Hi!
I’m an oncoming senior and I’m applying under the premed major for certain colleges. Right now, I’m looking into Northwestern (might be applying ED) and UCLA as my tops, but also other schools like U of Mich, USC, Vanderbilt, other UCs, etc. One main concern I have is with applying to these schools is that if I go there, I’m worried about wrecking my gpa and ruining my chances of getting into med school (I understand that factors like MCAT, research, etc., play a large role as well but I’m strictly talking about the gpa aspect). On the other hand, I could attend a large state school and get a high gpa there and possibly a full ride or most of my college paid because of my current grades and extracurriculars. Should I take a chance and attend these schools (assuming that I get in) or should I not risk it and attend a state school and take advantage of my chances of getting a higher gpa? If so, what schools should I consider that are academically less competitive that I listed above and still have a premed/bio program? Essentially I don’t know if I should apply ED to Northwestern and take the chance or concentrate on other schools. I’m also really interested in UCLA, so any feedback on NU vs UCLA premed programs would be great.
For some background, I am within top 10% of my class, varsity sport all years of high school, volunteer 4 hours every week at a hospital, currently interning at RFUSM in a lab for microbiological research, and have been inducted into academic honor societies/received academic and volunteer awards. On a 4.0 scale, my gpa is the equivalent of a 3.9 with taking all honors/APs and my ACT is a 33.
[ul]
[]your information is outdated, research does not play a big role in med school admissions (see link below)
[]The UC campuses are also large state schools
[li]state schools have few non-need scholarships available. Your estimates of your chances seem highly inflated[/li][li]any college in the country offers the handful of lower-division math and science classes required to apply to med school[/li][/ul]You can learn about the whole med school prep process at get into med school by reading thru the very informative https://www.rhodes.edu/sites/default/files/PreMed_Essentials.pdf
Actually, pre-med is not easy in any schools. State schools are easier to get in but the classes designated for premed are designed to weed out those weaker pre-med hopefuls.
You need to find a school that fits your personality AND your stats are top 25% of the entering class. Apply to top schools from US news ranking will have disaster results.
Medical school is expensive, and staying in or near your state of residency can help in access to medical school interviews at in-state public medical schools that may be less expensive than others.
Impressive rates boil down to one of two things [ul][]great students []screening[/ul] It’s no surprise that kids that can get into elite colleges Swarthmore or some of the others above do well in med school admissions 4 years later against much better odds of admission.
Or the school aggresively uses their “committee letter” and only recommends the best kids. A regular poster used to chime in on posts like this to recommend one such school from the list, Holy Cross. HC makes it clear on their med advising website that they actively screen their applicants. Those without “supportive Committee Evaluations” know they are wasting time and money by applying. So they don’t. Voila! Eye-popping admit rate.
“I’m applying under the premed major for certain colleges”
“a premed/bio program”
@bablue consider schools where you think you’ll fit in and be happy because if you’re happy you’ll tend to do well GPA wise. Consider a major with a Plan B in mind should you decide to change career pathways. Consider schools where you can graduate with as little debt as possible as med school is expensive and most med students borrow their way through. Be very leery of any college’s success rate as to getting kids into med school, these numbers are easily manipulated.
Amherst doesn’t screen applicants or only recommend the best students. Many colleges are similar to Amherst regarding committee letters.
The list is intended to offer suggestions of colleges that some may not have considered.
Don’t apply for a premed major - you should be able to handle the premed pre-reqs as well as a major. That major can be any subject you’re good at (English, Swahili, Economics, Anthropology, Biochemistry…)
Biology has very low ROI because there are so many bio majors who don’t get into med school and you need a graduate degree to do actual work in the field.
Guessing you’re from California and are asking about UC vs. Csu? If you’re not from. California, don’t go to college there hoping for med school. It’s a fool’s errand, California med schools favor Californians and don’t have nearly enough space for them. To envision the bloodbath at UCLA, think of the cornucopia scene in Hunger Games. Okay, exaggerating slightly but you get the idea. Thousands and thousands of the brightest young Californians and only a few will qualify. The safest way for young Californians is uc riverside and its medical cohorts, where a student with your stats likely doesn’t want to go.
