<p>D has this decision to make and has no idea which to choose. Can you help? </p>
<p>We are lower income and will have two in school the next two years. With H/Y FA offers, our first year cost is four figures - we can afford. Brown is 10K higher (cannot as easily afford), but if chosen, we will try to negotiate. In two years when older child graduates, what will happen to FA, especially Brown's if they were pressured to match H/Y with no H/Y at that point for leverage? She's also got two full-rides: one is at state flagship that she loves and the other at a T20 she ended up not liking. Both of these have world travel included. The flagship would allow her to bank outside scholarships - she has 15K already and just getting started, but it keeps her in a similar environment - comfortable but not much stretching of her horizons, especially considering her planned career. </p>
<p>D wants to study cultural/social/medical anthropology and global health along with medical school pre-reqs. She's obviously an excellent student but math and science take her more work than other subjects. How worried should we/she be about Science weed-out classes at the various schools?</p>
<p>Her stats are great (800V, 740M, 800W, 4.0uw, 12APs), but she's coming from a large, rural, non-competitive public in the South. S is at Dartmouth and has found the competition much tougher than he expected - and he wasn't expecting a cakewalk. H & I are concerned about her maintaining a high GPA from H/Y to compete for medical school acceptance if she doesn't take PLME. Will she have to give up a great deal of social life and will the added pressure diminish her college experience? Might she end up with lower tier medical school choices? Do top medical schools take a lower GPA from an HYP as compared to a T20 school or a state flagship? </p>
<p>She's visiting Harvard and Brown in a few weeks. She's been to Brown in the summertime, but never to Harvard. We're hoping to arrange a trip to Yale. She visited there this summer, too and it was just ho-hum. (Princeton was her favorite but she was waitlisted there.)</p>
<p>She is concerned with medical school cost as she's expecting to work for a non-profit. H & I have always avoided debt and our kids have bought in. She wants to be as unencumbered as possible in order to work where she feels most needed without regard to compensation. (I realize how idealistic this sounds and do understand that my D is but 17. :) )</p>
<p>My s has a similar dilemma. From what I have heard being pre-med at H,Y, and especially P is off the table. The college experience is non-existence at those schools due to the intense pressure on the pre-meds. In addition to competing against the top science kids across the country you are competing against the top “non-science” kids in the other disciplines. Med schools do not care about the prestige of the undergrad school. They want the highest GPA. Period. They love state schools because they understand how few people can afford UG and then med school.</p>
<p>Brown PLME is and has always been the way to combine everything a pre-med could want setting aside cost. Getting a top-notch education, taking courses because you find them interesting, trying new areas of interest without worrying about grades (maybe even take them P/F) is the best of all worlds. If cost is an overwhelming issue go to your state school get an incredibly high GPA and then apply. Remember about the additional costs of prepping and taking the MCATS, interviews, possibly not getting in the first time around, and the pressure of keeping up grades while doing applications and traveling Junior/senior year. If you can at all swing the costs for PLME that is the way to go. If you really want to be a dr. most people would give up H,Y, and P for PLME. Many pre-meds at H, Y, and P did not get into PLME so they didn’t have the choice. The kids in Plme are the kids from H,Y and P.</p>
<p>My son had the same situation too.</p>
<p>I have read many thread talking about how hard to get into med school even from prestige school. But the key question is if he could get reasonable GPA in Harvard, how hard for him to get into Brown Alpert med school which is ranked #29? He doesn’t want to stay in one school for 8 yrs (8 yrs is a long time), he want to split the experience into 2 places if possible.</p>
<p>We should find out statistic on how much % of applicants from HYP are failed.</p>
<p>PLME without a doubt.</p>
<p>If you can ask Brown why the package was 10k higher per year and get them to match, may be you have equal choices. </p>
<p>If it does work out with Brown, I would advise Harvard or Yale only because Brown medical school is not top 20 and coming out of Harvard and Yale, she can definitely make it into at least one top 20 school. If you are worried about medical school costs, you should apply in texas or California (or even Mass if you go to Harvard in the 4th year) when the time comes and become a resident after the first year and go to a state medical school. </p>
<p>If your son is graduating in 2013, I am guessing you can depend on the FA for three years. I was talking to someone whose older kid graduated last year but the younger kid was nt affected financially last year because forms are filed in the beginning of the year while the first kid is still in final year (you may want to check on this since mine is a sample of one).</p>