Case v. Vandy v. Schreyers

<p>My son's been accepted to all 3. He's interested in BioMed with an eye toward Med school. The money is roughly the same between Vandy and Casey (We're PA residents, so Schreyers win on that front.) Any recommendations? (Show your work)</p>

<p>I think he should go to Schreyers. I live in a state that’s full of crappy schools, and you are so lucky to live in Pennsylvania. Are you concerned about cost? I say Schreyers wins because medical school costs a lot and he should try to get out of school with as little debt as possible. I’m also interested in med school, so I’ve been interviewing doctors for a long time. My mentor went to a tier 3 for his undergrad, went to the med school at that tier 3, and then went to the 3rd highest ranked residency for anesthesiology in the nation (they only accept 8 people) [The</a> Official Ranking of US Anesthesiology Departments](<a href=“http://www.residentphysician.com/Anesthesiology_rankings.htm]The”>http://www.residentphysician.com/Anesthesiology_rankings.htm) </p>

<p>Getting into med school is about grades, test scores, interview, and related experience. It is really not so much about the prestige of your undergraduate institution.</p>

<p>Case, definitely. I’m a PA resident too, and Schreyers is great, but Case is known for biomed. He will be with a higher caliber students at Case than Penn State, even if he is in Honors College.</p>

<p>My son , also from PA, choose Case over Penn State last year and has never looked back. He is a biomed major (considering med school) and loves every minute of it. The students are serious (they call themselves Ivy Rejects) and support each other but they also know how to have fun. There is a vast opportunity for research and lots of individual attention. For biomed, I think Case wins! Actually, when all was said and done last year, it was cheaper for my son to go to Case. They give good Merit Aid and came up with a another grant in the final financial aid package. Have you received your final financial aid package yet? Penn State is not cheap either and they give very little financial assistance besides the Schreyer’s scholarship.</p>

<p>Yes, he got a very nice merit scholarship and a decent little grant as well…sounds very similar to what your son received. We were very impressed with Case. My son was wait listed for Hopkins BME, and I think Case would be an excellent alternative/consolation.</p>

<p>This thread caught my eye because my D is also considering Case, with 3 other schools in the running. She is going to visit Case next week with my H, but they can only be there for the morning and a couple hours in the afternoon, so I’m hoping they can get a good sense of it. In particular, I’m interested to know about the school climate - hsmom6, you mentioned that your S finds that the students support each other. So would you say it’s definitely more collaborative than competitive? In general, is there a good atmosphere of community among students and faculty?</p>

<p>Son went to Schreyers over Case,Cornell, Duke etc. He did great and was able to graduate with a high GPA. Got into some great ( top 10) grad school programs in his science field.</p>

<p>He didn’t like Case when we visited this time of year. I thought it was pretty nice but small. He was able to immediately get into reseacrch groups and great summer research and internships opened up for him at PSU. He ended up with 52 AP credits which allowed him to double major. Always got first choice of classes which was huge.</p>

<p>I think you will find a larger concentration of serious students at Case. Everyone seemed to be biomed majors and music minors. I believe from reading many posts here that there is much less partying at Case but also much less to do in general.</p>

<p>So it depends on the atmosphere he is looking for. Big 10 school or a more urban smaller school. It might be harder to maintain a high GPA at Case but I am sure it can be done.</p>

<p>Great choices. Good luck!</p>

<p>When we went to the Accepted Student Days last year, one of the professors who had received her PhD from an IVY (I think Harvard) talked about how the collaborative instead of competitive atmosphere of Case impressed her very much. So far my son has found that to be very true and he has found the professors to be very helpful as well. As far as AP classes, my son received somewhere around 37 credits and is double majoring in Biomedical Engineering and Economics (while picking up his prereqs for pre-med). As for as grades, he did get a 4.0 his first semester and is so far maintaining that GPA this semester. He has found time to join a frat, play an intramural sport, and have an all around great time. He loves being around people who have similar goals and interests as him and who are serious about their studies but still manage to have fun.</p>

<p>If your kids choose Case, they might meet my son this summer or fall as he is part of the orientation team! I agree that if your kids are looking for a Big Ten atmosphere they will not get it at Case. And if they are looking for beautiful year-round weather, they definitely will not get it! But for my son, Case has been great. I think most kids are pleased with the schools that they ultimately pick and by the time October rolls around they can’t imagine themselves any where else!</p>

<p>It really is an issue of Big V Small school:</p>

<p>If you’re set for Biomed, I’m not too sure about PSU. Yeah it has a great engineering school in general, but I don’t think it’s BME program has much of a reputation.</p>

<p>Vandy is an excellent school on all fronts. If he weren’t doing BME, I would hands down recommend that he go there. The thing with BME is, you want a school with an excellent reputation and tons of research opportunities. Even at the industry level, you will be working in the R&D role and it’s important to have tons of research experience before you apply. Case’s smaller size and enormous research facilities will make it much easier to get into the lab your son wants.</p>