<p>My D got into all these schools (plus others) and she intends to go to medical school after college. We are having a hard time to decide which school to enroll. She got full scholarship at University of Maryland (college park). We have to pay full price everywhere else, which is 50k plus each year. We can manage to pay for college but would have no money left to pay for medical school. </p>
<p>We understand Maryland is ranked below all other schools she got in. She is also interested in biomedical engineering/bioengineering. JHU probably has the best biomedical engineering program. But it has reputation of cutthroat culture and it does not seem to have vibrant college campus atmosphere when we visited it. I would like her to have an overall good college experience (both academic and personal development) and also be well prepared for getting into good medical schools. She is also an amateur artist interested in digital art and visual art. So art program offering at the school as well as having some time to pursue it would also be a consideration. </p>
<p>We visited Maryland several times (we live nearby) and she seems like the school. She would be in honor program and live in honor doom. Some of the concerns we have are the peer group and research opportunity. Would more competitive schools give you more motivated peer group than less competitive schools? Are there more research opportunities at the more competitive schools than at the less competitive schools?</p>
<p>People at this board seem very knowledgeable and some of you may have gone through this process before. Which school would be a good choice all things considered? Your input and advice would be greatly appreciated</p>
<p>If she is going to medical school and you plan to help her with the costs of medical school…it would be prudent to save the $200,000 you would be paying for undergrad for med school. It is very likely that the cost of medical school will equal that money by the time she attends. UMD College Park is excellent. We know students who went to undergrad there and got accepted to top med schools, and veterinary schools. And all we know also had excellent scholarships to UMD…they saved THEIR money for med/vet school.</p>
<p>For med school…your daughters MCAT scores and her GPA will be far more important than the school from which she gets her undergrad degree.</p>
<p>There are research opportunities at Maryland. My son went there (computer science major), did research with a professor for a year and a half, got an honors degree, and ended up liking research so much that he went on to enroll in a Ph.D. program at another university (with much help and recommendations from two Maryland faculty members during the admissions process).</p>
<p>On the other hand, he wasn’t in your offspring’s league. He had a mediocre high school record, got no merit money, and aspired no higher than Maryland. (Yet somehow he turned into a Ph.D. candidate, thanks to Maryland – which is something to think about.)</p>
<p>My daughter, who is in your offspring’s academic league (and goes to Cornell) has friends of similar academic qualifications who went to Maryland for the merit money. Some feel it is less challenging than other schools might have been. But for them, the financial benefit was worth it. And they have taken advantage of many interesting opportunities at Maryland.</p>
<p>Maryland has a lot to offer if you seek it out – the honors program, Gemstone (if you like it – and some people definitely do not), departmental honors (which means research) in your upperclass years, opportunities for internships in nearby Washington, DC, and graduation requirements that allow you to use your AP credits to skip most of the Core, thus allowing you to focus your curriculum on your own interests. (It is not unusual for top students at Maryland to double major in two entirely unrelated fields, graduate a year early, participate in multiple study abroad programs, or get a master’s degree as well as a bachelor’s degree in four years; they can make these kinds of choices because they don’t have to waste time satisfying general education requirements.)</p>
<p>If avoiding debt for medical school is top priority, your daughter could do a lot worse than Maryland. On the other hand, she has several other fine schools to choose from, each with a unique campus culture and many academic strengths. It can be a tough decision.</p>
<p>In applying to professional school we have found that GPA and test scores are far more significant than undergraduate institution. She may actually end up at a better med school from a less challenging institution. For elite grad schools that is not always the case.</p>
<p>If she likes Maryland, I think it is an excellent option. Of course, if she is in love with one of the other schools, that changes things.</p>
<p>My kids each wanted very specific things out of their undergrad experience and did go with the “expensive” undergrad option. My D is now going to a public law school to avoid that debt. It happens to be a really good fit for her too, because she is interested in public interest law. There are public med schools too. There are many ways to skin this cat, all depending on the values of the individual student.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind when it comes to professional school , if the student is under 27, many schools consider the parent’s income and assets when giving out financial aid. Med school will still be looking to you to help fund her education.</p>
<p>I agree with the others, go to Maryland, do well and she will still have opportunities for internships and research. Get a great GPA & MCAT and she will still get into a good program.</p>
<p>We know kids who got into JHU/Cornell/UMD in engineering/BME and took the money at UMD. At the school S1 attended, Cornell lost the head-to-head with UMD on a regular and consistent basis, esp. for science/engineering.</p>
<p>If med school is on the horizon, I’d say look at the free ride seriously. My kids have many friends who have taken this option, and as other have mentioned, double majored, gotten serious research or started graduate work early. For other science/cs/math majors where graduate school is funded, the $$ invested in UG may be a better option, if you are willing to spring for it.</p>
<p>My math/cs guy had the full ride at UMD and chose UChicago with some merit $$. He knows that turning UMD down meant he will have to do well enough to get himself funded for grad school (or he can sell his soul to Google). ;)</p>
