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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:If they have 100 percent med school admission, it’s because they refuse to support some applicants, weeding out at the front end. Better to go to a school that will support any student seeking to pursue the pathway.

Disagree. Doctors need to be at the top tier. I'm glad they weed out weaker applicants.

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.

Our reason is that we don’t want our daughters living in Alabama. That was the only reason we needed. Queue all the boosters claiming how NOT racist and NOT misogynistic Alabama is.

Nobody has 100% med school feeder rates. The ones with the top admission rates will hand pick only a few to groom and make sure to sabotage the rest so they will not drag down their ratings. Williams is famous for this. William & Mary is not, they will help any premed hopeful with research opportunities, recommendations, and advising. Alabama's med school is very good. You need to get the actual percentage of UA undergrads that the med school takes and break it down by residency. For example, UVA has an amazing med school and they don't give any preferential admission to uva undergrads. They do care if the applicant is a VA resident. The BEST school for premeds is MIT, especially if they are interested in research. MIT has a 90% feed rate into the MD/PhD programs, which are the cream of the crop.

Anonymous wrote:OP, the naysayers on this thread seem uninformed. If you get a chance to visit, do so (Alabama will set you up with someone in McCollough, the pre-med program). You will be glad you did.

Which specific naysayer is uninformed in your opinion?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they have 100 percent med school admission, it’s because they refuse to support some applicants, weeding out at the front end. Better to go to a school that will support any student seeking to pursue the pathway.

True, they will indicate you are not on track for med admission early on and will not support your application. Lots of schools do this - I know for certain Swarthmore and Chicago do this.

If you are pre-med and are not supported, it is easy to get credentials (classes, labs, clinical) and then have money to do a post-bac, which is a common path. Post bacs are expensive, and having spent very little on undergrad is helpful.

Most top post-bac programs do not take kids who already have the sciences complete. They are for major changers.

Unrelated question: does Alabama allow students to skip intro (or even intermediate) math/physics courses based on departmental challenge exams?

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.

If you want to go to med school, I think it makes a lot of sense to go somewhere free for undergrad.

I did not go to Alabama but my cousin did. I went to a different SEC school and visited often. Alabama was a lot of fun! Beautiful school too.

Unrelated question for Bama parents, is it possible to skip intro (or even intermediate) physics and math courses without AP classes based on departmental challenge exams / advanced standing exams?
E.g. UGA does: https://reg.uga.edu/student-forms/course-challenges/
And so does UChicago: http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/thecollege/placementexams/

OP, the naysayers on this thread seem uninformed. If you get a chance to visit, do so (Alabama will set you up with someone in McCollough, the pre-med program). You will be glad you did.

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

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they have 100 percent med school admission, it’s because they refuse to support some applicants, weeding out at the front end. Better to go to a school that will support any student seeking to pursue the pathway.

+1

You can read up on this more but there is zero oversight for grad school related claims that undergrad schools make. So the only proof of this is the school saying it is true.