Expert: Todd Johnson - 12/20/2011

Question
My son has recently expressed an interest in medical school.  His GPA is in the 3.5 range and his highest SAT scores will likely be around 650 math and 550 reading.  My son does best in a smaller school that offers a supportive environment.  He's an outdoors type who enjoys the mountains and snowboarding.  Can you recommend a small liberal arts school with a pre-med program that includes academic support (through, for example, oversight by a pre-med advisor and an MCAT prep program) and that has a high acceptance rate to medical school?

Answer
Tom,

There are too many factors related to finding the right college for a particular student for me to make any recommendations based on limited information. That being said, in general terms, smaller liberal arts colleges often have a better history of medical school placement than larger colleges. This is for several reasons including more personalized attention in smaller classes so that the student learns the subject better and which also results in getting to know professors better.

Most colleges will have a pre-med advisor and MCAT prep programs are fairly common. He should look at a website like College Navigator to find colleges that fit his needs. Here is their link:  http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/

Once he has a list of colleges that fit him academically and socially then he should contact the premed advisor for that college to find out how they do with medical school placement. Unfortunately, you need to ask the right questions to really get the answer to this question. For instance. many  colleges will say that they have high acceptance rates but it is because they only give recommendations to their top students. Really good programs will give recommendations to all students who wish to apply to medical school.

I hope that helps him get started.