<p>I am having trouble deciding what to pick. BU SMED vs. Drexel 7 year with 120k scholarship vs. Duke for BME vs. Hopkins for BME vs. Caltech vs. UChicago. I am leaning towards BU but any advice would be greatly appreciated. I come from a extremely competitive high school so performing well at Duke or UChicago would not be incredibly difficult for me. </p>
<p>@sadfeet these are really Apples (BU and Drexel) and Oranges (Duke and JHU) and Strawberries (Caltech and UChicago). All of these are great schools, but very different career path. The most important question is - what do you want to do? </p>
<p>Between BU and Drexel, I would recommend BU (yes, even if it is more expensive - assuming you can bear the higher $$ cost)</p>
<p>Between Duke and JHU - tough call - and hard for me to opine one way or another due to lack of knowledge. </p>
<p>Between Caltech and UChicago - Caltech! Its a no-brainer. </p>
<p>@Late2Party I understand that comparing programs and regular 4 year schools is apples and oranges but why would you pair UChicago and Caltech in a different batch than Duke and JHU? Also, what do you think about Duke vs. Caltech for premed?</p>
<p>Unless your family is well off I would chose the guaranteed program with the least undergrad debt. At 7 percent interest it compounds fast and med school costs alone are a killer. Also on other college websites JHU is a meat grinder for UG for all the stress and grade deflation. The med school, however, gets great ratings from the students.</p>
<p>@sadfeet BioMed is more of an engineering play and less of a “pre-med” play - just my opinion. This is the reason why I think Caltech/Chicago are in a different category than JHU and Duke (for you). </p>
<p>Although caltech is an awesome school and much more prestigious as a whole, I think Duke pre-med is a better option because you will be less stressed out in keeping a good GPA. Please search the web for pre-med program rankings, I believe Caltech is not high as Duke in terms of percent of students placed into med college. </p>
<p>Having several good options to choose from is hard, but at least you have many good choices to select from, so you should be proud of yourself. </p>
<p>If your stats are nearly perfect you will probably do well wherever you go and still prob make it into med school if you attach the EC’s with it in UG. If you are sure of medicine take BU but even in the BU option lots of students don’t cut it with the 3.5 GPA requirement and are on probation then asked to leave program.</p>
<p>I would avoid UChicago and Caltech due to grade deflation. Go to BU if you have financial means although you could still match into a very good residency if you do well at Drexel. Go to regular 4 + 4 + (?) if you don’t mind taking your time getting into a med school. I have advised our S to accept RPI/AMC over Cornell, Northwestern, Vanderbilt and Wash U. Many of my patients need to take extra year or two or three to retake MCAT and do research to strengthen their application even though they have undergraduate degrees from such schools as JHU, Brown, Cornell and Harvard. One of them got into a mid tier med school off the waiting list with 3.9 gpa and 36 on MCAT. That student was unsuccessful in gaining an acceptance into a med school in his first attempt with MCAT score of 31. Three of my patients are in D.O. programs after many year of trying to get into M.D. programs, but they are doing well. One of them matched into a M.D. residency in OB/Gyn program in Pa. Although many students struggle with the regular route of getting into a med school, I do have a successful story with the regular route with a patient’s offspring who received an undergraduate degree from high ranked non-ivy college and eventually got into U of Chicago M.D./Ph.D. program. Now he is doing a neurosurgery residency in the east coast. My another patient is also doing a neurosurgery residency in east coast after completing his combined program. If you decide to take the regular route, you might want to consider applying to both M.D. and D.O. programs simultaneously unless you don’t mind spending a year or two or three years to strengthen your application.</p>
<p>@midhelper. BU requires a 3.2 GPA, not 3.5 and kids are rarely asked to leave.<br>
@sadfeet. If you want to be a doctor take the program, then decide money issue.<br>
BTW friends kid went to Duke, unknown grades but didn’t get into any MD school and only one DO school, so no guarentees </p>
<p>@ohioParent588 I thought BU was increasing their GPA requirement to 3.2 but I could be wrong. New students should double check.</p>
<p>Drexel. 120k is a lot of money. Plus, drexel BS/MD kids match very well in residencies.</p>