[HannahXO]

As a current pre-med in the midst of MCAT craziness, my advice is to talk to pre-med advisors at every school you seriously consider. Ask the "dumb questions"- how many students from this school apply to med school, what are the required courses, when do I take my MCAT, etc. Feel out the responses from the advisor- how confident, thorough, reassuring, etc. is he or she? Having a good pre-med advisor is absolutely key.

I go to a smallish private school, but one that's known for its sciences and is a competitive school. The honors program I'm in is research-based, which (I think, I haven't actually started interviewing yet) is probably going to be helpful and interesting in my admission process. I am a biology major, but have 2 non-science minors. My one gripe about my school's science structure (and I would imagine this is common with smaller schools) is that the physics, chem, etc I'm taking are all harder than the basics I need for med school. For example, gen chem was not an option for me- I took an inorganic chem class followed by aqueous solution chem. That said, I did well in these harder classes, and I imagine this will be helpful too. Ask premed advisors what courses premeds take at their specific schools, then review these in the catalog and see what they look like.

Good luck!