Nowadays most people work a few years before applying to business school; experience is important.
Curricular requirements are few: introductory micro- and macroeconomics, at least one semester of calculus, and some facility with computing.
One of the college’s advising deans, herself a lawyer, is a pre-law adviser. This dean, among other things, helps students decide where to apply. Virtually all Cornell applicants with B averages and above are admitted to some law school.
Cornell has very good advising services for pre-medical students – from curricular advice to an effective structure supporting application for admission. Pre-medical students can find out what they should do and when they should do it at information meetings during orientation, at the Health Careers advising office in Barnes Hall, or on the web page under Cornell Career Services.
The curricular requirements for medical school are few and precise:
Medical colleges do not prefer any particular major. In fact, the representation of majors of accepted students pretty much parallels their representation among the pool of applicants. More medical students have majored in biology than in any other subject only because pre-medical students tend to be interested in biology in the first place and because the biology major includes all the pre-med requirements.
Since the most competitive national medical schools aim to train prospective medical researchers along with prospective practitioners, they recruit some applicants among those with the strongest preparation in and love for science (not necessarily biology). Nonetheless, medical schools look for interesting, successful, and honorable people who will become interesting, competent, and trustworthy physicians and colleagues. So prospective medical students should major in whatever they find most intriguing and congenial to their talents.
Until a few years ago, over 90% of Cornell’s applicants to medical school were accepted. At present, many qualified people are applying nationwide, but Cornell’s acceptance rate is still at 77%. This is high compared to other institutions, but some candidates interested in a medical career may also wish to consider options other than allopathic medicine, for example, dentistry, osteopathy, nursing or various medical technician specialties. The pre-medical advising office helps students consider such alternatives.