Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum

O.K. I was wondering if anyone could help me out here. There are a lot of smart people on this board...so I think the best advice can come from you guys. I want to do pre-med in college and eventually become a doctor. Unfortunatley, my family does not have the money to put me through school so I ended up choosing La Salle for college. I am considering transfering into Cornell or Columbia after my first year (money permitting) b/c most pre-med students get into IVY league medical schools by going to ivy league schools for undergraduate.

My question to you guys is :
1) What grades are considered for transferring (do high school grades still count, SAT scores, or just college gpa for that first year)?

2) What are my chances of transferring into one of these schools from La Salle if I keep a 3.8-4.0 ?

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 01:34 pm: Edit

1) If you transfer after 1 year, HS grades will probably be taken into account more than if you transfer after 2. They will ask for SATs (except for a few places).

2) Even a psychic would need more information than a rough GPA estimate as to your viability for either of those schools. Anecdotally, I was accepted at Cornell as a transfer after 2 years with a 4.0 over 62 Units.

Random:

Cornell, I believe, has an 86% Med School acceptance rate. If I am not mistaken (and if I am, I'm sure someone will gleefully correct me) that is the highest among the Ivies.

These are the averages over an 8 year period of student scores on the MCAT:

CalTech 628, Brooklyn College 616, Harvey Mudd 615, Yeshiva 613, Chicago 608, Cornell 600, Queens 596, Rennselaer Polytech Inst 596, MIT 596, Cooper Union 592, Yale 590, Brown 588, Pembroke 586, Carleton 585, Rice 585, Swarthmore, 584, Pomona 583, Harvard, 582, Augsburg 581, Brandeis 579, Clarkson 579, Wabash 578, Union 576, Barnard 576, Hamilton 576, U of Rochester 575, Western Maryland College 572, Lehigh 572, Oberlin 572, Occidental 572, Reed 572, Princeton 570, Stanford 570, Lafayette 568, Columbia 567, Franklin and Marshall 567, Johns Hopkins 567, Muhlenberg 566, Haverford 565, Dartmouth 563, McMurray (TX) 562, Williams 562, Duke 561, Wesleyan 561, Bowdoin 560, Middlebury 560, Colgate 560, Trinity (CT) 560, Penn 560, Grinnell 559, Ohio Wesleyan 558, Northwestern 558, UCLA 557, UCBerkeley 557, Calvin College 556, St. Thomas (Minn.) 554, Boston College 554, Illinois Institute of Tech 553, College of Wooster 553, UC Davis 553, UCSC 551, UCSD 551, Penn State 550, U of Delaware 550, Washington U St. Louis 550, Denison College 550

By Northstarmom (Northstarmom) on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 01:35 pm: Edit

You will get your best advice by checking the web sites of the schools that you're considering transferring to. You also might want to follow-up by e-mailing their admissions office.

The message boards here for Cornell and Columbia also may have some info about what happened to transfers this year.

Both Cornell and Columbia guarantee to meet students' documented financial need. Unless one is extremely poor (i.e. household income $30 k or less), one is unlikely to get full financial aid from such schools. More than likely, your parents will have to pay something, and you'd also have to take out some loans. If LaSalle is giving you a full ride, it may be hard to match that elsewhere.

Have you also checked out the premed board at CC? There probably is good advice there.