what to consider to choose a pre-med college
Condign a doctor is a long process and one that takes a lot of foresight and good choices. I of the earliest, near important choices you'll brand in your medical teaching is where to attend college every bit an undergraduate. You'll need more than than but a bachelor's caste in biology to go into the med-school of your dreams; y'all need to take rigorous courses, participate in hands-on inquiry, fix for the MCAT, and develop your area of scientific expertise.
The academy you choose for your undergraduate years will make a large bear on on these factors. Not only should it gear up y'all academically for medical school, simply information technology should likewise provide you with pre-medical advising, prestigious opportunities, and awarding back up. Indeed, your college will write you lot an institutional letter of recommendation for medical schoolhouse!
Understanding the requirements for medical schools and the role undergraduate programs play in those requirements may exist crucial to you catastrophe up where you lot want to get. In this post, nosotros'll annotation the most important considerations for loftier school students because med school, besides every bit some of the top colleges and universities for pre-med students.
Factors to Consider While Choosing a Pre-Med College
1 of the most important things to keep in mind is that most schools don't offering a pre-med major. Unlike biology, history, or ethnomusicology, most American universities don't have a separate department for pre-medical undergrads. Instead, what they accept is a pre-med program with certain requirements that don't correspond to whatever one department.
What does this hateful for you lot? For one thing, it means you can major in whatsoever you want! Of course, if you make up one's mind to major in English, it'southward unlikely that any of those classes volition meet the required pre-med courses, then you'll need to keep a conscientious eye on your schedule to figure out how to fit in both the Harlem Renaissance and Organic Chemistry. Nevertheless, thousands of students take this approach, and there'due south fifty-fifty some testify that having a humanistic background tin help undergraduates when they apply to top medical schools.
2d, it means that y'all demand to recollect about how your whole college experience is going to shape your medical school application. This means classes, of grade, but likewise your pre-med program advising, research opportunities, fellowships, and more than. Every bit yous consider which college or university is correct for you lot, keep the following factors in heed, likewise.
Rigor of Curriculum
Of grade, attending a university with a rigorous undergraduate curriculum is essential to preparing for med school. Medical schoolhouse admissions offices will exist evaluating you get-go and foremost on your overall bookish grooming, which ways carefully examining your coursework. Moreover, a potent curriculum will better prepare you for the MCAT.
While medical schools will focus primarily on your pre-med courses, they also care about your overall operation, too. Harvard Medical School says they await for applicants with "a well-counterbalanced academic groundwork that includes the humanities and social sciences." So, don't be afraid to accept that philosophy grade!
Admissions History at Medical Schools
One of the best indicators of future success is by results. Accept other students from the universities you're considering for higher been accepted at prestigious medical schools? What is the med school acceptance rate for pre-med students at these schools?
You can sometimes notice medical school admissions data on universities' pre-health advising web pages, simply non always. When yous visit schools, do what yous can to talk to students, staff, and kinesthesia to understand where past students went to medical school, and compare that information with your own goals for the future.
Research Opportunities
Another crucial aspect of the medical schoolhouse admissions process will be the inquiry you were able to undertake equally an undergraduate. Medical students exercise an enormous corporeality of easily-on scientific work, so y'all need to testify you're as comfortable in the lab equally you lot are in the classroom. Practice the colleges you lot're considering offer significant research opportunities for undergraduates in the wellness and biological sciences?
It'due south also of import to consider the most active labs at your potential schools, including trying to meet with the faculty in charge before you make up one's mind to attend. Will you be able to piece of work direct with the professors you want? Or will you be competing with graduate students for their fourth dimension and attention? Remember, you'll need good letters of recommendation for the medical school admissions procedure.
Pre-Med Advising
Although pre-med majors are rare, many universities offer robust pre-med advising for students intending to apply for medical and health careers. This defended advising staff should assistance you through every office of your undergraduate years related to medical schoolhouse, from choosing your courses to finding research and fellowship opportunities, to preparing for the MCAT, to applying to med school and related financial aid programs.
Note that many schools grouping pre-med advising into a larger advising umbrella for students looking to enter the wellness professions. This is not a bad thing; in fact, being exposed to a multifariousness of wellness careers will aid you decide if beingness a practicing physician is right for you, or if there are other health careers that might appeal more.
Clinical Experience
If you do decide that beingness a doc is indeed the path for y'all, at that place'southward no amend style to set to enter the medical field as an undergraduate than gaining straight clinical feel. Many large or urban universities have partnerships with ane or more hospitals; the University of Washington, for case, lists more than than l hospitals in its network, and schools in large urban areas like New York and Chicago offering similarly expansive opportunities.
Shadowing doctors and nurses as an undergraduate shows med schools that you know what information technology takes to exist a practicing physician. Plus, you lot'll gain essential experience for your application, besides as some additional letters of recommendation.
BS/Doctor & Balls Programs
Finally, a few schools offering degree programs that go students into med school early on. In that location are 2 major types of these programs: combined available's and medical caste programs (oftentimes abbreviated equally "BS/MD" programs) and early assurance programs. Some schools, like Boston Academy, offer both programs, while others offering only i.
