Hi!
As you can see by the date I’m posting this on, I am truly struggling to reach a final decision on which college to attend. I hope with this thread I can gain some perspectives and make a decision by this Sunday. (fingers crossed)
So I am deciding between University of Michigan and Washington University in St. Louis.
Currently, I am focusing on the pre-med track, but I am afraid I will discover something in college and change my mind. So, I have taken into account how well-known and difficult WU’s pre-med program is and obviously WU is the best school in this case for pre-medicine.
Personally, I don’t mind the size of the school, I love both locations, and so now I’m more so focused on how well the colleges will prepare me for the future and whether or not I would be successful.
I have also taken other factors such as cost (I’ll have in-state tuition for UM while no aid for WU), # majors, college transfer (as in A&S to Engineering, etc), and other less-important things such as food and dorms and assigned points to each.
However, they are almost at a equal right now, so I hope anyone who has experience can help me decide and answer the following questions:
- How important is program rank vs. school rank? Basically how important is ranking in general?
- Engineering is also another option of mine, and WU's obviously not as good as UM's, but if I were to transfer into WU's Engineering, I feel I have a much higher chance than I would at UMich. So, how good is WU's Engineering? How easy is it for an undergraduate engineer from WU to get a job? How easy is it to transfer from AS to Engineering? And, is it possible to do AS major and an Engineering major?
- How good is UM's advising in terms of how personalized, dedicated, and helpful?
- About how many people in WU freshman class start off as premed and how many actually end up staying on the track by junior/senior year?
- What's the difficulty for transitioning from LSA/AS to Ross/Olin?
- What are the benefits of a minor? (Ex: major in LSA and EE or business minor) And, with a minor, how likely is it to get a job in that area?
- How well known are both schools in the job industry? How easy is it for undergrads from both to find a job out of graduation? How good are their career centers? And, do companies come to the schools looking for potential employees or do you have to go to the employers (most of the time)?
- How are the professors? Are they focused on teaching or more about their own research?
- How available are opportunities to shadow/volunteer in the hospital to get an insight into the medical field at UM?
- Which major in either Arts & Sciences would be beneficial (if I were to deviate from medical track) in terms of good job market and good reputation?
These are the questions I have so far and couldn’t really find online. Also, if you don’t mind, please list a few pros and cons of the schools.
Thank you in advance for your time!