Hey guys, I’m in the track to medical school? Where should I be applying for a good pre-med program. Besides the obvious Ivies, John Hopkins, etc? Thanks let me know.
For a resource notable for the variety of its suggested schools (though they are all selective or highly selective), search “The 25 Best Colleges for Pre-meds.”
Look for the following:
- Lower cost, so that you can save money / avoid debt for expensive medical school.
- Accessible to expected pre-med extracurriculars.
- In the same region as medical schools you will likely apply to (like your in-state public medical schools) for short notice interview travel.
- Good pre-med advising, starting pre-frosh-year (including what to do with AP credit).
- Suitable in terms of academics and pre-professional preparation in the likely scenario you do not go to medical school.
Thank you I did not consider the possibility of interviews.
Note that if you are considering additional schools, time will be very important to you. Some applications may be due by January 1st.
This question of “what is a good premed school” has come up quite often on this web site. There are a variety of opinions.
It is clear that the very top ranked schools (Harvard being the obvious example) sends a larger percentage of their premed students to medical school compared to “very good” schools such as U.Mass Amherst (just to pick a public school in the same state as Harvard and that also has good premed).
However, Harvard also accepts a higher percentage of very strong students. At Harvard you are competing with students who all got into Harvard. Some might be legacy or athletes or got in with some other hook. However, even of the legacy students a lot of them will be very strong. In contrast at U.Mass the strongest students will be every bit as strong as the strongest students at Harvard. However, the super strong “straight A’s with mostly A+'s throughout high school” students will not be as high a percentage.
Given this, for any one very strong student it is not at all clear whether you are better off attending Harvard or attending U.Mass Amherst if you want to maximize your chances of ever getting to attend any medical school. My personal belief is that it probably does not matter much, and it is very unclear which one gives you the best chance.
It is very important that you do not run up debt for undergrad. Medical school is enormously expensive. Also the large majority of premed students never get to medical school, and if you have no debt then you are in much better shape when finding an alternate career path.
You also want to attend a university where you will be able to maintain a high GPA. It seems like a bad idea to attend a university where your high school GPA or test scores puts you in the bottom half of incoming students.
My personal belief is that this means that picking an undergraduate school for a premed student should be boring. You should be attending an affordable school where you are at least in the top 1/2 and preferably in the top 1/4 of incoming students.
You also want to attend a school where you will be able to participate in premed activities such as volunteering in a hospital or other medical environment.
If you are not in California, your in-state public flagship is likely to fit these criteria. If you are in California, then an in-state public university somewhere between #3 and #8 might be a good choice.
If you are really certain about medical school, your best bet is a respected university that lets you attend for free or nearly free, like Alabama. Next best is a reasonably priced state flagship. Do very well there and your chances of medical school acceptance are nearly the same as coming from an Ivy.
I’m from NY. Thank you for the advice. That’s why I was heavily considering Stony Brook (a state school) or Hofstra (they gave a lot of money) for undergrad. Even though I think I have the scores to qualify for some of the top schools like John Hopkins, and WashU. I just wanted to know what was better. Thanks again
If you’d like to emphasize pre-med guidance in your search, then this attribute may be greatest at undergraduate-focused schools such as NESCACs (Bowdoin, Bates, Hamilton, Amherst, Middlebury, Williams . . .) and Carleton. If you have reason to believe you would be eligible for Johns Hopkins, then at least some of these colleges would represent reasonable admissions prospects for you. This site can be useful for estimating costs: https://myintuition.org/.
I dunno, am I the only one on this board who thinks that in comparison to the possible 200k in debt that a medical school graduate may incur upon graduation, the 25K in average, need-based, middle-class debt incurred at a “dream school” is not that bad? I understand the cheer leading for for second-tier state schools. Hurray for them; they occupy a valuable niche in the higher education universe. But, the case for making them medical school feeders seems over-stated, IMO, especially when you consider the big difference in graduation rates.
