Is It Easy to Be a Premed in University of Washington

• #4

Hey guys, was just wondering about University of Washington. How did you like it? Did you have enough time to do things for yourself and have fun? Was it a high stress and competitive environment? How hard is it to make grades, and on AVERAGE how many hours of homework do you put in per day? Some of my concerns are listed below as well, so please answer as thoroughly as you all can. I'm deciding between wait listed schools right now and I'm torn, especially between this and Wisconsin Madison. Thanks!

1-Weeding of pre-meds(1 cutthroat and very harsh weeding - 10 very friendly and no weeding)
2-Biology Department (1 worst - 10 best)
3-Research opportunities- competitive to get?
4-Pre-med advisory services- helpful or not?
5-Breadth of Biology major courses
6-Environment and other students- cutthroat or relaxed?
7- Load of coursework- is it overwhelming or is it manageable?

University of Washington is clearly the better UW. These seem like strange schools to be choosing between but.

As far as the criteria your interested in:
1- Science classes are typically curved with a mean grade between 2.6-2.9. So you have to do very well in order to get a med school caliber grade (3.5+). Keep in mind not everyone in the pre-reqs wants to go into medicine so the average exam can be pretty low sometimes. Which means you don't have to be getting 90s in order to get As. Still, though, most people at UW are decent students, so if you don't want any competition I don't think either UW would be a good idea.
2-The biology department is OK. The building and program doesn't get as much love as some of the more lucrative fields like bioengineering or computer science, but its a solid program. I liked most of my professors. The intro to bio professor wrote the textbook for all the intro to bio courses, whatever that is worth to you.
3-UW is a huge university with tons of research opportunities. Of course some will be more competitive in others (neurosurgery research was usually competitive...wonder why). But if you want to learn the about scientific method you have a good chance of doing some kind of research.
4- Pre-med advising sucks. It's too big of a school to get great advising. SDN and online are better than advisers IMO. As a more general piece of advice, it's important to get many perspectives and advice on how to succeed on the pre-med journey. Don't just listen to advisers. You'll notice some important themes and hopefully realize the people who actually know what they are talking about.
5-They have any type of biology you want to study. You can take a class on mushrooms if you want.
6- It's a big school. You will have the full range of student personalities. If you head into a more competitive major (you don't just get to chose your major at UW, you have to apply for it) there might be some more competition. Just doing a biology major should be pretty relaxed though.
7- This will depend on which classes you decided to take together. It can even depend on which professor you get for the course. You have to be savvy and know your limits and give yourself a course load you can manage. Start off with a schedule you know you can excel with and add from there. So I guess it depends on you whether it is overwhelming or manageable. I'm sure this goes for all colleges.

In short, UW is a great school in a beautiful city. You will have every opportunity you need to get into medical school. I would go there again in a heart beat.

• #13

Thank you for the responses. And Jobymonster, I've heard that it's "gunner pre-med land" and that everyone is super competitive towards each other? I've also heard coarse loads are overwhelming, and most professors are simply invested in research. Is there any truth to this?

Reason why I'm asking is I'm out of state for both schools. This is a very important decision for me and I don't want to mess it up. I want some competition in the school, but I don't want an overwhelming one. I also want a social life outside of it, some spare time, and not just have my four years be invested in my studies with nothing else.

My parents say another concern is the large amount of asians/international students (I'm sorry, that sounds bad) at UW. They say that they can make the grading curve a lot more competitive. Again, can you verify this? Thanks.

Sure no problem. Your concern is valid; getting good grades is probably the strongest predictor of med school acceptance rate. But I can't just generalize that UW is or isn't gunner premed land. It's too big! To some extent, you will see what you want to see. If you are looking for the pre med gunners, you will find them. If you want to see it as a collaborative environment, you're more likely to find people that are like that. Personally, I found the biology program to be pretty chill. That might not be the case for the neurobio or bioengineering. It really depends on the major you are in and the classes you take. Again, course load is what you make it. If you are worried about it, don't take more than one science class at a time. You should have plenty of time for a social life. Yeah it is challenging, but I found everything manageable. That said, if your main concern is avoiding premed gunner land, I don't think either choice would be a good idea. Have you considered going to the lower tier state school?

That's another common concern, albeit I think ignorant and too simplistic. UW does have a pretty high percentage of asian students, sure. But, I think a large percentage are international, and are not even taking pre med classes. And the n=1 argument is terrible, but I'm not asian and I set the curve on exams a few times (toot toot). So, I wouldn't base a decision on which school to attend based off this.

UW is a big school. Yes, professors are research oriented. So if you want someone to actually teach you I wouldn't go here. You will not be given a lot of guidance on what to do compared to if you went to a small school. But, If you are self-reliant there are tons of opportunities there.

