Univ of Alabama - 100% medical school admission

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, your kid must apply to the McCollough Scholars program. Here are the requirements. https://mccolloughscholars.ua.edu/apply/. Only the few scholars in the program received the 100% admissions, not all
u of Alabama pre med types.

This is different from commonapp application?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is a National Merit Semifinalist from TJ and we get emails from the school inviting to apply for free. For NMF they provide great package - 100% free + 4000/year for 5 years. They also say 100% med school admission. Is there a reason not to consider UA? Do UA pre-med students end up in Med schools like Harvard or Columbia or UVA some place good?

Very rarely. Go to an ivy/T10 with a med school on campus or close

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want to go to med school, you can be at any undergrad you want. It really doesn't matter. If you have specific future interests in mind, then look for a school that supports that. Choose undergrad based on fit for that undergrad.

OP - you didn't say what race you are. If you are white, then 70%+ white school will be fine. If you are Asian, especially coming from TJ, then it may be culture shock for your kid - see if they are ok with that. Remember undergrad is not just for feeding into med school. I hope my DC meets a great friend group of like minded people and is exposed to new and interesting things and has dating options. For that, a larger pool of intellectual types would be a priority and Alabama may not offer that. Every school has happy kids and unhappy kids.

Actually, it’s easy to meet like-minded intellectual kids at Alabama because they are largely separate in the programs, like McCollough, Blount and Randall. They find each other quickly and live in the same dorms. Race is really not an issue there, there is everyone and it’s less of a thing than in the NE schools. It won’t be culture shock because almost everyone in the programs are from out of state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is a National Merit Semifinalist from TJ and we get emails from the school inviting to apply for free. For NMF they provide great package - 100% free + 4000/year for 5 years. They also say 100% med school admission. Is there a reason not to consider UA? Do UA pre-med students end up in Med schools like Harvard or Columbia or UVA some place good?

They do not have 100% admissions success. They have 100% success for a very small (24) group of kids that they allow into a select "institute" and not all of them actually go on to medical school. That 100% success is for graduate school.

This is the group that people in this area care about. If going to Alabama on scholarship and interested in pre-med, someone from here will be in McCollough. For med school you need perfect grades, good MCAT, clinical hours and research. All these things are very accessible at Alabama, which makes it a really good pre-med school. The cost savings is also huge, especially if plans for MD / PhD or specialty like surgery which may take years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:100% of what? 100% of NMF kids to UA medical school? 100% of premed kids to "any" medical school?? 100% of NMF kids to any medical school?? You need to know. We passed on UA w/ 3 of my NMF/NMS kids.

Alabama places 100% of kids in McCollough, a pre-med program kids apply to as freshman. They also have really good placements (although getting in to any med school is very hard now).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's for a particular pre-med program; you'd need to look into it.

https://news.ua.edu/2023/09/ua-pre-med-students-achieve-100-med-school-acceptance/

Likely not top-tier med school admissions, or they'd say. Write and ask for the data.

My NMF pre-med kid wanted an SLAC for undergrad, so didn't consider UA. It's a big, ra ra football school with a very small cohort of top students. You should visit and see how your kid feels about it.

I don't see any non-white kids in the pre-med cohort picture

My niece is Indian (dark), was pre-med at Alabama (loved it!). She is now at Emory for med school.

Thank you. And congrats to your niece!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid feels comfortable there and wants that undergrad experience then go for it

Such a weird comment. Why don't I ever read, like, if your kid feels comfortable at a SLAC and wants that ugrad experience, then go for it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The city of Tuscaloosa is pretty much an even distribution of Black and White residents.

The state of Alabama is 63% white. The student body reflects the state’s population.

University of Alabama is 60% out of state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean, if a college was offering me free undergrad plus a $4k stipend every year, I'd at least go look. If you know you're headed to medical school, I'd save every dollar I could on undergrad.

But you aren’t giving up a thing.
The school is great and has the most NMFs in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:100% of what? 100% of NMF kids to UA medical school? 100% of premed kids to "any" medical school?? 100% of NMF kids to any medical school?? You need to know. We passed on UA w/ 3 of my NMF/NMS kids.

Alabama places 100% of kids in McCollough, a pre-med program kids apply to as freshman. They also have really good placements (although getting in to any med school is very hard now).

No, 44% of all applicants get in to at least one US MD program. That is not too hard. Alabama McCollough fro being a high-stat group, does not place as well as far as % to top med schools as the ivy+ undergrads place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The city of Tuscaloosa is pretty much an even distribution of Black and White residents.

The state of Alabama is 63% white. The student body reflects the state’s population.

University of Alabama is 60% out of state.

Yep.

ICYMI: outsiders are taking over Bama. The school is throwing money at smart kids and happily accepting OOS tuition from others, and the campus is filled with tons of kids from up north and out west. If you haven’t visited, you really should.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, if a college was offering me free undergrad plus a $4k stipend every year, I'd at least go look. If you know you're headed to medical school, I'd save every dollar I could on undergrad.

But you aren’t giving up a thing.
The school is great and has the most NMFs in the country.

And is 100% not at all the same environment as ivy/T10 privates. It just is not. Super smart students give that up if they pick Bama

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:100% of what? 100% of NMF kids to UA medical school? 100% of premed kids to "any" medical school?? 100% of NMF kids to any medical school?? You need to know. We passed on UA w/ 3 of my NMF/NMS kids.

Alabama places 100% of kids in McCollough, a pre-med program kids apply to as freshman. They also have really good placements (although getting in to any med school is very hard now).

No, 44% of all applicants get in to at least one US MD program. That is not too hard. Alabama McCollough fro being a high-stat group, does not place as well as far as % to top med schools as the ivy+ undergrads place.

44% is incredibly low! Less than half of an already select group of kids get in to any med school at all, including their home state flagship!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, if a college was offering me free undergrad plus a $4k stipend every year, I'd at least go look. If you know you're headed to medical school, I'd save every dollar I could on undergrad.

But you aren’t giving up a thing.
The school is great and has the most NMFs in the country.

And is 100% not at all the same environment as ivy/T10 privates. It just is not. Super smart students give that up if they pick Bama

There are many kids in the programs who got in to Ivys / top 10s or whatever and chose to be at Alabama. There are very smart kids there and their choice makes a lot of sense once you understand the school. For med school it especially makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, if a college was offering me free undergrad plus a $4k stipend every year, I'd at least go look. If you know you're headed to medical school, I'd save every dollar I could on undergrad.

But you aren’t giving up a thing.
The school is great and has the most NMFs in the country.

And is 100% not at all the same environment as ivy/T10 privates. It just is not. Super smart students give that up if they pick Bama

Unlike many of those schools, Alabama is supportive. It is not at all cutthroat and kids are happy. It does not mean they aren’t super smart, they are, but they also realize that each other’s success is a good thing for them. It’s a great environment to spend four years, especially before going off to the stress of med school.