Williams College vs. OSU Biomedical Science vs. University of Notre Dame

College Search & Selection
1

Hi Everyone!

So currently, I’m torn between Williams College, the Ohio State University Biomedical Science program, and the University of Notre Dame. I’ve gotten enough scholarship to be able to attend any of those, though some are cheaper than others. I hope to pursue biology/pre-med/etc as a major with a minor in legal studies (the name and specific topics vary by school). Ultimately, I hope to apply to medical school after my four years.

I know that I want a small community within the college. Williams itself is small (and has the Entry system of 20 students) and, while Ohio State University is HUGE (I’ve taken classes there since second semester sophomore year and am currently a full time student there as a high school student), the Biomedical Science program itself is a small community of 26 students that take similar classes together, do activities together, etc. I’ve gotten a familial, community vibe from the University of Notre Dame,

After that, here is what I have gathered:

WILLIAMS COLLEGE:

  • Plenty of research opportunity
  • Winter Study course to shadow a physician for a month and write a report
  • Small community, small campus
  • Free EMT certification Winter Study courses
  • No hospital close by for volunteering, etc (nearest one is closing; would have to drive 30 min out (so I wouldn’t volunteer there during the school year))
  • #1 LAC
  • Small classes
  • No Teacher Assistants teaching
  • B+ average GPA – no grade deflation
  • Surrounded by beautiful national parks, mountains, etc
  • Friendly environment (visited through Windows on Williams)
  • Focus on liberal arts – being able to explore fields and take interdisciplinary approaches
  • Seems like a love of learning is prevalent
  • If I decided to pursue law school rather than medical school, this would be a great choice
  • The Law Society is amazing; I got so excited reading about it

OSU BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE:

  • Major is regulated, run, and managed by OSU’s medical school
  • Major classes are taught by medical school professors and are small (half of our classes total)
  • Have a bunch of credits here already – over 50
  • Would be able to minor in Medical Humanities and Legal Foundations of Society with classes to spare
  • My capstone for Medical Humanities is shadowing a physician and writing a report – like the Williams class except it is for a semester
  • A lot of labs (I think it was over 50) “prioritize” BMS (Biomedical Science) students and expressed interest to the program director to taking in BMS students
  • Your advisors and the program directors help you in every step – even when you email labs about opportunities
  • OSU Wexner Hospital is right on campus - volunteering and shadowing opportunities
  • Could volunteer at a free clinic 15 minutes away – I’ve volunteered there before
  • Amazing prep for med school - The final for one of the BMS classes for seniors is a clinical/physical exam (which is a test you do in med school)
  • Small community, resources of a large campus
  • HOWEVER there is TA teaching (for OSU grad school, they require their graduate students to TA… meaning that some courses/recitations/labs are taught by students that don’t want to be there teaching)
  • Classes are huge (my intro bio course had 700 people in it, but labs are 20/25)
  • Some grade deflation for certain classes (in that if too many students did well, they would lower grades)
  • Low averages for tests in certain classes
  • A lot of students funnel from this program into the OSU med school (ranked #32 currently; was 38 multiple years ago)

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

  • Would not be able to do pre-med with a minor in something law-related because of distribution requirements
  • Small community
  • Small campus
  • “Notre Dame Family”
  • Honestly, this school is only here because of my parents and brother (who went to ND for undergrad) but I really don’t think this school and the feel is a good fit for me…

Thank you in advance for your response (and even for just reading this all the way through)! I’ve visited each of these schools and sat in on classes and talked with students and alumni from each of these schools/programs, and the above is what I have gathered overall that I am taking into consideration.

If there are any other factors I did not mention that you think I should consider/know, please let me know! And what do you think about these choices?

Thanks!

2

Much as I love LACs, the opportunities at OSU sound phenomenal.

3

I am certainly biased being a Williams alum, but of those choices, if the cost is similar, and you don’t have a dramatic personal perference, to me, Williams is an easy choice. And honestly, it sounds like the Williamstown environment is MORE to your liking than, say, Columbus or South Bend.

Now again, the Williams environment is VERY different from Notre Dame or OSU, so if you want, for example, the pagentry of big-time D1 athletics, or massive frat parties, as you already know that ain’t Williams. But academically, you simply can’t go wrong at Williams. The pre-med and pre-law placement are both fantastic,and the reputation among grad schools of all types is basically second to none. Many of my friends (including many whose GPAs were medicore for Williams) were admitted to top-10 law schools and top 25 medical schools. So your post-grad opportunities will be fantastic without having to kill yourself to earn a 3.8 or better GPA. And at Williams, you have a lot of flexibility academically – so long as you satisfy your pre-med requirements, you can major in whatever you want / take whatever classes you desire, and it will not in any way hurt your medical school chances. Sounds like that is not the case for, at least, the OSU program, where you are committing yourself to a very specific course of studies much earlier in your college career. And the reality is, you are 18 (or thereabouts) – you may have a chance of heart about medical school while in college. I know many pre-med folks who did. And coming from Williams, that won’t be ANY sort of issue at all.

I also will note that natural sciences are all top-notch departments at Williams. Students have the chance to do high-level research as undergrads. And the schools is halfway through adding two spectacular new science buildings (one is opening next fall, the second, I think would be ready for your junior year) to facilities that were already great (the “old” comprehensive science center and science library were finished in 2000). So you are getting university-caliber facilities in a liberal arts setting.

