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ive always been a hardworking kid because i want to be educated at a top tier university, but after spending time at these discussions, it seems that its just as advantageous to go to a state school and go to med school from there...

is it really worth busting my ass in high school to get into columbia for my pre-med if i have a better chance at getting accepted into a good med school from a state university? Thoughts please...

By Localmooer (Localmooer) on Wednesday, July 09, 2003 - 08:41 pm: Edit

if getting into med school is so important to you, check out BA/MD programs...

By Futuredoc123 (Futuredoc123) on Wednesday, July 09, 2003 - 09:23 pm: Edit

well of course there's the usual HPME and all of those insanely difficult programs to get into...I've had my heart set on goin to college at Northwestern or Columbia, but is it worth going there and working my ass off to maintain a 3.9 gpa or somethin instead of goin to a state school and getting it with ease?

By Sar (Sar) on Wednesday, July 09, 2003 - 11:57 pm: Edit

It's up to you. Plenty of people make it and love it, and plenty of people don't make it or don't love it. "Know thyself."

And if you're looking at Columbia, you might as well apply to the 3 combined programs around it too: NYU, City College, Brooklyn College. The latter two aren't exactly prestigious, but they're fine programs and you can go quite far with them if you have the drive.

Yes, it is easier in a state/city college, but you have to be more self-motivated. Standards are generally lower, teachers are more aloof (they're not too connected with the students and they make mistakes that ivy teachers don't have the face to admit they sometimes make too, though there are some ivy professors who are more interested in research than in teaching, and English skills standards are currently pretty low at state schools [at least in NYC] so you should be an avid reader if you wanna do well on standardized exams and in writing your essay) and you might have to study more on your own if you wanna go to med school, unless you are lucky enough to get the best professors in the school (yes, there are still very good professors at state schools--they just teach at a relatively shallow level because of the student population, but it's really all you need to know; anything deeper is usually forgotten in a few years by most people anyway).

By Uncchlocalmayor (Uncchlocalmayor) on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 02:31 am: Edit

work hard anywhere you go.