If you’re not from California, don’t bother and look elsewhere.
Don’t assume that you’ll get higher grades at a large public university just because it’s easier to get in. There are a lot of factors that affect your GPA, and actually the elite universities practice some pretty decent grade inflation. My husband and I were joking the other day about the difference between a “real C” and a “Columbia C.”
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Right now, I’m looking into Northwestern (might be applying ED) and UCLA as my tops, but also other schools like U of Mich, USC, Vanderbilt, other UCs, etc. One main concern I have is with applying to these schools is that if I go there, I’m worried about wrecking my gpa and ruining my chances of getting into med school
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It’s a legit concern to be worried about the resulting GPA as a premed at a top school.
While it’s true that the premed prereqs won’t be easy anywhere, and you’ll have to work for your grades no matter what, if you’re a top high school student and you work hard, you probably will end up with a higher GPA at a “lesser school” (that is still a good school).
We’ve seen many premeds here who were top high school students end up with GPAs that weren’t med school worthy because they went to a top school where everyone was a top student. There’s a parent on this forum whose premed child thought it would be better to go to a Top 5 school rather than their state flagship or similar, and the student ended up with an “ok GPA,” but did not get ANY interview invites to any MD med schools. This student obviously had tippy top stats as a high school student to get into a top 5 Univ and the student had a strong MCAT and strong app otherwise. The student and the parents have concluded (and rightfully so) that if this student had gone to a school where everyone wasn’t a top student, likely the GPA results would have been different. The student had a GPA of around 3.5, and likely a .1 or .2 increase would have made a difference.
I’m not talking about huge differences in GPA…a tenth or two-tenths of a point can make a difference for an unhooked traditional applicant. The differences can be an A vs A- …or B+ vs B or B- vs C in a couple of classes. I’m not saying that a student would get an A at the state flagship, but would get a B at an elite.
There is little difference in NU and UCLA academically in pre-med classes. You will not be a big fish in a pond in those two schools. The differences are whether they will fit to YOU, in that:
If the COA will be affordable.
If the living environment will be tolerable, NU is in cold Chicago suburbs and UCLA is basically is in middle of a large city.
The learning environment is very different, NU has smaller classes and classes are easier to sign up, UCLA has huge classes and the lower level classes are lead and graded by TA, etc. There are cases that you have to delay graduation at UCLA if you cannot sign up certain classes.
There is no right or wrong among attending these two schools, they are all top schools. It is whether you will excel in either that matters.
I may be jumping to conclusions but they’re likely from Illinois because that is where RFUSM (Rosalind Franklin University) is located and the OP is interning there.
With the exception of the required English comp class which is taught entirely by TAs, just about all the lower division classes a UCLA student takes are taught by a prof who sets the syllabus and writes the tests. These meet for 3x per week (or a longer 2x/wk class if it is Tu/Th). You then have a “discussion” section with a TA that meets once a week.
So is the main class lead by the TA? In any meaningful sense of “led”, no.
Is the class huge? Yes, many lower-division classes have hundreds of students enrolled, although the once weekly "discussion (which almost never involves any discussion) are 30 or so students.
Are classes graded by the TA? Depends. If the class has multiple choice or short-answer then everyone takes the same test and the TA’s play no role. If there are essay questions then the usual practice is one of the many TA’s grades one of the questions for all students so that everyone is treated the same; if there are 4 essay questions then 4 TAs will grade your test.
And to finish out the reply, if you don’t like the grade on your essays you can go see the prof during her/his office hours; these times, after a test, are the only times there are more than 1 or 2 students waiting to see the prof (apparently students don’t realize until they’re ready to graduate the need to get to know some profs for personal recs to grad school).
but you get the idea. Thousands and thousands of the brightest young Californians and only a few will qualify. The safest way for young Californians is uc riverside and its medical cohorts, where a student with your stats likely doesn’t want to go.