There have been a numbe of posters here who have gotten accepted to Penn State…with that $70,000 or so price tag BUT…it includes the summer session. There is NO reason for,you to go in the summer.
You need to find out if your $20,000 in aid is on’y for fall and spring terms…or if you MUST go in the summer to get that full amount.
Regardless…what is a pre med major? You can major in anything and go to medical school as long as you take the prerequisite courses for applying to medical school. I’m not sure why you think Penn State will be better for this than TCNJ.
The relative difference in whatever ranking it is that you are looking at is immaterial for med school admissions. What matters for that is your GPA, your MCAT score, your letters of recommendation, and required volunteer/job shadowing hours. If med school truly is your long range goal, choose the cheapest university where you believe you can get the best GPA. Save your money for that hideously expensive med school tuition.
Interesting quote from one of the thousands of college advising sites, my bold:
"The first anxiety provoking decision when it comes to your pre med path is choosing what pre med school you should go to. If you google “best premed schools” you come up with over 2 million sites that claim to give you a top 10 list and the latest and greatest pre med school that is guaranteed to get you into medical school.
It does not matter what pre med school you attend to get your undergraduate training. Again, it DOES NOT matter if you go to the best pre med school or not. The only thing that matters is that you are in an environment that YOU can be successful in. You may think it is hard to believe that it doesn’t matter, but once you are in medical school and see the vast diversity of your classmates you will agree that it does not matter if you went to Harvard or a small liberal arts college.
The simple recipe to get into medical school:
Get great grades in your pre-req classes
Have a solid plan for your MCAT prep and get a competitive score
Give yourself plenty of time for extraordinary volunteering experiences"
When you read how some college got XXX% into med school, that’s after the bulk of the kids who started pre-med got weeded out. You want the school that’s right for you. Not some media list.
I’m interested in Gettysburg and American…would you mind sharing your stats?