My dream school is Syracuse, which is a pretty expensive private school. I want to double major in Biochemistry & Finance, then go on to med school. My ultimate goal is to be a surgeon.
I live in California and my other choices for school are SFSU and CSU East Bay (and a few other backups). Money is a big issue for me. My parents are well off but I’m the middle child, the first going to college, and they’ve made it clear they will only pay a very minimal amount. Syracuse is known to be generous with financial aid, so if I’m given enough I will attend.
I of course would love to go to a top Ivy League med school after I get my bachelors. And Syracuse is a much more prestigious name (based on my knowledge) to put on a med school application than SFSU or CSU East Bay. If I were to have a great GPA and do really well on my MCATs, would the name of the school directly impact my chances at getting into a good med school?
If your parents are well off, you likely won’t get much aid from Syracuse. Every college has a net price calculator on their website. Work with your parents to run them at all the schools you are considering. If you do make it to med school, it is very expensive. You want as little undergrad debt as possible, so take that into consideration.
Have your parents run the Net Price Calculator on Syracuse’s website to see what aid you’d get. Sounds like you’d get little or no aid.
How much will your parents spend each year on college?
Your choices shouldn’t just be Syracuse or a CSU.
Med schools don’t care where you go to undergrad, but as a Calif resident, you’re in a highly competitive pool.
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getting into a good med school.>>>>
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All US med schools are excellent. The US doesn’t have any “so so” MD med schools. They’re all excellent.
And, the Ivy med schools are not all the best ones. But again, all US schools are excellent. The goal is to get into at least one med school…any one of them.
Have you run the net price calculator on Syracuse, various CSUs, various UCs, and other schools?
Medical school is expensive, so you do not want to drag along a lot of undergraduate debt through medical school.
Also, getting to interviews at California public medical schools will be much less convenient from Syracuse than from some California undergraduate school.
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Also, getting to interviews at California public medical schools will be much less convenient from Syracuse than from some California undergraduate school.
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While I absolutely agree with the above in concept, the reality is that most Calif med school applicants don’t get any Calif med school interviews. Their interviews are often in the Midwest, south, mid-Atlantic, or NE.
That said, not only will Syracuse be unaffordable to this student, he will not be a top applicant to that school.
Serious premeds improve their chances by targeting colleges where their stats are very strong and where they can shine.
Syracuse does seem like a particularly inconvenient place to get to medical school interviews from, though. There are only 17 non-stop airline flight destinations from Syracuse, according to http://www.syrairport.org/airport-guide/destinations/ . Flight options (including connecting flights) may be inconvenient, time consuming, and expensive.
Of course, many pre-meds give up pre-med before even reaching the application stage, and only half of pre-meds get into any medical school.
@mom2collegekids I get where you are coming from. And I’ve done extensive research into as many colleges as possible. East Bay, SFSU, and Syracuse offer everything I want and need out of a university (except Syracuse’s tuition). I wouldn’t rule out SU all together though just because my parents do well. A friend of mine comes from an even wealthier family and received a $15,000 annual financial aid grant from the school. I’m only just starting my senior year of high school but my stats are: 4.0 GPA (W) 3.6 GPA (UW). Keep in mind, I did terrible my sophomore year of high school and am making up for it. I’ve already spoken to the admissions offices at my top schools and they’ve said they will primarily focus on improvement and how I did junior and senior year. 1950 SAT (old one) and 30 ACT. I’m thinking about retaking the ACT though because I didn’t study and can do better (and it’ll boost my chances).
Also those two California schools are the closest to home that offer what I want. I also know that all med schools are great, but when it gets down to the time when I’m applying for a residency program, sometimes the school does matter.
I’m choosing to major in both Biochemistry & Finance because it’s actually not as hard as people think to balance a double major. I’ve had conversations with many double major students, but I do know everyone is different. It’ll actually be very beneficial to have some knowledge in the workings of finance as well, and if I have a degree in it I can work for my mom’s company while I’m in med school and make enough to pay tuition for most top med schools.
@mom2collegekids
“Serious premeds improve their chances by targeting colleges where their stats are very strong and where they can shine.”
I agree with this entirely. My friend Amrik was valedictorian for the class of 2016 at my high school. He got accepted to Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia, as well as several UCs and Cal States. He chose to go to UC Riverside for premed when he could’ve gone to an Ivy League (he’s got so many scholarships he’s basically getting paid to go to UCR). He said it’s because it will be easier for him to maintain a 4.0 GPA and graduate top of his class at UCR than at one of the more prestigious schools.
You probably won’t have much time to work to earn money to pay medical school tuition while attending medical school. California public medical schools for residents cost $37,000 to $42,000 in tuition and mandatory fees for 2015-2016, and most private medical schools were in the $50,000 to $60,000 range. And that does not include living expenses. Of course, cost will increase over the next several years. See https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/ . Expect to finish medical school with around $240,000 to $300,000 of medical school student loan debt, if you even get in.
The name of the school is irrelevant. What matters is what you did in college; grades, scores, exposure to the medical field thru paid or volunteer work (this is actually an unofficial requirement), letters of rec, etc.
In another thread you wrote
This is on the lower side for for med school admissions.
More to the point here is how do you do you want to be a doctor, let alone a surgeon? Unless you’ve already spent time in a medical setting then medicine is an area you are interested in exploring, rather than a decision you have made. And until you’ve considered alternatives (a few hours browsing on http://explorehealthcareers.org is a good start) then even if medicine is a fit it is way premature to decide that being a surgeon is the right choice.
@mikemac My uncle is a general surgeon and has been for years now; I’ve seen what he does and what his day-to-day is like. I’ve also volunteered at local hospitals and medical centers and explored the ideas of going into nursing, anesthesiology, and even psychiatry. I know that surgery is what I want to do. I feel very passionate about it. But I completely understand where you are coming from. Too many people go into careers without a clue of what it’s actually going to be or what other options are out there.
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I have a degree in it I can work for my mom’s company while I’m in med school and make enough to pay tuition for most top med schools.
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You can’t work while you’re in med school. You won’t even have summers off.
You will need more than a 3.5 GPA to get into med school.
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Also those two California schools are the closest to home that offer what I want. I also know that all med schools are great, but when it gets down to the time when I’m applying for a residency program, sometimes the school does matter.
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Not really…your STEP scores and class ranking will matter a LOT more.