<p>So I have no idea how I am going to choose the right college for me out of the colleges I have looked at, right now it would be down to around 6-7. I have Pittsburgh, Duquesne, Washington and Jefferson, Dickinson, Franklin and Marshall, and Juniata all left on my list. I just cant decide where I would want to go, I like them all but really dont know enough about there academics besides how good they are to decide further. I am also planning on doing biology for pre-med. So I know they are all strong pre med. Can you give me some help deciding about where I should go?</p>
<p>*I have Pittsburgh, Duquesne, Washington and Jefferson, Dickinson, Franklin and Marshall, and Juniata all left on my list…</p>
<p>I am also planning on doing biology for pre-med. So I know they are all strong pre med.*</p>
<p>Since you’re planning on going to med school, go to whichever undergrad will cost you the least. You do NOT want to take on a bunch of debt or spend unnecessary money when you have med school to also borrow/pay for. </p>
<p>it’s a myth that newish doctors can afford to pay back huge debt. Med school can cost $200k - 260k+ (depending on where you get accepted.) That by itself is a lot of debt for a newish doctor. To add more debt from undergrad would be like a noose around your neck.</p>
<p>What are your stats? </p>
<p>Is it possible for you to get a good scholarship from a college? For example…my pre-med son took a full tuition scholarship to his college to save money for med school. </p>
<p>how much will your parents pay each year?</p>
<p>Are you instate for Pitt?</p>
<p>What do you want in a college? Pitt is very different from the others.</p>
<p>I don’t see the problem. You have some great schools on your list. Right now your only problem is completing applications. You don’t have to pick ONE school until next April. Apply to all these schools now and see what happens. Then, after you know where you’re accepted, you can choose the right one.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Yeah I am instate and I have good enough stats to get into most of them and be competitive in others. And I know it will cost a lot so I was thinking about less expensive schools like Pitt, Duquesne, and UPJ. But my parents said they can help out a lot so that makes it better but I still like knowing that it isnt gonna be as much. But I was wandering if it actually does matter where you go for undergraduate or if I can go to UPJ or Pitt and get a 3.5-3.8 is it just as good as going to Dickinson or F&M. The liberal arts schools say they make you more prepared and help you get in better but I want to know if it actually matters, if I get good grades and a good MCAT, also I have a lot of volunteer and shadowing time, and I am also becoming certified EMT can I be as competitive as someone the same from a better college?</p>
<p>Pitt has a much bigger name in the medical community than Dickinson or F&M if that is what you are asking. Faculty sitting on an med school admission committee will know Pitt, but unless they are from Pennsylvania, they likely won’t have the faintest idea about Dickinson or F&M. That said, it really doesn’t matter where you go: your grades, MCATs, volunteer stuff will be the things that actually get you interviews for med school. You want to be able to demonstrate that you are interested in medicine and can handle the rigors of med school. You do not have to major in biological sciences or pre-med as long as you complete the necessary prerequisites for med school. Hospital volunteering, EMT work, clinical shadowing, bioscience research, getting recommendations from higher profile medical faculty…that will all be easier to get done while in school at a place with a medical school and medical center on campus like a Pitt or Penn, which are really the best two places in PA for that stuff. What the bigger schools won’t do is hand hold you as much as the LACs, but the bigger schools will present a much greater numbers of opportunities to pad the application. That said, you should go where you are most comfortable and it makes the most sense financially, whether it is a tiny school like Juanita or a larger school like Temple. Where you get your undergraduate degree is not the thing that will have a huge impact on your med school admissions.</p>
<p>Washington and Jefferson as well as Juniata are extremely well respected among the members of medical school admissions committees. Their pre-medical students have an higher than average success rate in getting into medical school and related areas (dental school, veterinary school etc). Their alumni networks in the medical fields are quite extensive.</p>
<p>While there is a medical school as well as a dental school at the University of Pittsburgh, an undergraduate degree from there is no guarantee of acceptance into the medical school.</p>
<p>The father of a former colleague of mine was a member of the admissions committee at Pitt. My colleague said his father was a snob when it came to colleges; when in doubt, his father also voted for the applicant from the most prestigeous institution.</p>
<p>Well, how respected W&J and Juniata are in the medical community depends on where you are located and where the school you are applying to is located. Not that either of those schools aren’t good, or that pre-med students shouldn’t go there, but the vast majority of people in medical academia across the country, where the med school admission decisions are actually made, will never have heard of either. According to W&J, out its total number of living alumni, only about 1,000 are even classified as being “health professionals” and only 25-30 of its students go to med school each year. Juniata is even smaller. So, it is fairly misleading to imply that these schools have some sort of substantial network of alumni in academic medicine. My personal experience at med schools in the south, west and northeast (including at Pitt and Penn), is that, as far as I am aware, I have never actually met a faculty member that had attended either of these lacs. The only reason I know of Juniata is because I grew up near its campus, but honestly, most people in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have never even heard of it. However, in the Pittsburgh area at least, W&J is relatively well known due to its proximity and history in that area and it has an excellent reputation there. To touch on the bias for schools in admission committees, which can exist depending on the individuals who are sitting on those committees (e.g. Ivy biased to Ivy), the reputation of either lac is not going make a difference one way or the other, especially outside of their regions of Pennsylvania, no matter how excellent the education at either might actually be. In any case, I want to stress, those sort of biases would usually only come into play for borderline cases (as noted in the example above), and if lacs are where a student will best excel during college, that is where that student should be.</p>