Anonymous
06/19/2026 10:41
Subject: Is it better to go to a lesser school if you are went to be premed
Anonymous wrote:A friend teaches biochem at an Ivy and laments that his very best students always go to medical school. They don’t realize that medical school is just memorization and endless multiple choice tests. Clinical practice is increasingly protocol driven.
A lot of these cream of the crop students love the idea of being a doctor, plus it’s safe. You do the schooling and the training, you get the high paying job. Success in basic science is so much harder.
Some people actually need to earn a decent income at some point? Smh.
Anonymous
06/19/2026 09:46
Subject: Is it better to go to a lesser school if you are went to be premed
A friend teaches biochem at an Ivy and laments that his very best students always go to medical school. They don’t realize that medical school is just memorization and endless multiple choice tests. Clinical practice is increasingly protocol driven.
A lot of these cream of the crop students love the idea of being a doctor, plus it’s safe. You do the schooling and the training, you get the high paying job. Success in basic science is so much harder.
A lot of these cream of the crop students love the idea of being a doctor, plus it’s safe. You do the schooling and the training, you get the high paying job. Success in basic science is so much harder.
Anonymous
06/19/2026 09:36
Subject: Is it better to go to a lesser school if you are went to be premed
NESCACs are great for premed because they are great for well rounded, smart, nice kids who are well suited to be doctors. They are academically rigorous but in a way that supports motivated students.
Medical school requires a solid foundation in natural sciences but not in the same way that Ph.D programs do. You don’t need to be an A student at Hopkins, MIT, or Caltech to do medicine. Honestly, for those people clinical medicine is probably not the best use of their talents (unless it’s what the genuinely want to do).
Medical school requires a solid foundation in natural sciences but not in the same way that Ph.D programs do. You don’t need to be an A student at Hopkins, MIT, or Caltech to do medicine. Honestly, for those people clinical medicine is probably not the best use of their talents (unless it’s what the genuinely want to do).
Anonymous
06/19/2026 00:52
Subject: Re:Is it better to go to a lesser school if you are went to be premed
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Middlebury College acceptance rate to medical school is 90%
https://www.middlebury.edu/teaching-learning-research/student-resources/health-professions/prospective-students#middlebury-acceptance-rate
Those stats are misleading at a lot of places. (No experience with midd). That 90% is of the kids weeded out and who get approval for the recommendations/etc. Not 90% of all kids who want to go to medical school. We were told by some department chairs (when college searching) of this little manipulation of the numbers.
They don't all do it. But alot do.
None of the top NESCACs “gatekeep”. However they do provide their analysis of what they expect for results based on your packet which likely dissuades some from applying.
Anonymous
06/18/2026 18:58
Subject: Re:Is it better to go to a lesser school if you are went to be premed
Anonymous wrote:Middlebury College acceptance rate to medical school is 90%
https://www.middlebury.edu/teaching-learning-research/student-resources/health-professions/prospective-students#middlebury-acceptance-rate
Those stats are misleading at a lot of places. (No experience with midd). That 90% is of the kids weeded out and who get approval for the recommendations/etc. Not 90% of all kids who want to go to medical school. We were told by some department chairs (when college searching) of this little manipulation of the numbers.
They don't all do it. But alot do.
Anonymous
06/18/2026 16:42
Subject: Is it better to go to a lesser school if you are went to be premed
25 years in academic medicine, and I think that any top 50 SLAC is a superb choice if medical school is your goal.
Anonymous
06/18/2026 16:40
Subject: Is it better to go to a lesser school if you are went to be premed
To OP, my brilliant cousin (UVA med) who was of modest means had a great pre-med experience at Wash. & Jeff. Most important is 1) kill those pre-med req courses, which are tough at any school, and 2) ace the MCAT. You can't b.s. your way through courses like Inorganic Chem, they use those to weed out the wannabe docs.
Anonymous
06/18/2026 15:32
Subject: Is it better to go to a lesser school if you are went to be premed
Anonymous wrote:And, honestly, if you were getting A’s in physics and organic chem at Princeton 25 years ago, clinical medicine was probably not the best use of your time.
Seriously. Medical school is mostly memorization and multiple choice tests. It’s hard because of the sheer volume and pace. The right preparation for that is not what Caltech, MIT, and Princeton are identifying when giving A’s vs B’s.
Anonymous
06/18/2026 15:10
Subject: Is it better to go to a lesser school if you are went to be premed
And, honestly, if you were getting A’s in physics and organic chem at Princeton 25 years ago, clinical medicine was probably not the best use of your time.
Anonymous
06/18/2026 15:08
Subject: Is it better to go to a lesser school if you are went to be premed
The premed dilemma is one of the reasons that Princeton finally caved on grade inflation. There was absolutely nothing wrong with B’s in Princeton STEM classes 25 years ago. Unless your MCATs were 99th percentile, a lot of very bright 3.0-3.4 tigers were told to find a different career.
