral programs in the “hard” sciences and ethnomusicology, a specialty in which Wesleyan pioneered.
The upshot is that by the 1980s, Wesleyan was already garnering twice as much government funded research as its nearest rivals, Amherst and Williams (who are themselves among the most highly esteemed liberal arts colleges in the country) for roughly the same number of science majors. By the 1990s, with the synergy created by having such a concentrated group of advanced research labs working in such proximity to each other, it was able to offer one of the first Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (MB&B) majors by a liberal arts college.
People often say they are searching for “the best of both worlds” in an elite education: the depth of a large research university and the intimacy of a small liberal arts college. Dartmouth, Brown, Princeton, Rice and a few others fit the bill. Wesleyan does, too. IMO, looked at from that point of view, $15,000 a year is a bargain.
Here are the numbers that Wesleyan reports wrt med school admission https://www.wesleyan.edu/careercenter/medschooladmission.html
We don’t know the details behind those numbers, e.g., MD and DO?, only those who received committee letter?, but the health professions advising office should provide more details if you contact them. Do the same with your other 2 schools as well–not only are you looking for info about ultimate acceptance rates, but also the number of molecular bio/biochem majors that have successfully applied (can be hard to keep high GPA in these majors), level of professionalism of advisors, school’s research and patient facing volunteer/work opportunities, etc.
Regarding the relative prices of the 3 schools—will you have to take out debt to afford Wesleyan?
@circuitrider hey thanks for all the info? From your profile image, do you/did you attend Wesleyan?
I love the small size of Wesleyan, but it does make me worried that they are such a liberal artsy school. But maybe their sciences are good too, they’re just outshined by the liberal arts, which are superb? I’m having a hard time convincing my parents of getting a Bachelor of Arts degree even though I plan to apply to med school, or at least pursue the sciences.
@Mwfan1921 thanks so much for responding! I took your advice and emailed the health advising offices for each school.
And yes, I would have to take out loans to afford Wesleyan. My brother took 2 gap years and will be in school the same years as me, so my parents will have to support both of us. However, my brother didn’t get any scholarships and will be attending an in-state school at full price of $25k/yr. This is a little frustrating because now I’ve put my parents in an awkward position: either I stay in-state so they can better afford to send my brother to school, or they let me go to a better school where I’ve worked my butt off to get into. I think this is why they’re having a hard time saying “no” to Wes.
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Fields such as physics, chemistry, biology, geosciences and math are core liberal arts disciplines.
Congrats on being accepted to Wesleyan! Wesleyan is clearly an excellent, prestigious and well respected school. But if your passion is truly medicine, you might want to consider the free option if it is a solid, reputable choice that sends significant numbers of kids to medical school. Although you will here debate about this, most people agree that the prestige of your undergrad institution has little if any impact on whether or not you will be accepted to medical school. What matters are your GPA, MCAT score and your ECs (research, clinical work, community service, leadership). Consider going where you will get the best GPA and save money.
Medical school is also insanely expensive and you will want to save money on undergrad if possible. The less debt the better. You didn’t mention which in-state schools you are considering. If you want better advice, let us know your other choices as well.
Well, let me put it this way: I don’t disagree with @gallentjill that costs are important when med school is on the horizon. But, you need to keep it in perspective. At $15K a year, just how much of that is really going to be debt? For the sake of argument, let’s say you borrow $5,000 a year. That tops out at $20,000 at the end of four years. That is at the low end of average undergraduate indebtedness which I believe, hovers around $35k. Just because you’re going to be a doctor doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself of something you’ve obviously worked hard to obtain, so long as it can be had at a reasonable price.
Secondly, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that you will change career goals. Not every pre-med sticks with it. Not because they wash out necessarily, but, because their curiosity gets piqued by another subject. With all the research opportunities at Wesleyan, you might decide to pursue a PhD. The finances there are completely different. The university pays you.
Yes, indeed, I am a proud Wesleyan grad. And, I am familiar with the annoying two-step in reasoning that, guys especially, have to go through in explaining that going to a LAC does not mean you want to be a portrait painter or a sculptor (although, there’d be nothing wrong with that.) In some ways, the sciences do labor in the shadow of the flashier alumni base of the “Wesleyan Mafia” in film, theater and dance. But, Wesleyan does have its stars in the medical arena, including the departing head of the FDA (Wesleyan’s only Trump appointee), the founder of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and many, many unsung doctors practicing all over the country.
@gallentjill Yeah, I understand that most say undergrad doesn’t matter, and I mostly believe it.