• #14

Hey guys, was just wondering about University of Washington. How did you like it? Did you have enough time to do things for yourself and have fun? Was it a high stress and competitive environment? How hard is it to make grades, and on AVERAGE how many hours of homework do you put in per day? Some of my concerns are listed below as well, so please answer as thoroughly as you all can. I'm deciding between wait listed schools right now and I'm torn, especially between this and Wisconsin Madison. Thanks!

1-Weeding of pre-meds(1 cutthroat and very harsh weeding - 10 very friendly and no weeding)
2-Biology Department (1 worst - 10 best)
3-Research opportunities- competitive to get?
4-Pre-med advisory services- helpful or not?
5-Breadth of Biology major courses
6-Environment and other students- cutthroat or relaxed?
7- Load of coursework- is it overwhelming or is it manageable?

----

In response to your questions, for UW (although I am a double degree Honors Program student, so I overloaded and my experience may not be representative of the average premed):
1- 1
2- 10 (ranked 4th in Life Sciences world wide according to Academic Ranking of World Universities, highly respected ranking. Also BRAND NEW building opening in 2017, too bad I won't bet to use it )
3- 5 (if you want research, you can get research)
4- NOT helpful. I am paying for a private advisor. The pre-health advising staff try to convince you to basically drop out of school.
5- AWESOME. I've taken histology, medical physio (with a med school professor), paleo, and even bee-keeping.
6- Cutthroat. Even in "relaxed" small groups of friends there is a lot of grade-comparing going on.
7- Overwhelming for me as a double degree honors student.

If you can get WA residency, you are at a big advantage for UWSOM, which is #1 in several specialties and I believe #6 overall.

PS. Weather in Seattle is horrible. SAD is a real thing. Be warned.

• #15

Can't help you with UWisc. Since I've never looked into it, but I transferred to UW and it's definitely has it's ups and downs. In regard to Seattle ...Coming from a place with a LOT of sun, I heard I would be depressed moving to WA...I was worried until I finally moved! It's beautiful! The weather can be "rainy" and overcast during spring and fall, but then again, most seasonal states will have that! Overall though I find the weather beautiful! Never too hot or too cold for too long...better than Wisconsin I'd guess! Just make sure you get plenty of Vit D during overcast days and find hobbies! The outdoors here is amazing!! Regarding your questions:

1-Weeding of pre-meds: 5 -> I wasn't here for first two years, but had to take an intro course for bio (BIOL220) and you had 700 students with curved grades. I think any big state school you go there will some "weeding" out, but if you are up for the general challenge, this should not be a huge differential factor between schools.
2-Biology Department: 8 -> mostly for the opportunities you can get out of it and the breadth of courses...out of luck with the advising portion unless you know who to go to! You just gotta be very proactive about figuring things out.
3-Research opportunities- competitive to get? Depends what department you go into! As a premed, you do not have to be a biology major. Research in psychology is easy to find, biology depends what research you are going into and the PI (don't see how that would differ somewhere else). Be proactive! research what labs you are interested in and send emails out that you would like to work/volunteer there! If you want it, you'll get it! Also consider departmental honors! They usual have as part of the curriculum a seminar class where different researchers, interested in undergrads for work, will talk about their research (psych does!) and what your job would be!
4-Pre-med advisory services- helpful or not? There is no pre-med committee. But the are advisors for pre-health. Again, not the best I've seen, but if you do your HW they will be happy to help answer your questions/concerns and guide you! Especially if you are a minority!
5-Breadth of Biology major courses --> 10 ...So. much. variety! and some courses overlap! I took a psych class (neurobehavioral lab) which I was able to count towards biology major (and psych)...so don't be afraid to step out of the bio department for electives. There is a huge list! check out the bio department undergrad electives list. It should be online for all departments!
6-Environment and other students- cutthroat or relaxed? This ones is a roll of the dice! depends where you end up! I've seen both spectrums! I would say a little towards cutthroat, but easily manageable...just separate yourself from that bad juju environment and you'll be fine!! I don't think this would differ in UWisc! You will encounter competition everywhere. I have friends who like to compare grades...I do to but not in a competitive way! I don't mind sharing my grades nor having someone try to get a better grade than I do...it's kinda like their problem if they want to get inside their own heads haha.
7- Load of coursework- is it overwhelming or is it manageable? I was a double degree with dept. honors student...took mostly 18 credits each qrtr since arriving to UW and did not think the course load was overwhelming...you just gotta be smart with what classes/professors you take! really do your research. It does seem like the intro classes are hell though! (bios, chems, orgos, phys, calcs) but they are in all schools! just don't overload your quarters! have an easy class during your hard core classes!

I truly enjoyed UW....as a school I've seen better in terms of competitiveness, advising, nightlife, etc....but it's what you make of it!

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Source: https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/is-uw-seattle-really-that-bad-for-undergrad-premed.1134477/

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