<p>My D has got into Duke (Trinity) as well as Pitt Guaranteed Admission program (Medical school). Her ultimate goal is medicine, but Duke is too good to loose. It is a great school, nice undergrad experience, beautiful campus, nice student body (we just visited Duke) but it is very expensive (35K EFC). Pitt is excellent med school, but UG is not as great as Duke. They also gave us full tution for 4 yrs. It is very hard for her as well as for us to decide. She also got into Boston university for 7 yr medical program with 35k EFC. We are not considering BU though. Any thoughts are appreciated regarding whether to choose Duke VS Pitt.</p>
<p>If it were me I’d go for the guaranteed med route. The last thing you need going into med school is a ton of debt (because you’ll have even more after you finish).</p>
<p>If your heart is truly set on med school, I would go with the guaranteed Med admission. This is definitely the safe route. Note that roughly 45% of Duke undergrads (~700 out of 1600) come in wanting to be premeds, but ultimately only about 100 people eventually get into med school. If you do the math, that means roughly 6/7 or 86% of kids get weeded out in the process, and as you know the academic level of the Duke student population to begin with is already very high.</p>
<p>Actually, the numbers from the office of health professions advising at Duke is 272 students from Duke matriculated at 80 different medical schools with an acceptance rate of 86% last year. They gave out those numbers at a premed assembly just now.</p>
<p>So does that include alumni or not?</p>
<p>I’m sure there are alumni in that mix, however you can’t say that 172 of those 272 students are alumni…</p>
<p>At blue devil days, they said 272 students matriculated to med school…</p>
<p>why aren’t u considering BU’s program? the total cost of undergrad + med school will still be less than if ur son goes to duke and then med school, and more importantly your son will get to be in boston for 7 years. imo the social environment and atmosphere of bu beats both duke and pitt, and while pitt’s med school might be higher ranked than BU’s, BU’s med school is certainly top-notch.</p>
<p>There are few medical schools in this country better than Pitt. The only reason to attend Duke is if she is dead set on DukeMed, in which case going there for undergrad will certainly help but in no way guarantee admission. UPMC provides superb clinical experience and Pitt is among the top 10 in NIH funding. As much as I enjoyed my undergraduate years at Duke, I would say that this is not a difficult choice at all - take the scholarship at Pitt and run with it. Ultimately, your daughter’s undergraduate school will have little, if any, bearing on her success as a physician. PittMed will provide the necessary training, research opportunities, and connections to get her into the best residency programs in the country if she puts in the work. Congratulations on an amazing accomplishment!</p>
<p>I would have to agree that Pitt guaranteed med program seems too good to pass up, especially if your D is sure she want to do medicine.</p>
<p>Barack, the reason we are not considering BU is, because of PITT with full tution for undergarduate… I agree that BU has top notch med school and Boston is excellent college city, but PITT may be better choice than BU because of 4 yr full tution scholarship +10k room&board vs 35K EFC per year at BU for undergrad. Duke also we have to pay 35K EFC just for undergraduate.</p>
<p>BTW, thanks to all for your responses!!!</p>
<p>We have a similar issue Right there withya.</p>
<p>My son is agonizing between Cornell and Pitt full 4 year scholarship with a Pitt Law school guarantee. Unsure what to do- - Son states there is alot you can do with a law degree but not sure what it will be…hmmmm. Schools, environments are very different. Cornell and Duke - similar in a way- and Pitt very different from them but real positives too. Our EFC at Cornell is @ 40. Vs a cost of 10-12 ( R and B) at Pitt. Both are equally far from where we live. </p>
<p>We are getting distinct pathways in advice 50% on each side “Go for the Rep and the IVY opportunity” or “Go for the dough” (and a pretty great opportunity at Pitt as well). Lots of stress in this house this week!</p>
<p>What things are you doing to help her decide? At least Duke has weather to factor in - that could tilt it- Cornell and Pitt are similarly cold.</p>
<p>One thing to remember - alot of kids think they want medicine and may later want to change- if she decides medicine is not for her- will she be sorry for a choice for Duke or sorry for a choice for Pitt in that case? -</p>
<p>icuucme, we went thru similar pain and agony for over two weeks and finally decided Pitt after talking to various people such as Duke Graduates, Pitt professors, family doctors and various research professors at U of Michigan. Almost all of them suggested Pitt for the following reasons.</p>
<p>1) Pitt has excellent med school (ranked 14th according to US news) and my D is set on medicine. Right now, she does not know what to do except medicine or research in Biological sciences. She hates Engineering, Business, Law, Physics, Politics, Economics atleast as of now. She did almost all 3 years of research at U of M medical school and more than 4/5 yrs of volunteer work at local hospitals and nursing homes. She liked everything so far.</p>
<p>2) 4 yrs full tution VS 35K per year at Duke, especilly in this economy.</p>
<p>3) According to a family who grdauted from Duke and currently practicing as doctors in U of Michigan, when you start med school with 100K+ loan, your options are very limited once you graduate with 150K+ more loan from med school. </p>
