Here is a little information before I delve into the intricate, and sometimes sad tale that is my college decisions. I know for sure that I want to go to med school and ideally my major would involve Neuroscience. My SAT was 2200 (800 CR, 720 M, 680 W) and my UW/W GPA is 3.5/3.9. I took 12 APs throughout high school and was fairly involved in a couple of clubs. Anyways, I was wait listed at Berkeley and accepted into Northeastern, Drexel, NYU, Stevens, and USciences. After much antagonizing I have narrowed it down to two choices which are USciences and NYU.
NYU gave me around $29,000 in grants and I would be going for the Neural Science major in CAS. The total cost would come out to around $36,000. I am visiting this Sunday, but have not seen the campus yet. What allures me about this school, despite the cost, is the prestige behind the school itself and the research opportunities present for Neural Science majors. I also feel as if this school would put me in a better place to get accepted into a high ranked med school, although this may be a misconception.
USciences has offered me $22,000 in grants and I would be majoring in Pharmacology and Toxicology, since they do not offer Neuroscience. The overall cost comes out to around $26,000. I have visited the campus and I like the small campus feel. The PharmTox professors seemed not only passionate, but also personable. The small class sizes at the school are also enticing. However the lack of “prestige”, lack of neuroscience, and less research opportunities are the downside.
I’m torn if NYU is worth the extra 10,000 a year and whether it will really help me get into a top ranked med school. On a side note my close friend is going to USciences although I’m not sure if I should consider that in my decision. Please give any opinions or advice
@SOSConcern That’s what I’ve been hearing. Another concern of mine was the amount of research and internship opportunities available in both areas. What do you think on that?
I was also hoping to apply to early assurance programs during my sophomore year and was wondering if undergrad school rank would effect my chances at those as well.
Gosh I would think there is a lot of opportunity, based on what I looked at with the school and the higher ed in Philadelphia. Do what you can to find answers and opportunities, be it in person, on-line, etc with contacts at UScience. The more you find out, the better you will feel about your decision.
Med schools will NOT consider NYU as being prestigious. Not at all.
The only schools that might get a slight nudge (and it’s slight) are the top 8-10 schools in the nation. After that, schools are considered equal unless it’s really podunk.
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I'm torn if NYU is worth the extra 10,000 a year and whether it will really help me get into a top ranked med school.
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Any good school is good enough.
Who is paying and how are the costs of your undergrad being paid? What are your parents saying?
All US MD schools are excellent. Are you looking to go into Academic Medicine? Or will you be a practicing physician?
@freedl21 you’ve visited the USciences campus right?
Is the campus beautiful?
What are the dorms like? (are they clean, because i stumbled across a website dedicated entirely to the usciences “housing problem”)
Are the people friendly? Is it diverse?
@mom2collegekids my parents would be my cosign in any loans I take out. My father also specified and said that he would pay somewhere around 18,000 every year. I was accepted into Stevens, Rutgers, Northeastern, and Drexel. All the school turn out to be somewhere within $30,000, unless I choose to commute to Rutgers (which is something I would prefer not to do). USci is the cheapest option beside those.
@bloodytearz666 I really loved University City when I visited. In fact the campus and it’s feel was what prompted me to consider USciences as an acceptable alternative to NYU. The dorms were kinda plain and small, but nothing too bad that I saw.
NYU will NOT help you get into a medical school. What matters is your GPA (essentially you’ll have to be in the top 20% of your class for about every class) and your MCAT score.
However, if like many freshmen you change your mind about med school, NYU would carry you further than USciences.
Where would the 10k come from? Because if those were co-signed, it wouldn’t matter anyway since med school wouldn’t happen…
(If you take more than the federal loans, you’d be in big trouble for med school and should plan to have a major that allows you to work after college, ie., not biology, probably something involving statistics or quantitative skills. There’s no financial aid for med school so you have to be able to qualify for loans and you want to have no more than the federal loan limit after 4 years of college, otherwise it’s almost impossible to pay back and live decently.)
In addition, Stevens and Northeastern’s system of co-ops can help you either through professional experience toward med school, or through work experience to find a job after college if you change your mind about med school.
(Drexel tends to be overpriced but I’m guessing the two above gave you nice merit.)
Let’s look at the cost specifics:
So, if your father pays $18,000 and USciences is 26k, you have to find 8K. With the $5,500 in loans, that leaves 2.5K to find which you can do through work (full time this summer should do it, and about 6-8 hours a week during the school year would cover your miscellaneous expenses during the year.) I think this is doable up to 28k, since 10k is the outer limit of what a student can self fund.
If you’re worried about research opportunities at USciences, email the departments that interest you and ask whether freshmen can get involved in labs, etc.
Philadelphia will be great for internships and University City is a nice part of Philadelphia.
@MYOS1634 Drexel was actually my 2nd cheapest choice and the total cost was $30,000/year. I didn’t get accepted into the 7 year med so I didn’t look into them further. Is it worth a second look?
Okay then, Drexel vs. Usciences.
15,000 students vs. 2,500 students
75% admitted vs. 61% admitted
3.44 vs. 3.6 average GPA of admitted students
1180 vs. 1170 average SAT score CR+M
21% score 700+ M vs. 12%
10% score 700+ CR vs. 3%
22% score 30+ on the ACT vs. 6%
34% top 10% of HS class vs. 46% top 10% of HS class
57% classes 20 students or under vs. 42% 20 and under
11% classes 40 and over vs. 16% classes 40 and over
91% freshmen live on campus vs. 76%
25% upper class students live on campus vs. 29%
84% return for 2nd year vs. 88%
27% graduate in 4 years vs. 67% (but co-op tends to add a year)
(The different combination of test scores + GPA/rank in class would tend to indicate that Drexel attracts upper middle class underachievers whereas USciences attracts middle class/working class overachievers).
Still, the question remains: where would the difference between what you can afford out of pocket and the actual costs come from?
I think that if affordable NYU would be the best option for you, particularly with the research opportunities presented by the school. But be careful about putting yourself far in debt for undergrad if you have med school to come.
my parents would be my cosign in any loans I take out. My father also specified and said that he would pay somewhere around 18,000 every year.
NYU gave me around $29,000 in grants and I would be going for the Neural Science major in CAS. The total cost would come out to around $36,000
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So, out of the $36k that you’d have to pay for frosh year (each year, costs will rise), your parents will pay about $18k per year.
So, YOU would be borrowing $18k per year for NYU undergrad (and the goal is med school???)
Not only is $72k WAY TOO MUCH to borrow for undergrad, but it’s a CRAZY amount for a premed. You will also have $300k+ debt for med school. (And by that time, that $72k will have significantly grown!)
do you really want to graduate from med school with $400k+ in debt? Do you have any idea of how hard that will be to pay back as a newish doctor???
There are too many school debt stories for you to think that NYU is a good decision for UG in your situation. You don’t want to be one in a really big financial hole when you could have minimized that up front.
@mom2collegekids@SOSConcern So currently, I am thinking about Usciences or Drexel. The difference between them is about 4000$ and I think that Drexel’s co-op program will cover that. Usciences seems very specialized in the sciences and healthcare, while Drexel’s co-op seems like a great way to build a med school resume.
