<p>I am aware of the 85% acceptance rate statistic. I am aware of the great Pre-Medical advising. I, however, am in the situation where I have a great in-state public to go to (Univ. of Michigan). I plan on going to Medical School. I have fallen in love with Duke. This is true. If I had to pick where I want to go I will go there in a split second. I still have to pay for four years of medical school, however. There are a few factors I would like someone to address…</p>
<li>Does undergraduate school REALLY matter once you are a doctor? </li>
<li>At UMich, I am somewhat positive that I can maintain a 3.6 and up GPA (please don’t criticize this. For my purposes take this as an assumption). I have heard that Duke is difficult. I am willing to work very hard. A fact that worried me was I noticed that APPROXIMATELY 130-150ish students applied to Medschool from Duke’s 2006 senior class of approximately 1500 kids. So is Duke’s amazing 85% stat because so many kids get filtered out due to Duke’s high difficulty so their GPA is too low to apply to med school?</li>
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<p>All in all, my parents have told me to go to Duke if I want to. But I realize the money difference. I just want to know if it is worth it for the rest of my life to become a doctor and say I went to Duke for undergrad over Umich. I have 2 days to decide so honest responses will greatly be appreciated.</p>
<p>Well, I think you'll only get a few kids out of any class at any school applying to med school...a lot of kids in general that go into college thinking they're going to be pre-med eventually find something else they liked better or realize it's too hard/not what they wanted. About 150 kids seems right for a school of Duke's size...Michigan will be more simply because the classes are much larger. Can anyone else confirm this?</p>
<p>Yeah, that makes sense Enteril. But that fact I only wanted to relate to Duke's hardness. I mentioned how confident I am that I can get a 3.6 and up GPA at Umich. Will Duke's hardness and most likely lower GPA effect me into Med school? Is it really worth the price if I want to be a Doctor. </p>
<p>I mean I understand that if I wanted to go into Law, Business, etc. Duke would be a hands down choice. Reputation for those fields simply matters. I hope this thread doesn't start into one about why ___ number of Duke students apply to Med School. I only have a few days to decide and really will appreciate anyone's imput.</p>
<p>I don't think you understand his point. Over 75% of the people who go into college thinking they really really want to be a doctor and that they are absolutely sure that is what they want to do don't end up becoming doctors. Choosing Duke over Michigan solely because you think it will help you as a pre-med is the wrong way to be thinking about it when odds are you will NOT end up going to med school yourself.</p>
<p>But if you still insist, I think that if you really want to work at it, and if you are of above average intelligence for a Duke student, you can easily keep a high GPA (3.7+ if you put in the work).</p>
<p>2.) It's not from filtering. I don't know where you're getting this 150 number. Last year, about 120 students applied as seniors and about 180 as alumni. That makes 300 premeds. Since about 200 kids entered declaring themselves as premeds (informal tally from Dean Singer), then Duke actually picks up premeds rather than losing them.</p>
<p>Taking time off between college and medical school is very common. Nationally, the average age of an incoming medical student is 25.</p>
<p>3.) You're wrong about law school, which is the most concrete of the three admissions games and therefore has the least room to accomodate the prestige of your undergraduate institution.</p>
<p>Go to Duke and you will enjoy your undergrad experience and get into a great grad school. Shying away because of the difficulty is the wrong reason to turn down Duke, because if you got in, then you should be capable of achieving a high GPA over there.</p>
<p>I think some people confuse pre-med with BME/pre-med. </p>
<p>BME/pre-med is hard hands down. </p>
<p>Pre-med, while not exactly easy, does not have a reputation (by itself) of being super hard. Yes, orgo sounds hard, but doing a bio/pre-med is not as hard as BME/pre-med. I think a lot of people who think pre-med is hard derive their assumption from BME/premeds (and there are a lot of them).</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. bluedevil mike I got that number as a rough average. 150 is pretty close to 120.
I mean, I knew people would feel somewhat confused as to me posting this. Because no one has to convince me to love Duke lol. I do love it and my visit there was wonderful. I guess I am just asking some people. Not a lot of states have great state schools with good medical programs near by. Obviously Cal has Berkley, Virginia has UVA, Michigan (my situation) has UMich. All top 25 schools. I want to be a doctor and go to med school.
What sparked me to start this thread was my teacher asking me about the prices and stuff. UMichigan=15K and Duke=45K. 3 years at Michigan=1 year at Duke. He called it "a no-brainer" for Michigan. I presume everyone here can see my dilemma. Obviously it is a win-win situation and a great one to be in. That is what makes me less stressed about this whole ordeal. I was just wondering how people look at it.</p>
<p>Good stuff usually costs more money (a lot more sometimes). Some of us have picked Duke over UC Berkeley with a similar dilemma. If you can afford it come to Duke. You can get a fine education at many places but Duke is unique to many people for many reasons. Make your decision based on what is best for you, you can easily find some stat that will justify your decision. We humans are good at that.</p>
<p>When I looked at colleges, size was very important to me. Michigan is a big school, Duke is a low-medium sized school. That was a big factor in me applying to Duke ED.</p>
<p>i had the same decision (im in-state michigan as well). i was torn between the two, especially because of the HUGE price difference. i figured that if i didnt like duke, i could always transfer to michigan. however, it would be a lot harder to transfer from michigan to duke. i fell in love with duke when i visited, and i knew it would have been impossible for me to turn them down.
duke also makes it a lot easier to get research opportunities. also, i liked how duke was smaller and how there seemed to be more unity between the students. think about the huge differences in the atmosphere and setting. you've visited both so you know what i'm talking about. in terms of the gpa gap, remember that med schools account for gpa inflation and deflation. many people have told me that undergrad (and even med school) doesn't matter after you are a doctor. think about how much of an economic dent going to duke will cause. if money is truly an issue, then umich might be the better choice.</p>
<p>
[quote]
remember that med schools account for gpa inflation and deflation.
[/quote]
While this isn't strictly true, it isn't strictly untrue, either. Bottom line: some schools -- including Duke -- do seem to get some GPA boosts, but this is not a result of their grade deflation. (MIT, for example, actually seems to receive a penalty, compounding the already-severe effect of their deflation.)</p>
<p>The magnitude of these is nearly impossible to quantify.</p>
<p>I disagree that BME/Pre-Med is all <em>that</em> hard... In fact, I think it would be harder to be something like Music/Pre-Med since there's no overlap <em>and</em> you only get to use two AP credits.</p>
<p>Nationally speaking, students from different majors are admitted to medical school almost exactly in the proportions in which they apply, implying that the various factors at work seem to roughly trade off. English majors have the highest overall MCAT scores, and probably higher grades compared to biology majors, but (maybe) biology majors have more high-level science coursework and better access to research, for example.</p>