Anonymous
06/18/2026 15:05
Subject: Re:Is it better to go to a lesser school if you are went to be premed
Anonymous wrote:Middlebury College acceptance rate to medical school is 90%
https://www.middlebury.edu/teaching-learning-research/student-resources/health-professions/prospective-students#middlebury-acceptance-rate
Don't trust these numbers. This is only because they are known for strictly gatekeeping who gets a committee letter and refusing to provide letters for any candidates that are on the bubble.
Anonymous
06/18/2026 14:45
Subject: Is it better to go to a lesser school if you are went to be premed
For what it’s worth, I’m a medical school clinical faculty member who chose a top 10 LAC over two better known top 10 national universities.
It’s not one size fits all. What isn’t very negotiable is that medical schools want students who didn’t struggle for good grades.
However, the undergrad program needs to be rigorous.
My advice is to go to a school where by working hard and immersing yourself in learning you will be recognized as a strong student. A college where you can get a high GPA without working hard probably isn’t rigorous enough. A college where you are below average despite working extremely hard will make med school admissions an uphill battle.
Of course it’s hard to know which school is your sweet spot. For most people, it’s not Caltech or MIT. In my case, choosing the LAC over Chicago and Hopkins was good decision.
It’s not one size fits all. What isn’t very negotiable is that medical schools want students who didn’t struggle for good grades.
However, the undergrad program needs to be rigorous.
My advice is to go to a school where by working hard and immersing yourself in learning you will be recognized as a strong student. A college where you can get a high GPA without working hard probably isn’t rigorous enough. A college where you are below average despite working extremely hard will make med school admissions an uphill battle.
Of course it’s hard to know which school is your sweet spot. For most people, it’s not Caltech or MIT. In my case, choosing the LAC over Chicago and Hopkins was good decision.
Anonymous
06/18/2026 13:58
Subject: Re:Is it better to go to a lesser school if you are went to be premed
Middlebury College acceptance rate to medical school is 90%
https://www.middlebury.edu/teaching-learning-research/student-resources/health-professions/prospective-students#middlebury-acceptance-rate
https://www.middlebury.edu/teaching-learning-research/student-resources/health-professions/prospective-students#middlebury-acceptance-rate
Anonymous
06/18/2026 13:19
Subject: Is it better to go to a lesser school if you are went to be premed
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My son wants to go to med school. He is a rising senior and has excellent stats. I expect he will get into some top schools. I wonder if it will be better for him to choose a school that does not have a student population of mostly valedictorians and near perfect SAT scores. My kid also has the stats and extracurriculars.
Pre-Med (Biology) major at Lehigh. Full ride versus attending a T25 school (with aid but would cost money/loans, parents had very little resources). Got a 4.0 and good MCAT score and attending a top Med School.
Cheers !! What was the MCAT? Did Lehigh coursework prepare well for it? What medical school?
yes, coursework prepared well.
Medical school in the tri-state area.
Top means very good but not "elite" like Columbia.
Anonymous
06/18/2026 11:19
Subject: Re:Is it better to go to a lesser school if you are went to be premed
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have no idea how the pre med process works, but for some that can make med school, at what point do you consider DO? Is it a different timeframe altogether? Could you pivot to DO/opthamology/dentistry? Serious question, I just have no idea.
DO (Dr of Osteopathic medicine) schools is usually used to refer to Osteopathic medical schoolss: in general have a lower bar for MCAT and GPA than MD schools. They place very well, generally, into non-academic residencies, non-subspecialty residencies, though a subset of them do have a 25-35% SOAP rate(scramble rate)--the % who do not match on match day and have to look for unfilled spots often outside their first choice of fields and/or in a rural area. That does not happen with MD programs, top ones have 0% SOAP and almost all MD schools are under 10%.
Ophthalmology is a subspecialty of medicine that does surgical procedures on eyes, in other words a field you choose in MD school then try to match in it for residency. It is almost impossible as are many subspecialities(ENT, rad-onc, plastics, neurosurgery, etc), from a DO school, and even from MD programs you have to be either at a T20 (bottom of the class is fine) or near the top of your class at lower ranked MD programs.
Optometry is a profession that knows a lot about eyes but does not do surgery: they do not go to medical school, they go to specific eye programs and get a Doctor of Optometry after their bachelors, which is unfortunately also called a DO. That decision is made in undergrad.
Dentists get a DDS: after their bachelors they apply to dental schools.
This is not true at all. I don’t know about DO, but there are absolutely tons sub specialists that come out of mid tier medical schools.
One of my cousin’s kids is doing his cardiology fellowship. He went to a Caribbean medical school.
A DO can be a board-certified plastic surgeon, probably one of the best paying specialties. See, e.g., https://www.americanboardcosmeticsurgery.org/doctors/claudia-kim/