The last point I’ll make is that I recommend being cautious about spending a lot of time shadowing doctors / working at hospitals during your college years (or at least, having that be a decisive factor in your decision). You have four years of medical school to do that, plus residency and internship, and then your entire career! There really is no rush, and other than maybe testing the waters just a bit to make sure that medical school is for you, why not take the opportunity in college to do something dramatically different with your time? I promise you won’t need to do any of that to gain acceptance to medical school coming out of Williams, so long as you perform reasonably well in terms of GPA. You have the rest of your life to spend in hospitals, if that is the route you ultimately take … and I think you would stand out more as a candidate at medical schools if, for example, you had a more diverse set of life experiences than purely working in hospitals. Not only that, but I think someone with fluency in the humanities / arts, and someone who is deeply engaged by interests outside of medicine, is a better physician, ultimately, than someone who has focused unilaterally on medical science. So to me, the pre-professional opportunities that OSU offers (which Williams certainly can’t match) are not terribly appealing for someone who is most likely going to end up in a medical career. Certainly, as an attorney I’m very glad that I did no legal-related extracurriculars in college, and if anything my biggest academic regret is not taking more art history classes. Just my two cents, feel free to ignore :).

4

My understanding from friends whose kids have gone through med school admissions is that shadowing physicians is more or less required for a successful med school application, unlike law, where admissions could be seen as more “holistic.” So if a student is not doing it during the school year, it is pretty much mandatory during summer. Again, second hand, but it also seemed that undergrad research opportunities were essential to med school app.

5

My understanding from friends whose kids have gone through med school admissions is that shadowing physicians is more or less required for a successful med school application, unlike law, where admissions could be seen as more “holistic.” So if a student is not doing it during the school year, it is pretty much mandatory during summer. Again, second hand, but it also seemed that undergrad research opportunities were essential to med school app. A sciences major is not required, but shadowing and research seemed to be very important.

6

@Midwestmomofboys Thank you for your input!

@Ephman
First off, thank you for your reply. I appreciate the advice and insight you have provided.

(1) I definitely enjoyed the Williamstown environment more while I was there, and D1 athletics and massive frat parties aren’t especially appealing to me.

(2) I wasn’t aware about the pre-med and pre-law placement, so thank you for letting me know!

(3) The “university-caliber facilities in a liberal arts setting” does sound nice, and research is something I look for. Thank you for letting me know!

(4) I can see your point. And, in the case of just testing out the waters, the Winter Study course (Healthcare Apprenticeship, I think it’s called?) would suffice. I do agree that being well-rounded and skilled in the humanities and STEM is extremely important and something I 100% want to pursue (hence the STEM major and humanities minor).

Again, thank you for your advice! I certainly will take those factors into consideration. :slight_smile:

7

Williams

8

@Midwestmomofboys I’ve also heard that research and shadowing are both large parts.

9

Williams or OSU. Top med schools are starting to love the stars coming out of big public research unis. They make great students. And have access to big time medical research But they have to fight it out among the other students and do not have the guidance or nurturing environment of a williams This is according to one senior med school adcom at an ivy near Boston. Of course Williams is like going to an Ivy League school in many ways if not better especially if you like a smaller and more of the idyllic college campus/environs

10

Williams. You’ll have the same opportunities as at tOSU AND the smaller envionment you prefer. Volunteering with different populations is important - it can be at a clinic but also a soup kitchen or a retirement home or a place for refugees. Look at afrenchie36 on tumbler and his RAM project, too. Basically you’d have winter term for your EMT certification and shadowing, plus Williams offers support over the summer if need be. In short, there’s nothing at tOSU that you couldn’t get at Williams* whereas there is so much at Williams that you wouldn’t get at TOSU.

(* the big differences : a large university, D1 football and band, big Greek life, you said you didn’t care for).

11

Agree with. @MYOS1634

However the soup kitchen and refugee volunteering will be in the summer. That’s not readily a available in willamstown without a car and longish drive. Especially in the winter

12

@MYOS1634 @privatebanker Thank you both! I can see your point. Also, afrenchie36’s RAM project IS AMAZING and so awesome!! Kudos to him for the huge effort and amount of work he put into making the RAM proejct happen.

13

Note that you could try and open a branch - Williams has money and infrastructure support for this sort of project.

14

@MYOS1634 I was thinking about the possibility of it after reading it and bookmarked the pages. That would be really cool. Thanks so much!

15

Update: After considering these comments, I’m leaning towards Williams, but I will be making a more official decision this weekend since this is finals week right now.

For everyone who has commented so far - Thank you all for your helpful input! (I know, I’ve said thanks /a lot/! But I really appreciate the help.)

16

You say that you have over 50 credits at OSI already. How many of them will transfer to Williams? You are likely past most of the big classes and TAs.

17

^ premeds must take the pre-reqs anyway. Many Med schools won’t consider AP classes.

18

Can you do the OSU program in 3 years (or less) since you have credits there. This will save your parents some $. Do you want to stay at OSU for 3-4 more years or do you want something different.

Williams has a great program but it’s a much smaller school in the wilderness. Beautiful surroundings but still 3 hours from any big city (Boston/NYC). No D1 sports.

It sounds like ND is a distant 3rd right now.

None of these are bad choices but they are different.

19

@Eeyore123 None would transfer to Williams since OSU is a public state school. Usually, even AP courses won’t do much but get you to skip an intro class (but you’d have to make up those credits with a higher level course) from what I’ve read on the website.

20

@MA2012 Financials aren’t in consideration right now, since both schools are within range. D1 sports aren’t a factor in my decision-making, also. Thank you for your input, also!