BU and U Florida are currently top two choices for DD, an aspiring physician.
BU is one hour drive from home, located in the city of Boston. UF is two flights away, located in the college town Gainevsille.
Boston should have lot more opportunities for ECs, internships etc, at least in theory
BU a private school, UF a large public university. BU has grade deflation. UF - difficult to register for preferred classes.
If she decides that pre-med is not right for her, I believe both schools have decent fall back options.
BU will cost more than 200K even after the presidential scholarship of 25K/year. UF will be most likely free due to NMF scholarship.
We are willing to spend a total of 150K for her education.
Her head says to go to UF, save the money for grad school and graduate with least amount of debt. Her heart is with BU, since it is in Boston and is perceived to be more prestigious (at least in New England)
Well, strictly speaking, neither is “good” for premed: BU because of grade deflation+ competition for internships with all the local colleges; UF because there’s A LOT of competiton and, as a large school, there’s not much nurturing and a lot of weedout classes. However as an NMF I assume she got into the Honors College, which at UF is not much, granted, but may help a little with class registration issues and will definitely help with personalized advising for med school. In addition, although competition is fierce at UF, if she is NMF she is likely to be at the top of her class and has a good likelihood of not being “weeded out” if she continues with her current work ethics.
@MYOS1634 Her plan B is probably public health or other healthcare related fields. She does not want to get into Engineering, Computer Science or Business
@oldlaw FSU/UCF/USF are free due to NMF. Umass is $120K
@twoinanddone We toured UCF and loved the honor college and dorm. Only concern with UCF is that it may not have good fall back options if she decides she does not like pre-med
First, congratulations to your daughter!
Second, imagine all the things you/she could do with $200K. And since you’re a MA resident, there must be some connection to Florida with all those apps, so I’d recommend UCF also.
And not that is should make a lot of difference, but all the Florida schools mentioned have medical schools.
@oldlaw Thanks. We have no connection to Florida. She applied to all those Florida schools because we knew all of them would be free for NMF. Any reason why you would recommend UCF over the other three Florida schools?
“Would you recommend any of these instead of BU/UF?”
I would.
I do not believe that her chances of getting into medical school are going to be any different whether she goes to BU, UF, or U.Mass Amherst. Any of these three schools are going to have a wide range of other potential majors available in the very likely chance that she discovers premed classes to be tough or no fun or otherwise discovers that medical school is not for her. Whichever of these three school she attends, premed classes are going to be tough and the other students will be very strong.
If she does end up going to medical school, having some money left over for university and having no debt is going to be huge.
Also, if she ends up doing something else, having no debt will still be huge. As an example my daughter who graduated recently was very glad that she graduated with no debt. This opened up some work options that otherwise just would not have been possible. “No debt” also looks very good right now during the pandemic with many people being temporarily dismissed from their jobs or moving to part time hours.
I think that parents have to be the “adults in the room” and do our best to keep our kids from taking on debt that is going to hurt them down the road.
I personally would go with U.Mass Amherst in-state. It is a very good school with a very good premed program.
Purely anecdotal; had friends who went to UF, FSU, and UCF, and UCF was clearly the one all three agreed had the best overall environment(dorms, food, that sort of thing); I had also heard good things about their honors program.
UCF Honors is excellent and often chosen by NMF’s, but the overall quality of the student body is much higher at UF.
The learning environment will be better as an Honors student at UCF (no or few online classes, seminars, small classes, academic opportunities) but UCF as a whole is HUGE and is having growing pains.
UF really has a high standing in Florida (even if in many states people don’t know it’s different from FSU, there’s a fierce rivalry between these two). That’s why many Floridians are willing to put up with online classes or “transition” programs like “innovation academy”, for instance.
USF’s location is hard to beat and it’s well-known for natural/experimental science. (UCF is known for Engineering/CS).
Really dig into what the Honors Colleges offer since I think this would make the difference between her Florida choices.
All of these universities will have good science programs. The difference will be in the perks offered honors students (special courses and seminars, priority registration, honors dorm with a social/living-learning program, later on support for fellowships and research conferences…)
Perhaps check Public Honors (the website or the book?)
The reality is that these are all fine schools, and pre-med at each will be competitive, as all the pre-med classes will be filled with students who are smart, diligent, and goal directed.
The best course is to find the school with the best “fit” and which you can afford w/o too much debt, since medical school is incredibly expensive.
^This student could attend any of the FL universities for free.
I agree choosing the “best fit” is the best path forward.
So really the question is: UF “regular” or UCF, FSU, or USF honors? If Honors, which university?
I’d be tempted to choose one of the Honors Colleges because it’ll mean many perks that make the learning experience more fulfilling (in my opinion) and make a premed’s life more comfortable (especially priority registration and personalized advising right from the start). But UF’s name carries a lot of prestige in Florida, especially if the student chooses to stay in Florida and doesn’t go to med school.