Best Colleges for Pre-Med

(The following is a guest post by? John Rood of Next Step Test Preparation)

After astronaut, princess, and pro football player, doctor is one of the professions that people know they want to enter when they are young. Of course, doctor is the one that students generally stay with. For students who plan on going into medicine, choosing a college with a great pre-med program is a critical step.

Students can enter med school from any qualified undergraduate institution, but the level of support offered by the university or college can make a big difference. Medical school admissions can be an arcane process and having a professional team on campus to help guide you can be invaluable.

You can be successful anywhere

Just to get this out-of-the-way, nearly any of the top universities will have fantastic pre-med programs and students who are competitive for those universities will be in great hands. Debating whether Stanford is “better for pre-med” than Harvard is a moot point – they are both great and students who do well will have plenty of opportunities for med school.

In fact, students and parents who are losing sleep considering which are the “best colleges for pre med” can probably relax – while the differences between Harvard and a regional commuter college might be significant, the difference between program #32 and #38 are not significant in terms of students going on to medical school.

Large programs generally have great support

After that, students and parents should look for evidence of a robust and active pre-medical or pre-health program. This should be a professional staff devoted specifically to helping students through the pre-med process – not simply a professor on staff part-time.

Nearly all large universities will have a program like this. For instance, according to the American Association of Medical Colleges, the top 5 pre-med feeder schools in terms of number of applicants are:

• UCLA
• University of Michigan
• Berkeley
• University of Florida
• University of Texas

You’ll notice the commonality – all of these schools (and indeed most of the schools on this list) are among the largest public universities. UCLA, for example, had 820 applicants, while Duke had 355.

Do your research on smaller schools

As you get into regional state universities and smaller private colleges, the differences can grow. If you are considering a smaller college, you really want to make sure to research the pre-health services provided. If you go on a visit, see if you can speak with the pre-professional advising staff. Speaking with professors is great, but your biology professor won’t usually lead the charge in helping you get into medical school.

If the school doesn’t have a dedicated pre-medical advisor, or you hear from pre-med students there that they don’t use the pre-medical office, you should seriously consider another institution.

Med school admissions has more to do with YOU

All that said, even the top medical schools admit students from all sorts of institutions. We’ve seen many students be successful even with little support – but it makes the process that much harder to navigate. The other side of the coin is that students who go to a?  top school but don’t earn a top GPA or MCAT score, or who don’t devote themselves to extra-curricular activities and research, won’t be successful.

Next Step Test Preparation provides one-on-one MCAT tutor programs nationwide.