Stony Brook is an excellent choice. If this student has the stats for Johns Hopkins, then it seems reasonable to assume that he can do well at Stony Brook and take advantage of everything that it has to offer. Stony Brook will not be a cake walk…he will still have to work hard.
If he wants to investigate some of the other schools, then he should. I have to agree though…it would be advantageous to choose a school where he feels confident about obtaining a high gpa. This might be “easier” at Stony Brook than a school such as Amherst, for reasons noted above in post #5. A word of caution: he will have to work hard regardless of school.
That may make sense for some families, but not all, @circuitrider .
First of all, many families don’t get much (or sometimes any) financial aid, so are looking at $300K for undergrad at an need-only elite. Then another $300K+ for medical school.
Second, if a person is truly medical school caliber, they will excel at the state school. They are not part of the student body that needs to worry about graduating.
When my daughter was applying to college a few years ago, I told her we had $250K saved up for her that she could use for her education (we are not eligible for any financial aid). She was considering pre-med and for that I recommended applying to schools like Pitt and Alabama, both which accepted her and offered her scholarships which made it free or nearly free. We would then pay for her medical school so she could graduate debt free.
Separately, I have a boss whose daughter was in a pre-med program Princeton. He counseled me strongly against sending my child to a place like Alabama or Pitt. But it was he who was surprised when her daughter got into medical school and there were plenty of people there from state flagships from around the country. I had looked at the data. He hadn’t.
There are many good reasons to go to an elite school, including the ability to change majors and still come out with a highly respected degree, having strong peers in every class, smaller classes, etc. My daughter ultimately decided against pre-med before starting college and instead attends the University of Chicago.
But for those who are certain about medicine, a state school or merit money is often the best financial choice.
Thank you so much for the reassurance! Yeah I wasn’t too sure about what to do, but the prospect of being in debt is the most important to me right now. Especially since I have roughly 12 years of schooling ahead of me. Thank you so much guys.
Sure. The wealthy that don’t need aid and the lower income people that get a ton of aid should look hard at schools with high sticker prices. For middle class and upper middle class it’s totally different.
Yes, it is not that bad. But $0 debt and (for example) $100k saved to apply to $300-400k of medical school costs by attending a lower cost undergraduate school would be even better than having “only” $25k in debt.
12 years? 4 Years UG and 4 years med school is only 8 years. You get paid in residency, although not a lot.
Eta: the only way you would have 12 years is if you are going to do a MD/Phd, in which case you wouldnt need to worry about medschool costs.
Again, we’re talking about a profession already laboring under negative stereotypes (God-complexes, money-grubbing, poor bedside manners, etc…) Not sure how I’d feel about a doctor who made the calculated decision at age 18 to attend a college where two thirds of their peers scored lower than they did on the SATs, nearly everyone was from the same state and unlikely to ever leave it, and offering little in the way of intellectual stimulation, just in order to maintain their gpa.
If you think that Stony Brook offers little in the way of intellectual stimulation for high stats kids…think again. That is wrong.
I actually applaud 18 year olds who agree that their instate option is a solid, acceptable choice. It shows maturity and it’s refreshing to see the groundedness, independent thought (not being swayed by peers) and lack of entitlement. Those are all positive traits.
Quite frankly…those kids who insist on Hopkins etc in order to be with their intellectual peers…I see some (not all) of them having the traits that you reference (again, not all students of course).
Geneseo is also a good instate choice for pre-Med, from what I understand. Take a look at all the SUNY options.
@circuitrider
When was the last time you checked your treating physician’s CV to see where they went to undergrad?
If you haven’t, try looking up the CVs of physicians on staff at top medical hospitals. You’ll not only see tons of doctors from non-elite schools, but also from non-elite medical schools. Academic pedigree alone does not make a good doctor.
And don’t you think that being over $300-500K in debt may actually lead to some of the boorish behaviors you describe? i.e. money grubbing, poor bedside manner
With the exception of biochem, the pre-reqs for med school are all intro or lower level courses that you can find at a community college. It’s not the difficulty of the coursework that keeps people out of med school.