I was recently admitted to Cornell for their global and public health major, as well as University of Texas at Austin’s public health major as part of their Health Science Honors program which includes their Freshman Research Initiative. Which one would be better for premed? My parents would be paying 60k for Cornell vs 25k for UT per year, so would it be worth it to go to Cornell if medical schools largely look at MCAT and GPA’s rather than the prestige of the university?
Go to UT Austin.
UT
Save the money for med school.
UT by all means
Cornell may be the most stressful environment for premed in the top 50. Weed out hell and stress. If you make it through it’s a real feather in your cap and with a good mcat will make you a top med school applicant. UT had 384 students accepted for med school last year. That’s a big number. Big school but still impressive. It’s almost at #1 UF numbers for pre med students accepted to med school
Cornell - hands down! If your parents are fine with the tuition, then Cornell is definitely the winner.
76% of Cornell pre-med students are accepted to medical school compared to just 54% of UT-Austin students. In addition, the prestige and the alumni network are huge benefits of Cornell.
@UrbanMum the percentages are for the students who eventually apply. Not started premed. Its a fact that cornell applies maximum pressure to premed undergrads. And if you make it through and then prehealth conmittee culls even further. Yes high placement for those that make it up to and through committee. And the competiton is fierce.
As I stated previously. If you make thru cornell and post great mcat the skys the limit. But ibeouldnt fo thst routr these days. Med schools also love thr top performers coming out of top flagships like UT. And it’s more fun at school like ut in general, if premed can be fun anywhere.
No one i know cares where their doc went undergrad.
My two cents.
True
Go where you’ll get the best grades if you are serious about med school
Agree pretty much everybody else…with one caveat: there is a type of super-intense student that seems to like the pressure cooker that is Cornell pre-med.
jk: put the $35K/year difference into a savings account & (if you go to UT) you will have your med school tuition paid for, and only need to pay your living expenses.
First of all, med schools won’t consider Cornell to be more prestigious than UTexas.
What are your parents saying?
Put 35k per year towards med school! That’s 140k
Btw…doesn’t Cornell cost more than 60k
Actually Cornell says this (emphasis added)
I’d add that the overall rate for a college doesn’t give a lot of information for comparison purposes. At some colleges with an active premed office they are going to be frank with those having low chances and may end up skewing the applicant pool towards stronger candidates. At schools with committee letters they can actually enforce this by refusing to recommend weaker candidates. While at large publics the advising may be less comprehensive and it is fact possible to apply to med school without any involvement/advice from the premed office or career center; the overall results of the applicant pool may well reflect this.
The website does not state whether this state applies only to alopathic schools or includes osteopathic. Many schools report high numbers by combining the two rates, however it takes a substantially lower GPA to gain admission to OD schools so that should be determined before relying on that stat.
Assuming that you are a Texas resident, being at UT Austin also means much more convenient short-notice travel to medical school interviews at Texas medical schools, many of which are relatively inexpensive (compared to other medical schools) for Texas residents.
Starting a career in medicine with much less debt after attending UT Austin and a Texas medical school as a Texas resident gives you more options in career and life choices compared to starting a career with a heavy debt load.
Save the money if you’re pre-med.
regarding Cornell premed suggest look up old posts by former Cornell student/CC poster (and now physician) @norcalguy.
For example:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18376138#Comment_18376138
Or if you’d rather, listen to comments of people who didn’t go there any time recently, or at all, and don’t really know.
I know a class Valedictorian from a talented pool of students; she always worked extremely hard and specifically to stay on top of her class. She went to Cornell in a technical major. During her first semester, between being a long way from home but more importantly working really hard academically but was an ‘average’ student with the large group of other high stat kids who may have had more effortless talents - became suicidal. Came home for therapy. IDK what happened after. Relative of a friend of a friend.
Honestly what is in your long term interests OP? The tuition difference means a lot to some families, which with some families the college status means a lot more.
For our family, it would be a no-brainer.
A friend’s DD, high stat kid that was accepted to all but one of her 10 colleges (which included Cornell) made a college visit to decide between Cornell and another, and chose the other. The other was also very selective but offered tuition scholarship. Parents allowed her to choose but parents were relieved with her choice.
^^^ sounds like a variant on the chapter in Malcom Gladwell’s book where a top science student goes to Brown, falls into middle of a very talented pack, and gives up on science because she feels like a middling performer.
it’s all good faith advice. I appreciate all of the various perspectives. And there’s a lot of good choices for kids outside of the Ivy League. But Cornell is great but not for every student in all cases. And quite frankly why would someone who went to Cornell and enjoyed it be s better arbiter or less unbiased than anyone else. It worked for them doesn’t mean the op would have the same experience.