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What are the advantages of attending a Liberal Arts College for Pre-Med? More specifically, majoring in Pre-Med at a Liberal Arts College, while meeting PA and Medical School pre-requisites? Thank you so much for your help!

2007-05-27 13:05:34 · 6 answers · asked by MacNY 1 in Education & Reference Higher Education (University +)

Thanks to all of you for your input thus far, there are some great advantages that I see here.

More background info that may help: the main college I am looking at has a brand new science building with an awesome cadaver dissection lab, strong connections with area hospitals and clinics for internships and shadowing, dedicated pre-health advisers, a few M.D.'s as professors, and they have a 94% acceptance rate into med school over the past 5 years.

2007-05-27 15:37:53 · update #1

6 answers

Liberal Art oriented school are typically not known for science programs, actually the opposite. For the profession you are interested in, you would probably be better served elsewhere.

2007-05-27 15:27:26 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

No, Joe C., Liberal Arts is not just a dumb term! It refers to a college or university with a goal of providing a broad education, not just specific career training. The advantage is that even if you stick with your intended career goals, you have have had exposure to a range of ways of looking at the world, and can bring those perspectives to bear in understanding issues within whichever field you choose as your specialty. Rather than just a series of unrelated "general ed" courses, most liberal arts colleges try to provide some form of integration of the education, so that if you had to take history and philosophy, for example, those subject matters won't only show up in your history and philosophy classes, but you might be expected to apply lessons from history and philosophy to dealing with medical ethics questions.

In addition to giving your confidence in your intellectual capabilities, a liberal arts education makes you an educated person so that even if you change your mind about medical school during your program, you still have many options to pursue. As has been said earlier, most liberal arts colleges are smaller, and you get more individual attention and are challenged more directly on your thinking.

One caveat I would give you as a pre-med student would be to make sure that the college you choose has adequate (or preferably good) lab facilities. It is all very well to be able to tie your studies in psychology and literature to your medical studies, but if you haven't had sufficient exposure to the sciences, medical school will be a challenge for you.

2007-05-27 13:27:02 · answer #2 · answered by neniaf 7 · 1 0

Most medical schools discourage students from following a "Pre-Med" major, by the way. You're better off focusing on Biology or Biochemistry or something like that (although you don't need to major in the sciences to go to med school). You will still complete all the prerequisites and also graduate with a useful degree. If you don't end up at med school for any one of several reasons, a BS in Biochemistry will be considerably more useful to you than a BS in Pre-Medicine.

2007-05-27 13:44:03 · answer #3 · answered by thelowendhz 2 · 0 0

Liberal arts schools are smaller and often let you choose your own courses with a minimum of requirements. You'll end up at a large university for med school, so you might as well take advantage of the small school opportunity now.

2007-05-27 13:09:46 · answer #4 · answered by eri 7 · 0 0

It doesn't matter, really, but you should go somewhere where you think you can get the best grades (which is often the smaller liberal arts colleges). That, and an analytical major (ie. economics, mathematics, physics, or philosophy), along with your premed core will best prepare you for the rigor of medical school & the MCAT.

2016-03-19 01:22:14 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

What exactly is "liberal arts" other than a dumb term? I'd like to know, really. What are one or two of the "liberal arts"?

2007-05-27 13:09:40 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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