Need advice from Pre-med students

[SerraYX]

I was declined by JHU and UPenn, so it's between Drew University and Bucknell University for me. I don't have hopes for Princeton, so I figured I'd ask here if anyone had opinions about either college.

Drew's Pre-med isn't technically a major, so I'm doubtful of the quality of their program. Bucknell seems to be more oriented in that field, but I'm unsure of their overall quality as a college.

Do any current/former Pre-med students have any advice in general as to what to concentrate on in course selection or what else I could do to get into a decent medical school.

 

[Capn]

probably not what you're looking for, but I've heard you don't really want to major in premed. The competition is pretty ruthless, and if you decide against medical school when you graduate you don't really have a degree in anything useful.

 

[SmackdownHotel]

Are you sure those schools offer "pre-med" as a MAJOR? Or is it more of a "direction?" If you want to get into medical school, there are basically two main things that you have to focus on:

1). Regardless of what major you choose, get good grades. That goes without saying.

2). Get involved in SOMETHING. It doesn't necessarily have to be related to medicine or hospital service. Get involved in something you're passionate about that has some kinda of volunteer/community/good-will nature to it. And stick with it. Many people think that they should get involved in every little activity that comes along. That's not necessarily the case, since most med schools prefer to see how your sense of committment is. They would much rather see that you had maybe one or two activities that you engaged in for many years, rather than a ton of 2-day services.

 

[vegetation]

What should you major in? Something that you're genuinely interested in is what I suggest. Doesn't have to be related to medicine at all. Pre-med just means taking a bunch of classes that medical schools typically require. This includes 2 semesters of physics, 2 semesters of organic chem, etc. If your major overlaps some of these required classes then of course, it will be easier on you. For instance, a bio major pretty much has to take all these classes in their core anyways, so many premed folks will go into that area. However, as already mentioned, medical schools are much harsher when it comes to GPA and test scores with biological science majors. For instance, it's common for an engineering major to have a 3.0 gpa and still be granted entrance into med school but there's no chance in h*ll a bio major will be able to do the same.