small LAC or state flagship for pre-med?
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Anonymous
| My DS graduated from an SLAC and is now a physician. He completed shadowing, research and volunteering during the summers and breaks. It can be done. |
Anonymous
| About 95% of kids who start premed end up switching. Choose the school where she'll be happiest if she decides not to be premed. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
If you are serious about medicine, you probably also want to choose a school that doesn't dissuade pre-meds through cutthroat attitudes, weed-out grading, poor advising, and difficulty in getting a recommendation. |
Anonymous
Excellent point. You will never know, but there is a good chance she would have found her premed path much easier in classes with only 35-50 students. She might have figured out Chem and done well. Then again, maybe premed wasn't her thing. But weed out classes are real at larger universities and imo, that is one reason smaller schools are "better". Easier for kids to figure things out academically and not get lost. |
Anonymous
You should put in graduation year for reference. Med school admissions has changed a lot in the last few years. It's shocking what it takes now. |
Anonymous
| My DS is a pre-med at UVA. He has had a good experience with advising and classes but the student will need to be disciplined and driven and not afraid to knock on the profs door. Orgo was a grind but the other classes are not that bad if they are STEM capable (I qualify that with he is a bio-chem/econ double major so he loves that stuff) There are a lot of opportunities for research (he works in a lab) and hospital shadowing which as other's have said is vital in today's med school gauntlet. In the end I would say if your DD feels she will need the extra attention than the LAC is a better option, if not and is organized and loves UVA than it's a great option. I will add that he does a club sport and has a great social life and still able to maintain a 4.0 so it can be done with a great college experience. Good luck! |
Anonymous
+1 Our country needs doctors and ends up importing a lot of doctors trained outside the US. We need an overhaul of med school and med school admissions. But until then, if your kid wants pre-med, go to a school that supports pre-med very well for all its candidates AND has good back-up options if it doesn't work out. |
Anonymous
My DS completed his residency in July 2022. While in undergrad, he was an athlete and a RA, not sure how shadowing would have worked out during the school year. He had about a month off at Christmas and 3 1/2 months off during the summer. |
Anonymous
| Get great grades and test scores but there is no single formula for success. For research/shadowing/volunteering,etc. the quality of experiences matters more than quantity. Do not just try to follow a premed formula of activities or else the kid will both be miserable and not stand out. Let your kid do things that they are truly interested in. It is the rare extracurricular activities that set them apart. Let your kids excel on their own path. |
Anonymous
please explain? |
Anonymous
Nobody is shocked. It has been this way for a long time. |
Anonymous
| Why not attend a hospital affiliated flagship public which also has programs in: nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy. |
Anonymous
B/c both the hospital and programs you mentioned are largely irrelevant. |
Anonymous
So you’re close to ten years out from med school apps? |