<p>UMD is a major flagship, research university with many academic opportunities. Yes…I think this student would be able to do well in another major there as well.</p>
<p>If this student were considering a career in a specialized field that is a niche for one of these other schools…that would be different. But it sounds like she’s interested in medicine. If she changes her major, it will be because she has found something else at UMD that is of interest to her.</p>
<p>I encourage a revisit to a place like Hopkins as there is a very vibrant school life there in music, theatre, arts and the social scene. Visit in April when the school is in session.</p>
<p>With an 82% admit rate to medical school, one of the highest in the country and the * average * student scoring in the 84th percentile on the MCAT, Hopkins is a great overall undergraduate experience. I think JHU does a great job in preparing students to not only get into medical school, but how to think, problem-solve, critically analyze, question and evaluate. It is the premiere institution for pre-med in the country, hands down. It’s a boutique.</p>
<p>I say go visit UMD and Hopkins and see which is the best fit. If UMD feels like the better value, I say go for it but definitely visit. </p>
<p>Good luck and congrats on all the fine options.</p>
<p>I vote for Maryland. That’s just too much money to ignore. Even if she changes her mind about med school, she sounds like the kind of student who would go on to some kind of grad school and there is much less merit $$$ out there for grad school. You don’t want her to be stuck then.</p>
<p>Brown is near RISD and she could take art classes there, but they don’t share the same calendar. JHU is close to MICA and she could take classes there, but it would be easier to take art classes at UMD. They have a studio arts BA and an MFA program.</p>
<p>If your D was interested in the humanities, I would say to seriously consider Brown or other options. I have not been satisfied with my experience in a humanities major at Maryland, due to the large class size and somewhat “boring” discussion.</p>
<p>HOWEVER.</p>
<p>The sciences are a whole other ballgame. They rank highly, discussion is at a minimum, faculty are just as qualified as anywhere else, the textbooks are the same as everywhere else, research opportunities are numerous, the students are studious and by and large interested in graduate school, many are on scholarship, etc. etc. etc. I could go on and on.</p>
<p>Not everyone can afford Brown, JHU, etc. + a top graduate school. When they can’t, they go to MD. The curve is set by those kids. Most of my science and math classes have risen to the level of the best performing student, not “dumbed down” to mediocre ones.</p>
<p>I have many friends who chose to go to private schools, and this has seriously limited their options for law and med school. Although they received offers from Top 10 institutions, they were forced to attend schools most people have never even heard of. On a full ride, of course. But because they chose Harvard undergrad, they weren’t going to Yale Law, they were going by and large to regional schools, chasing the money.</p>
<p>When is it better to chase the money? I would say for undergrad, especially if grad school is imminent.</p>
<p>UMD gets some REALLY top-notch kids, thanks in part to some of the very fine local schools. I would tend to agree with umcp11 on the strength of sciences vs. humanities at UMD. JHU is another school that loses out around here to UMD and merit $$.</p>
<p>If she is certain she wants to go to medical school, I think it makes sense to take the scholarship to Maryland. </p>
<p>Expense aside, the pre-med life at any school can be grueling and competitive; I think it gets even more so at the top schools and their excellent admit rate to med schools is, in part, a function of discouraging some of the folks who enter as pre-meds. </p>
<p>One of my good friends in [ivy-league] college dropped out of the pre-med rat race and wound up doing health law because she couldn’t compete with all the uber-serious, national-science-competition-winning, future-Nobel-prize-winners she had to take pre-med classes with. If she’d gone to her home state U, I have no doubt she would have been at the top of her class and gone on to med school. (I’m not sure whether her life would have been, overall, better or worse, but it would have been different.)</p>
<p>Furthermore, when I was in medical school, the prestige of my classmates’ undergraduate institutions was immaterial and didn’t predict success in med school much. Med school takes a specific set of skills and attitudes, and the academic preparation required is actually not that great. (There are only a few REQUIRED undergrad courses. They teach you what you need to know when you get there.)</p>
<p>What does she want to do and is she aware of what loans would cost her if she opted for the private school now and had to take them out for med school? While doctors certainly make good salaries it wouldn’t be wise to have to start out in such debt if she doesn’t have to. Also, the rank of the med school degree will have far more bearing later than where her undergrad degree is from, especially when we are talking of a well regarded U like UMDCP. And while you think you can cover 50K a year now, can you say for certain you can do that for 4 years? Also, money saved can be used for other opportunities along the way - summers abroad, art studies, etc.</p>
<p>What fine choices, congratulations to you and your daughter. Has she received aid/ scholarship from any of the other schools, other than MD? If so, then you can consider your financial obligations for all places and weigh them on the same scale. Second, if you have other kids to pay for school after this child of yours. Medical school is a long haul and especially in today’s unstable times, I would not want to see my child starting her life in debt or feel that she put her parents through financial constraints. From what I am hearing from the wonderful people posting on this forum and friends whose kids are at MD, the honors program is excellent and geared towards smaller class strengths, individual attention etc. I hope that sort of helps.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for your help! Your insights and advices are very helpful in our decision making process and provide perspectives we have not thought about before. </p>