College Decision Time: Georgia Tech Stamps Scholarship vs. Rice/Baylor Combined Medical Program

College Search & Selection
1

Hello everyone! After a long and grueling college admissions process, I have narrowed my college search down to two specific programs. I received the prestigious Stamps Leadership Scholarship at Georgia Tech, which is in essence a full ride (tuition, fees, books, room, and board) along with an addition $15,000 stipend and numerous study abroad, networking, and internship opportunities. More recently, I have been selected for the Rice/Baylor BS/MD program, an eight-year combined medical program with guaranteed admission into the Baylor College of Medicine if a minimum MCAT and GPA requirement is met. In addition, I was awarded a half tuition scholarship (around $24,000) at Rice. In essence, I am very conflicted as to which program to attend next year. I am curious to see what the College Confidential community has to say on this matter?

A little bit about myself:

I was born and raised in the southeast, attending only public schools.
I plan on majoring in Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Bioengineering at Rice.
My end goal is most certainly medical school, eventually becoming a surgeon of some sort.
I am interested in studying abroad, conducting world-class research, and doing other medical/engineering extracurricular activities while in college (i.e. robotics, EMS, and volunteering).
While I would like to save as much money as possible, cost is not necessarily that important of a factor. In other words, my family can afford to pay COA at either school, although the less money that we must pay, the better.

Rice/Baylor:

Pros - Guaranteed medical school
Rice/Baylor name can open a lot of doors for research and other opportunities
Ranked Top 5 in BME
Residential College system
Private school/small school and all of the added benefits (i.e. small classes, more student/teacher interaction)
Texas Medical Center (access to seven major hospitals within walking distance of campus)
BioScience Research Collaborative
Holistically a top-ranked school (#19 school in the country with top programs in many areas of study)
Half-tuition scholarship

Cons - About $34,000 more expensive than Georgia Tech
No structured program (only 6 people are in this program so student interaction is minimal and no planned activities)
No planned study abroad activities

Georgia Tech:

Pros - Full ride scholarship
Part of the President’s Scholarship Program
Significant study abroad opportunities
Access to an extensive alumni network
Large, engineering school with a wealth of opportunities (i.e. internships, etc.)
Ranked Top 5 in BME
Atlanta-area hospitals and medical facilities

Cons - Must apply to medical school in four years
Very difficult to maintain a good GPA, potentially jeopardizing medical school chances
Primarily an engineering school with much weaker arts and sciences programs

I thank you all for your opinions in advance.

2

If you can afford it and are confident that you want med school, I’d go for the Rice/Baylor auto admit to med school.

3

What GPA do you need to maintain at Rice to stay in the program?

If it’s doable, I would lean strongly towards Rice.

4

Find out what college GPA you need to keep at Rice and what MCAT score you need to make to retain the guaranteed admission to Baylor medical school. Most similar programs have such minimums. At some, the thresholds are high enough that if you meet them, you have a good chance of medical school admission the usual way (though the guaranteed program would remove the stressful application process). At others, the thresholds are somewhat lower, allowing you a bit more slack than most pre-meds have in protecting their GPAs.

Baylor medical school is relatively low cost compared to other medical schools:
https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/report.cfm?select_control=PRI&year_of_study=2015
This may help when considering total cost and debt of each option, including medical school. Of course, if you do not get into medical school or decide not to attend, then just your undergraduate cost and debt would be relevant.

5

@happy1 @PurpleTitan @ucbalumnus Thank you all for your responses. Rice/Baylor requires a minimum 3.5 GPA and a 500-507 on the new MCAT, and I feel confident that I can achieve both of these marks.

6

Go for Baylor, then. In a guaranteed program, you don’t need to do ECs/research, etc. Just hit the GPA and MCAT required. So that should be less stress. And Rice’s alumni network should be as good or better than GTech’s. Though for doctors, alumni networks don’t matter much anyway.

7

3.5 is necessary for med school anyway.Go for the Rice/Baylor program then :slight_smile: (even if you change your mind about going to med school, Rice is an excellent school so you’re good no matter what!)