The in-state schools I’m considering are Montana State U and U of Montana. Neither of them are known as “pre-med” schools… we don’t even have a medical school in our state. The U Montana pre-med advisor said “We have success at WWAMI, Oregon, Colorado, BU, Wash U St. Louis, North Dakota, Nevada, Arizona Schools and various DO schools in addition.” I don’t really know how good/bad this is. Would that change your recommendation?
@circuitrider See, that’s the issue my parents have; they don’t understand that going to a LAC and getting a BA degree doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll be a sculptor or whatever. At this point, my biggest issue is getting my family to see my college options in an unbiased way.
I also love that Wes has a BA/MA program, and the 5th year would be free tuition. I don’t think my in state schools have that!
^Yeah, I hear what you’re saying. At the risk of sounding pedantic, people don’t understand that back East, LACs were the building blocks of many present day private universities, including the majority of the Ivy League. Harvard College, Yale College, The College of New Jersey (Princeton), Kings College (Columbia), the College of Rhode island (Brown) were not much bigger than Williams, Wesleyan and Amherst as recently as a hundred years ago and people are climbing all over each other to get BAs in science from every one of them.
One helpful hint: the free 5th year BA/MA is a great selling point!
The below source places Wesleyan in a purely statistical framework. In it you can see how Wesleyan students compare by entering standardized scoring profile (40th in the nation) to those of MSU (345th) and UM (537th). If you will be around sculptors at Wesleyan, they’ll be smart ones.
https://amp.businessinsider.com/the-610-smartest-colleges-in-america-2015-9
@circuitrider you make a strong argument. Thanks for all the input; I’ll pass this info on to my family! I’m considering all of my options but at this point I’m leaning towards Wes
@merc81 awesome, thank you for this info! I’ll let my family know… it’s just difficult because we come from MT (west coast) and neither of my parents went to college, so when you add that together, we just don’t know much about how different colleges compare.
@seagreensoul I think your analysis in this case is right. I almost always think the free school is better, but here, the 15k for Wesleyan seems like an excellent deal. It is a much better school than either of your other choices.
The only issue will be keeping your GPA up in a school where the competition is much more rigorous. Many elite universities are notorious for weeding pre-med students out of difficult classes like organic chemistry. For example, If the class is graded on a curve and only 20% can get an “A” you need to be able to be in that top percentile. I don’t know off hand whether Wesleyan falls into this category. But it can be a real shock for kids who are used to being the top of their class to suddenly be surrounded by a school full of kids as smart as they are. It helps to know this going in and be prepared.
@gallentjill I didn’t even think that I would be constantly surrounded by kids who are AT LEAST as smart as me; while that sounds exciting, it also sounds really intimidating. It’s hard to know if I could succeed if I’ve never been in that kind of environment before. Are there any other major points I should consider, besides cost and level of academics, when deciding between Wes and in-state?
@seagreensoul Please get more information from people who are familiar with Wesleyan pre-med. I am linking a post on Wesleyan pre-med from last year. If you can find current pre-meds to speak with, I think that would be very helpful.
I certainly don’t want to scare you away from a great school. I just want you to be prepared going in.
With respect to academic competitiveness, Wesleyan profiles differently from other highly selective colleges. In the most recent CDS for which the information is available, 60% of enrolled students graduated in the top 10% of their HS classes; 92% graduated in the top quarter; 2% graduated in the bottom half. Based on these figures, Wesleyan really isn’t a school at which the vast majority of students originated from the top of their classes in an academic sense (although many did). Overall, I’d say if you are currently a strong student, you should have no reason to feel particularly intimidated by Wesleyan’s academic environment, @seagreensoul.
Different schools, but I did a big State U for undergrad similar to Montana, then a tippy top law school. It was intimidating going from being arguably the smartest guy in the room in HS and undergrad to hoping that I was average in law school. But I did fine after the shock wore off. If you are highly motivated and driven, which I assume you are since you got admitted to Wes, you should be able to make the transition.
If you end up in med school, this decision probably won’t matter. Wes will be harder, but will also better prepare you for the rigors of med school. And IF you can keep a similar GPA,Wes will definitely look better.
If you don’t end up in med school, the opportunities you have as a Wes grad will be very different. Connections matter.
That’s why I probably will try to send my D to a school like Wes in a couple years, even though she will probably get free tuition plus more if she stays in state. Because even though she had been set on being a Dr since she was 5, lots of things change between 18-22. And I want her to have options.