I am planning on following a pre-med track in college and I wanted to know which of the schools I am currently considering are better for pre-med students like me.
Currently I am considering Loyola University in Chicago, University of Wisconsin Madison, University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign, Lake Forest College, and Illinois Wesleyan University.
As a introduction to the kind of person I am: I like having a variety of people around me because I don’t want to get stuck in one friend group. I’m not preppy. I don’t want that much competition; obviously, competition is good, but I don’t want to be in a constant race with my classmates. I want my environment to support me in my studies, and I don’t want to feel like I have to fight for attention from my professors constantly. I like to have fun. For me, school is obviously number one, but I am scared that if I go to a bigger state school I will be drawn into the party life. I want to stay focused. That is why I am also considering smaller schools.
Aside from all of that, I am planning on doing something in nueroscience because I really am passionate about the subject. Lake Forest has a nueroscience major, madison has a bio-nueroscience major, and loyola has a nueroscience minor. If I am interested in nueroscience, should I go to a school that has that major, or will I learn about later if I get in/attend medical school? Illinois Wesleyan and Lake Forest are smaller schools, so I figured I would learn more there, but I am not sure if I am comfortable with such small schools. Loyola seems to be the good medium between the small and state schools. It has a 70%-80% acceptance rate of its premedical students into medical school (and, from what I have heard, they are very generous with accepting their own students into their medical school). And, well, the state schools are self explanatory (big classes, more people, more options, more parties, etc.)
From all this information, please feel free to give me any advice you have. It would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks 
how much will each school cost you?
Depending less on school and much more on your efforts, you can become a competitive med school applicant at any of these schools. Attending the school that you believe you fit in the best is important as a happy student tends to earn better grades (ie higher GPAs) which will be very important to med schools. Also considering med schools are expensive and are often paid for by loans, graduating from college with little, if any, debt would be to your benefit.
Yeah they are all around the same cost so the price difference won’t matter in this decision. Lake forest is smaller and apparently they have a higher acceptance rater into medical school (90%) and loyola is 80% so… I’m just confused because I like loyola and lake forest (U of I, Illinois Wesleyan, and Madison are out of the picture for me)
Don’t pay attention to those acceptance rates. They mean NOTHING to you. Attending Lake Forest does NOT mean that YOU have a 90% chance of getting into med school. do you realize that?
Go to the school that you like best and work hard.
These statistics are merely marketing tools to try to convince naïve people to believe that these schools have been sprinkled with magical pixie dust in the med school admission process. The reality is that well over 100k+ students start college with rose colored premed glasses on. In last reported cycle just over 49k+ people actually applied to med school with just over 20K starting, meaning 58% of those who got to point of actually applying did NOT get accepted anywhere. And whether these 49k+ came from top/low tier, big/small, public/private, etc, it didn’t matter. Again, most (58%) failed to ever see the inside of a med school. It’s very hard to gain an acceptance to med school anywhere and whether you do will be almost exclusively determined by your efforts. If either Lake Forest/Loyola is a good fit for you (and you can graduate with little or no debt), go for it. But don’t let their marketing lead you to believe that rainbows and unicorns exist at these schools. Good luck
Just attend a college that fits your the best in personality and wide range of interests. The only way I know how to determine that are many visits, overnights, talking to current studnets. Make sure that pre-med committee is strong, inportant for Med. School application cycle.
" but I don’t want to be in a constant race with my classmates" - Do not, then! Just get them all As, forget the “race”, let them “race” you!! Have you been in sport? Great concept - the swimmer ahead of everybody has a bit easier time swimming, he has so called “clean” water, no turbulence from others. Very applicable in academic setting!!!