Originally, my goal was to go to UCB majoring in IB, but I’ve realized that with the amount of competition there my GPA would drop a lot. Which universities are the best in having a little/no competition environment? For example, I heard that at Stanford the environment is less tense and competitive.
Also, I’m an A- student in high school. Realistically, is it possible for me to go through med school and become a doctor or will I just not be good enough compared to others?
All colleges are going to be competitive for pre-med because not everyone can get an A in every class. You will always be competing against your fellow students for a limited resource (those As). Stanford isn’t going to be less competitive than UCB in that sense. Both schools will have oodles of very smart, high achieving students attending and you will be competing against them.
What you may be trying to ask is “what schools are less cutthroat and more cooperative” for pre meds.
If you are looking for a less stressful environment, I would suggest that you focus on schools where you/ your stats will be solidly in the top 25% (or even better top 10%) of applicants. This may mean passing on highly ranked/ highly competitive schools like Stanford and Berkeley.
Yes, it’s possible for an A- high school student to go to med school. (I’m currently staying with one right now— my older daughter who was an above average but not outstanding student in high school.)
What’s your actual, unweighted GPA? (Ucgpa?)
What state do you live in?
Are you a junior or a senior?
What classes are you scheduled to take next year?
What’s your efc and can your parents afford it? (Most can’t).
First, you need to get into a decent college (rank 40-125 is perfectly fine). A LAC, with its more personalized environment, may be better suited to your strengths. Some are competitive and some are collaborative so read up on them. Look at the College’s that change lives’ website for instance.
@WayOutWestMom if you don’t mind me asking, what undergraduate school did your daughter go to? And how is she finding medical school?
D1 went to the local state U; D2 went to a top 30 research U. Both went to med school. D1 is PGY4 ( 4th year resident); D2 is a PGY1 (intern/first year resident). D2 called me last week to tell me how easy med school was compared to being an actual practicing physician.
As for the difficulty of med school— I think they would say it’s a lot of work but not impossible.
I have been working in the “investment” community for a long time. OP, if you are so good to major in IB related field and qualify to be accepted by UCB or Stanford, I am not sure you will be interested in Medicine any more once you have attended the schools. The IB field is totally different from the medical/health care field and they do not mix too well. In order to be successful in IB, you need to concentrate on interning during the summer breaks. To this day, I am still getting a lot of applications via email for summer interns, even I am basically retired and am working in another interest. Whereas, medical school applicant need to work very hard in clinical volunteering, medical research and shadowing in the summer. These activities basically are in conflict to each other.
Moneywise, an IB candidate from Stanford, could make more money out of the UG gate than a full fledged, board certified medical doctor 10 years down the training, never mind the standardised test you have take in that time frame. You are the few person I see that use IB as plan B for medical school.
Here is another conflict of interest. For IB you need to get into the top school with name recognition, for med school, you want to be the top 10% of the entering class, it is all about GPA and Mcat school name does not matter. You cannot have both.
I think IB = Integrative Biology in the OP’s post, not investment banking.
OP’s other thread indicated it is Integrative Biology. Don’t think there is such undergrad major specifically for Investment Banking, typically it is the Finance major.