I am planning on going to college for pre-med at one of the following schools: Baylor, Ohio State, University of Oklahoma, and Texas A&M. Which one is best in terms of national reputation and getting pre-med students ready for med school?
I think that the best one is the one that leaves you with no debt for undergrad.
They are all good universities. You are going to find pre-med courses to be more challenging than you might expect at any of them.
Which one is instate for you?
Are you in the Honors college at any?
Pre-med classes are regular classes - you’ll take biology with Biology majors, chemistry WT chemistry majors, Physics with Physics majors… and you’ll have to do better than most of them. At all these universities the courses are weedout (meaning that the tests are deliberately calibrated so that half the class gets a certain grade and only about 20% would be med school qualifying grades).
~75% pre-meds never make it to the application stage. Among those, 60% fail to gain acceptance to a single med school.
If you didn’t attend med school, which university would you prefer?
There isn’t a “better” one.
Colleges don’t “get students ready for med school.” That’s not their job.
All of those offer quality BCPM courses.
How much will each of these schools cost you? How much debt would each school require?
It is all about GPA and not necessarily how they train you as a premed.
If you are national merit and getting a tuition ride, go to Baylor. I am under the impression they take better care of premeds with their GPA.
A&M is considered hard on GPA.
Check with @goldenrock about OU.
Not sure how Ohio State is in the mix. It seems like you are a Texas resident based on the other 3.
Grades and MCAT scores get you into medical school, and they really don’t care what school you graduated from. If medical schools give preference to anyone, it’s for state residents. Medical school is very expensive, so it’s wise to keep the debt low. If you stay in-state, that would help you more than anything.
I recently visited a university with my son and one of the things they pitched for premed students was an special advising office to help students make sure they had the right courses, completed all their service requirements and generally organized and completed their applications. This sounded great (in theory) but I’m not sure you would find anything like this at any of the schools you mention.
I agree with much of what the above posters have said: undergrad school doesn’t matter, avoid undergrad debt, GPA, MCAT score and healthcare delivery experience are most important. Many schools have dedicated pre-health advising services, here are those links to the schools you listed…this is a good starting point for your research. Many schools will post med school acceptance rates for students who had an average GPA or better and average MCAT or better (averages based on total AMCAS applicant pool), just make sure you are comparing apples to apples.
https://www.baylor.edu/prehealth/index.php?id=36399
https://preprofessional.osu.edu/prehealth/advisor
http://careercenter.tamu.edu/Resources/Professional-School
http://www.ou.edu/univcoll/about/advising_and_enrollment/pre-health-pre-med-advising
@kevinchang My D is happy about OU. It gave free tuition (if you are NMS). It gave good education and provided the foundation to do well in MCAT. It appears Biochem is a weeder class in OU but still you can get at least B if you work very hard. Look at each of the schools grade system, whether A,B,C or A+, A, A- and decide which one you feel better for you. If you plan to have a car that will help in OU since you can go to OKC for any volunteer time during weekend or weekdays. Felt that is a major handicap, especially for girls and don’t know driving or don’t have car since public transportation is practically none.
Baylor also gives good merit aid (NMS). If you are a TX resident, visit all the 3 schools you mentioned.
Ohio, good college town and good school too. Are you used to this place (cold and snow during winter) due to family connections?
Are you a likely NMF? Bama gives nearly a free ride for NMF…free tuition, free housing, stipend, and more. Lots of successful premeds there!!
Doubt he’s NMF or he’s say so. My roommate at Houston is an ER doc after Michigan med school. Excellent grades and MCAT. I think the Honors College with small pre-med classes and top professors made a difference. What are classes at each school?