<p>4) No pain of taking MCAT and stressing out for research opportunities to get admited into top tier med school such as Pitt.</p>
<p>5) In the long run, Pitt choice pays off better from financial stand point. </p>
<p>6) We did not consider the weather perspective much because we thought this is least importnant compared to other things.</p>
<p>Cons…</p>
<p>Missing the opportunity (luxury??) of 4 years of best undergraduate education in one of the most beautiful campuses in this country ( or whole world?)… Duke stamp of education… wonderful experience of undergrad education…</p>
<p>I think your case is slightly different because of medicine VS law. I am not sure how Pitt is ranked for law. Pitt’s medical school has more than 16 hospitals and internationally famous. I guess this is another big criteria apart of from scholarship.</p>
<p>Second, what are the statistics/probability for getting into law schools from Cornell. When we visited Duke, they said 87% of Pre-meds go to med school from Duke, but it could be any of 200 med schools in US. We need to see this statistics and profile of where the Cornell students are going for Law.</p>
<p>I think you have even more tough choice than us because your son looks like not sure about certain things. Everyone suggested us to go to Duke, if my D is not sure what to do after 4 yrs, even if she likes Medicine now. Since she is set on Medicine, we chose Pitt. Best of luck…</p>
<p>Yeah this sux</p>
<p>Cornell stats are high 86% accepatances to Law schools. Son is an exceptional test taker- he is a rock . emotionless. scores very very high- nearly perfect SATs twice. So the kid thinks he will get into a law school based on LSATS and high grades where ever he goes - may be right - who knows. …States “Im not worried about that”.hmmmm.</p>
<p>Also - right now my kid is not looking to take on the world- just wants to “be comfortable” and have a “good life”. ( Debt free= Good life) ( My Book)However things get complicated because second kid cuts the Cornell Price by @ 1/2 for years 234 so basically the free pitt is not that much less than Cornell actually - in the bigger picture. And with this economy who knows whats going to happen</p>
<p>I think son needs to know there are kids out there with really good alternatives making the choice for Pitt- </p>
<p>FYI Pitt also has a highly ranked nursing program (FYI tied with Yale). Another thing to keep in the back of your daughters mind-</p>
<p>hello icuucme, did u and your son visit both Cornell and Pitt? Sometimes, the college visit makes huge difference because this is where your son will be next 7 years or so. </p>
<p>Yeah… you have 50-50 scores for both these options. If you are confident that you will split the tution between 2 children from years 234, may be Cornell is better. Also, another factor is how secure are the parents jobs. I am sure people in healthcare or govt sectors have much better job security than others in Auto or Financial sectors. And, how much willing you are to make 40K+ payments in next 4 years without taking loans or even with loans? Does it involve any adjustments to the life style over next 4-5 years? These are the questions for you to think over. One doctor told us that her dad always said never worry about money, we will handle debts somehow… she went to ivy for undergrad, paid lot of money and finally went to U of M for medicine…not everyone can say or do that… It’s all individual preferrences and priorities. Finally it is a family decision…</p>
<p>We are good but who knows Husband in defense- I am in clinical healthcare informatics-</p>
<p>We went to see both. Could not be MORE different. Dont want to pass on the Ivy opp and the beautiful campus ( ALthough colder than Duke!) but you see similar problem. Cornell is Gorges as they say, but Pitt was a surprisingly nice city. This is so hard. I just dont want this most important decision to come down to a hat pick or a coin toss. </p>
<p>You should be so thankful that the decision has been made. She must ( and you too) must feel great.</p>
<p>Only other issue driving me toward Cornell is I could see the kid leaning toward an academic life… he is also a wonderful writer- Loves baseball ( I told him pirates may surprise everyone one day) but other thatn that there are no passions like I love a city - I need the outdoors etc etc</p>
<p>I also like the Pitt travel abroad programs - Cornell has them as well but Pitt made them seem easier to access- not sure why I feel like that- Pitt just did a great job with the parents I think</p>
<p>Rajunt, I have to say I am very glad that your daughter chose Pitt. I myself I’m entering my senior year as a pre-med guarantee student at Pitt and I could not be happier with my decision. I turned down several more prestigious schools to come here, and it’s given me many more opportunities than I think I would have had at those schools. If she has any questions, she can feel free to contact me. I look forward to meeting her in the fall!</p>
<p>How guaranteed is the guarantee? What is the required GPA to stay in the program? Is the MCAT required in the Pitt program? Is there a minimum score? If the MCAT is not required and the GPA requirement is not unreasonable (you are much more likely to be on the far right side of the curve at Pitt than at Duke) then the guaranteed Pitt program for at least 150k less seems to be the most logical choice. Of the 80 different medical schools that admitted the 272 Duke grads, very few are equal to Pitt Med.</p>
<p>the GPA is 3.75 (for both overall AND science all four year), you have to do research and volunteer. MCAT is not required.</p>
<p>Can you not bring up dead threads unless you have a similar question? It looks like this dilemma came up three months ago - any advice now is pointless.</p>