r/ApplyingToCollege is the premier forum for college admissions questions, advice, and discussions, from college essays and scholarships to college list help and application advice, career guidance, and more.
Advice
Hi guys, thanks for taking your time to read this! I’m a recently admitted student to both UPenn and Notre Dame trying to figure out where to go. For reference I’m interested in going pre-med and majoring in Biology. I’m really trying to figure out which school is going to give me better opportunities and an overall better chance of making the strongest med school application from the experiences I’ll get over my four years.
There’s some other things I’m considering;
-
I’ve heard UPenn tends to be slightly more competitive and “toxic”, whereas Notre Dame seems to have a much better community and environment. Any thoughts/insights on the environment?
-
I know Notre Dame is very undergrad focused, so in terms of lab environments, while it varies based on PI, are undergrads at UPenn able to contribute as meaningfully to the lab work and get something out of it in terms of experiences, paper publications, and rec letters?
-
How do both schools stack up in terms of foreign/study abroad pre med experiences?
My current impression is that Notre Dame is going to do a better job facilitating more/more meaningful undergraduate experiences and has a better overall environment, but UPenn has arguably better location/prestige/connections, but I might be wrong on either of these. Are there any reasons I would choose UPenn over Notre Dame for pre-med or vice versa? What school do you guys think I should choose and why? Any advice would be really appreciated and thanks so much again!
Sort by:
Best
Open comment sort options
Best
Top
New
Controversial
Old
Q&A
I had a friend who went to Notre Dame for pre-med and she loved it! She was able to get into labs fairly easily, whereas my friends at UPenn have had more difficulty and/or competition to get into research (not for pre-med, but I assume it’s similar there). For connections, both schools have excellent ties, so you really can’t go wrong. Either is a great option, congratulations!
Personally, I would head off to the school that costs less at this tier. You are comparing two of some of the top schools in the country. You really cannot go wrong (though UPenn is more 'prestigious', that really doesn't matter in grand scheme of things).
Penn
UPenn by a huge margin!
U get off nd’s waitlist yet?
This guy^^^ goes through a bunch of posts and tells people to not choose Notre Dame - check his profile. I'm looking for legitimate insights into what school to choose, not someone who is biased against and hates Notre Dame for no reason. Thanks to everyone else who commented with legitimate advice.
Just to clarify I didn't mean onekaleidoscope I mean the now deleted user comment