UDC is on the rise. No joke.

I have a DD who is a senior at UDC. She went there because of medical conditions--she wasn't well enough to go to college for a while and when she finally was it was already July and UDC was the only option. She thought of transferring to a better university but she likes it and their disabilities office is totally awesome for anyone with a medical condition. (This is hard to find).

She is applying to med school. The PP is right--med schools do look for students from a large number of universities and publicize this number. UDC +1. It is also considered an "urban" school serving disadvantaged students. UDC +1. OP is right about accessibility of professors and department heads. UDC +1.

DD has five med school acceptances so far (three are on the list a PP posted) and is waiting to hear from four others she interviewed at.

Downsides for a pre-med. There is not a pre-med advisory program like most schools have. The student has to figure out on his own all the classes needed for med school entrance, plus rely on his own ingenuity to get the needed shadowing and medical volunteering. The school provides no assistance in getting these opportunities.

My DD knows of only three other seniors applying for med school. I am not discounting that there may be others she doesn't know about. The head of the biology department gives advice and writes recommendation letters. He seems to watch promising pre-meds carefully. If the head of the biology department feels you have what it takes, you will almost surely get into Howard medical school.

3.5 is not a high average for pre-med. But with a decent MCAT, he will have a chance for med school, and he has another year and a half to raise it. Even if he doesn't raise it much, if he has a strong recommendation coming from UDC, he has a very high chance of getting into Howard. And as OP says, DO would be a possibility.

OP, you post an interesting query: should DC transfer to a school with less cachet in order to actually get a better education? I think your son needs more data before making such a big decision, as so far he has only seen one class at UDC. It could be the norm there, but it also might be one atypically excellent class. He should try to sit in on some more, in different fields and with different profs, before deciding.

One thing you said stood out to me: that transferring to UMBC wouldn’t been a good choice for HIM because YOU can’t telecommute. What’s going on there? If your son isn’t ready to be fully independent (which includes monitoring his own medical conditions), a smaller school with a community atmosphere and professors who do more teaching than research could be a great choice for him.

Medical school will require a lot of independence and ability to take care of himself even under physically adverse situations (like late nights).

Previous poster is correct. MCAT matters more than anything in medical school admissions. Med schools like to assemble classes of kids from all different undergrads. My husband went to Hopkins medical school and his classmates were from all kinds of schools: from Harvard to bible colleges and 4th tier state schools. Med schools want top students (in whatever undergrad environment they come from) with great MCAT scores and some sort of volunteer or paid work during undergrad that shows an interest in medicine.

You do not need a science major to apply to med school.

The science premed track is hateful at most high-ranked universities. It's filled with kids who are hypercompetitive ... about grades, not about learning.

If he's really interested in science, how about moving into a different science major and thinking about a non-medicine career? If he's really interested in medicine, he could transfer into economics or English, take the premed prereqs, and still get into med school.

Anonymous wrote:There are some programs at UDC that are very unique and world class.

I know it gets a bad rep, but we have a gem of a local University.

Be careful. Some local DC pols have proposed renaming UDC as Marion Barry University of DC. Imagine having that name on one’s diploma!

I think your son needs to take a serious look at things and decide if this is the right track for him. College Park is going to have the same "issues" as his current school: hypercompetitive environment, professors who aren't particularly interested in undergrad classes, and a complete lack of hand-holding. Medical school has zero hand-holding. And crazy hypercompetitive. I just not sure what your son, and you, are expecting. UDC sounds like glorified high school.

The Association of American Medical College's data shows that the mean GPA of matriculatants over the last 2 years is 3.72. Yes, that means some people get in with lower averages. But that also means a 3.5 is quite a bit lower--and a student with "only" a 3.5 isn't going to be the one snagging those coveted research positions with profs or landing big-time internships to beef up their app and make up for a "below average" GPA.

Sounds like you want him to stay local....even for med school? Here are the average undergrad GPAs of students entering local med schools:
GWU, 3.72
Georgetown, 3.74
Howard 3.42 (an extreme outlier among US med schools)
Hopkins, 3.92
U MD, 3.82
Uniformed Services (armed forces med school), 3.71
Eastern VA, 3.72
VCU, 3.74
VA Tech, 3.61
UVA, 3.9

UDC typically has less than 50 students apply to medical school each year. Which sounds great--he'll get so much attention! But that also means UDC just doesn't have the same experience of getting students through the admission process, nor the connections with medical schools that a place like, say, Georgetown does. Georgetown not only has tons of applicants every year, but they are a known commodity and schools are well aware of how they grade undergrads.

There's so much you can do with a biochem degree that doesn't involve med school. My father did his PhD in biochem and became a noted forensic toxicologist. My friend did her MS in biochem and does really rewarding work for the ATF.