BS/MD programs are seven- or eight-year programs that combine both college and medical schoolhouse, normally at the aforementioned or nearby institutions. For instance, Dark-brown Academy'due south Program in Liberal and Medical Education (PLME) offers students four years at Brown's College of Arts and Sciences and three years at the academy's Alpert School of Medicine. Students apply to BS/MD programs in high schoolhouse, making such programs extremely competitive.
Early on balls programs, on the other hand, are for stellar students attention a university with a strong medical schoolhouse. For example, Tufts University offers sophomores on the pre-med track who meet certain academic requirements the opportunity to apply to Tufts Medical School without an MCAT score. Students at these universities are non guaranteed entry into the assurance program, but it'due south nevertheless a good opportunity to accept.
Both BS/Md and early assurance programs are designed to release students from the burden of the med school application process so that they can focus more on learning widely in college.
The All-time Colleges for Pre-Med
The best college for pre-med is the best college for you lot; there are dozens of colleges and universities that can offer all of the above factors. That said, there are some institutions that stand out amongst the pack for their depth and latitude of preparation for medical school. If you lot're serious about getting into a pinnacle medical school, consider looking at these frequent contenders for the best pre-med schools in the country.
Harvard University
Harvard has everything a pre-med student could want: exceptional academics (particularly in biological science and chemical science), vast inquiry opportunities and resource, strong pre-med advising (students receive a designated pre-med advisor as sophomores), several affiliated teaching hospitals, and the number one medical school in the country. No wonder their strong students have a medical schoolhouse admission rate of more than than double the national boilerplate!
Johns Hopkins University
That said, the Ivy League isn't the only place you'll find an fantabulous pre-med program. Johns Hopkins has some of the almost extensive health and medical resources in the world, from its acme-ranked hospital to its world-renowned kinesthesia. The popularity of Hopkins' pre-med program has enabled the university to build upward 1 of the best pre-med advising offices around, which ensures their students attain impressive medical school access rates.
Washington University in St. Louis
Smaller universities can also be excellent places for pre-med students. Washington University in St. Louis offers undergraduate students a strong pre-health advising community, besides equally numerous volunteer and internship opportunities in medicine and health. Furthermore, the smaller population of graduate students at Wash U ways that undergraduates ofttimes have more opportunities to participate in enquiry alongside medical school faculty.
Washington University besides offers the University Scholars Program in Medicine, through which exceptional loftier school students proceeds access to both the university and its medical schoolhouse.
Northwestern Academy
Like many of the other schools on this list, Northwestern is a prestigious university with a top-ranked medical school and an enormous range of opportunities in scientific enquiry, medical internships, clinical experience, and pre-med advising. Northwestern's Health Professions Advising office walks students through every step of the application procedure. They even piece of work with alumni who have decided to utilise to medical school after graduating!
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania'southward potent medical schoolhouse and research-oriented curriculum also makes it a great pre-med school. Admission to nationally-renowned hospitals in Philadelphia only increases undergraduate students' ability to gain easily-on medical experience before applying to medical school. Between these opportunities and the university's strong curriculum, Penn students enter medical school at significantly higher rates than the national average.
Stanford University
The Westward Coast has great opportunities for pre-med students, too! Stanford has an exceptional medical school, which in plow has created a very strong pre-med community among the undergraduate student torso. In addition to taking advantage of impressive pre-wellness advising, Stanford students can join the student-run Stanford Pre-Medical Association, which helps students of all bookish and personal backgrounds figure out their wellness career path by connecting them with internships, volunteer positions, application resources, and agreeing peers.
Duke University
And don't forget nigh the South! Duke University has an outstanding pre-med program, with nearly 85% of its pre-med students accepted into med school (more than double the national average!). Duke also offers specific study away programs for pre-med students, to ensure that the more intensive curricular requirements don't forbid Duke students from engaging in the educational and personal benefits of spending a semester or twelvemonth abroad.
University of Washington
Lastly, don't assume individual universities are the simply places you can prepare for medical school. The Academy of Washington in Seattle has one of the all-time medical schools in the world, particularly in master intendance, and undergraduates at UW benefit greatly. Just like the private schools on this listing, the University of Washington offers stiff pre-med advising, rigorous coursework, arable research and internship opportunities, and involved student groups, all of which set up UW students for successful medical careers.
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Similarly, UNC too offers numerous advantages for its pre-med students and medical schoolhouse applicants. Given the extent of its resource, both internally and within the larger "Research Triangle" of North Carolina, UNC offers its pre-med students ample opportunities to brainstorm specializing in detail research or clinical fields.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, your medical schoolhouse awarding will not be adamant past where y'all attend college or what you major in. Y'all'll demand to do well in the required classes, take a strong GPA in your science and major coursework, develop a robust medical resume, accomplish good letters of recommendation, score well on the MCAT, and write stiff essays. These tin can be accomplished at nearly whatever major university or selective liberal arts higher. All the same, it's as well important to think about whether the universities to which you're applying take the resources and opportunities to ensure y'all can develop a strong profile for medical school.
The schools on this list are a good start, but they're non a consummate list. Instead, equally you look at colleges, exist sure to learn as much as yous can about the pre-med requirements, advising, research, internships, and med school admission rates. Learn to enquire the right questions, and you lot'll exist sure to brand the best choice to begin your medical journey!
Source: https://www.sparkadmissions.com/blog/best-colleges-for-pre-med/
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