I’m a high school student interested in persuing the premed track at Wesleyan University for my undergrad. I was amazed by the fact that 89% of premed students get accepted to their top choice med school, but considering that Wesleyan is not a private research institution, what kind of research opportunities are available to undergrads seeking bio/chem related majors? Also, just out of curiosity, how is it possible that such a large percentage of students do go wherever they want for med school? Are there not many students on the premed track or do undergrads apply to less competitive schools??
I’m not sure where you got that statistic from, but for Wesleyan (and its peer selective liberal arts colleges), the overall medical school acceptance rate is typically somwhere around 80% - that is, 80% of applicants matriculate into medical school, not necessarily at their top choice (indeed, most medical school have acceptance rates around 3-5%). Wesleyan undergrads frequently do get into top medical schools, such as Yale or Penn. Wesleyan is also a member of a consortium of leading medical schools (including Einstein, Tufts, and Penn) and liberal arts colleges (Wes, Middlebury, etc), where med school admission directors meet with the college pre-med advisors to stay on the same page with admission stadards.
Wesleyan has a research advantage over its LAC peers because of its graduate programs in the sciences - the research labs are bigger and run at full steam year-round, but the graduate students are there in addition to, not instead of, the undergrads. For example, there aren’t too many liberal arts colleges conducting stem cell research on a large scale (Wesleyan is in a consortium with Yale and UConn), and Wesleyan typically has the most National Science Foundation funding per year out of all liberal arts colleges. If you’re interested in medical school, Wesleyan has similar rates to its peer schools, but stronger research potential, I would argue.
There is extremely strong science research happening at Wes - some of the strongest out of any LAC. There are not many grad students to get in the way of you fully participating in research as an undergrad and I personally have had way more hands on research experience than my peers at larger research institutions with large graduate programs. I’ve already had 3 years of clinical research experience! There is also a hospital a few blocks away from the school where you can take advantage of excellent medical volunteer opportunities. Wes truly has the best of both worlds - all the benefits of a LAC education plus top notch scientific research at the undergraduate level that you won’t find at many other schools!
U.S. News includes Wesleyan among colleges recognized for their mentored research opportunities: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/undergrad-research-programs.