Hello everybody! So I am currently deciding between WashU in St. Louis, Vanderbilt, and Emory. Wash U and Vanderbilt both offered me nothing for financial aid, but Emory offered me a 15K yearly merit scholarship. I am 100% sure I want to apply to medical school in four years so I will be taking on a pre-med track. Which school would be the best for me if I am definitely committed to premed? I appreciate any input!!
Emory is just as strong as the others for pre-med. With the CDC in Atlanta and near Emory, it might be stronger. Take the money and go to Druid Hills.
Take the scholarship and save the 60k…you’ll need it for med school!
WashU and Vandy can be intensive premed pressure cookers. You’re very high stats so it’s really up to you as long as all are easily affordable. I think you should take the merit at Emory. You’re a NMF, so you could go for nearly free elsewhere.
Med schools really don’t care where you go. They just care about GPA, MCAT, medically related ECs, LORs…and your demeanor during an interview.
What are your parents saying about costs for undergrad and med school?
@mom2collegekids my mom wants me to go to emory while my dad (who’s a physician) wants me to go to Wash U simply because to him and his colleagues, he feels as though its prestigious for premed - is that true? In terms of finances, my parents tell me to choose where I would feel and thrive best at, but my dad is strongly pushing for WashU. My only concern is that to people outside the medical field, WashU lacks some name recognition as people are generally confused about its location when I tell them (yes, a bit shallow of me) and the fact that I’ve heard so many scary stories about the difficulty of premed at WashU. However, I do prefer WashU’s weather and overall vibe over the other schools
Doctors sometimes have a “prestige” ranking within the professional that is often not visible to those outside the field. This stems from the competition for specialties and residencies in med school, with the highest paying/most desirable specialties typically going to the best students. Frequently, those who end up being general practitioners are those students that did not distinguish themselves in med school.
Some doctors, apparently like your father, believe that the “pressure cooker” of highly competitive med school programs with weed out classes like Wash U, Vandy and Duke will toughen up students so they can excel in med school and get into a competitive specialty. The danger with these schools is that their kids might be one of those “weeded out.”
Other doctors take the approach of sending their kids to less competitive schools without strong competition in the hope that their kids will be better able to get the high grades needed for med school acceptance. We know a physician who sent his NMF daughter to a local non-competitive regional state school. He hopes that by literally being the smartest kid there, she will get the top grades and will have little local competition for pre-med EC’s. Both strategies have merits, but in both cases the students have to perform.
Thanks @Zinhead ! I’m curious about which method has worked better in the past (although there’s sure to be many instances in which both strategies are successful) but I’ve definitely prepared myself for the hard work that’s going to hit me - I am possibly taking a genchem course this summer at our state college to try to brace myself for the class in college
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This stems from the competition for specialties and residencies in med school, with the highest paying/most desirable specialties typically going to the best students.
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I think this stems from a time when med schools did seem to prefer certain undergrads. I can remember when the UCs were considered to be the premed schools, and no premed went to a CSU.
I agree that the top students at each med school are the ones that nab the most competitive residencies/specialties. But, I don’t think the student’s undergrad determines that at all.
While I can understand the argument that pressure cooker-gunner atmosphere can mean “survival of the fittest,” it can also mean survival of a personality that isn’t that conducive to being a physician.
It’s just not true that to get a competive residency, the premed has to go to pressure cooker school.
@mom2collegekids that’s an excellent point - as of now I’m leaning towards WashU simply because looking at the abundance of exciting research opportunities available (especially in the cancer field) - but I’m sure that emory has many opportunities as well. As of now, I’m probably most worried about getting into a good medical school in general - do you think that the name of the undergrad will make a large difference in terms of medical school acceptances in the future?
Absolutely not. Med schools know that the premed prereqs are hard at every decent school. The majority of med students do not come from big name schools.
That said, go where you want and where you’ll get the best GPA. If you think that you can maintain a 3.6/7 BCPM GPA and cum GPA at WashU, then super. But, be aware that that may be hard. Last app season, a parent of a UChicago med school applicant, who had a 3.5, got ZERO interviews, even though her MCAT and the other parts of her app were fine. A traditional applicant, unhooked, needs a higher GPA.
There is some evidence that elite private med schools favor other graduates of elite undergraduate institutions that have medical schools. There is also evidence that Catholic med schools give preference to graduates of Catholic undergraduate institutions, and there is very strong evidence that public med schools give preference to in-state residents regardless of undergraduate institution.
Catholic med schools may favor applicants who are Catholic. My son is a pro-life Catholic but went to a state undergrad, applied to 2 Catholic med schools. He was invited to interview at both, declined one, interviewed at the other, and was accepted. Do I think the fact that he’s a pro-life Catholic was a nudge? yes. Did he go to a Catholic undergrad? no.
Statistically, though, I would imagine that most Catholic premeds attending Catholic undergrads, apply to the Catholic med schools…so there may be some self-selection going on.
Yes, of course state publics favor their state residents, but really regardless of their undergrad.
I don’t know if elite private med schools truly favor students from elite undergrads…or if there is some self-selection going on. The elite private undergrads have a concentration of super-stats students, so it’s not surprising that these students would also have the stats to be attractive to elite med schools. BUT…if that same tippy top high school kid selected a non-elite undergrad, he’d probably still emerge with the high stats that would be attractive to an elite med school.
I do have to add that all US MD schools are excellent. We don’t have any “so so” med schools here. The US MD schools are spending $150k per year on each student (that isn’t COA…that is education cost).
@Zinhead @mom2collegekids slight change of plans: I will actually be attending the TCNJ/NJMS combined 7 yr accel med program!! Can’t give up guaranteed med school!! 
@tliu222 - Congratulations! That sounds like a great deal.