This is completely anecdotal, but interesting nonetheless:
Three of my D’s peers entered college wanting to go to med school. They attended three different undergrads, and they are all rising seniors now.
- One went to Hamilton. She got certified to be an EMT right after HS, and has also gotten a lab position and good grades. She already got admitted early to a med school with no need to take the MCATs. She is thrilled.
- Another went to a SUNY, mostly on merit scholarship. She got admitted early to Upstate Medical (relatively low cost for a med school) contingent on a decent score on the MCAT (which she just took- fingers crossed on the score).
- A third went to Williams. She has had a good experience, but isn’t in a position to apply to med school yet due to GPA. She plans on taking some post-bac classes and doing something else for a year or two before applying to med school.
So, is it really where you go or what you do when you are there? Williams certainly has all the bells and whistles, so maybe this student did not take full advantage and/or struggled academically. But the SUNY student certainly took full advantage of everything available to her. The Hamilton student had it all in front of her and also made the most of it. Again, anecdotal, but just shows the variety of outcomes regardless of the undergrad school.
And yet, both my kids are in privates (T20 LACS). They are exposed to classmates from across the country and world, have really well-funded opportunities, have amazing campuses, and have thankfully taken full advantage of the offerings at their schools. While they would not have had these same advantages at a SUNY (e.g. most of the student body at a SUNY is from NY), they probably would have come out just fine at a SUNY. But is it worth it to me to pay more for the privates given who my kids are and what they are studying? Absolutely. Thankfully they both got some merit, and neither wants to be a doctor, so I didn’t have to consider any post-grad costs like that into the equation.