<p>I am going to be a bioengineering major in college. I also plan on going to med school afterwards. I was accepted into UCSD with a full ride+registration/internship perks, Johns Hopkins, and Duke. I was also waitlisted at Harvard. My family would have to pay full price at the private schools. We can afford to pay the money, but are by no means rich, so 220k over 4 years is definitely a large investment. Would it be worth it to go to Duke, Hopkins, or Harvard for their bioengineering programs with the intention of going to med school in the future, despite the massive cost differential? (I know chances are slim to none I will get into Harvard anyways, but I want to know if I can tell them in good conscience that I will attend there for sure if I am accepted off of the waitlist) Thanks!</p>
<p>Will your parents pay for med school as well if you go to Duke or JHU?</p>
<p>If not, then if you go to UCSD for free, will your parents then agree to spend $220k on med school?</p>
<p>If so, then it would be a no-brainer for me…go to UCSD.</p>
<p>Exactly how much of a hardship would it be for your parents to pay for Duke, etc? do they have all that money sitting in a college fund for you …or would they have to pay a chunk out of current income? Do they have a lot of extra income? </p>
<p>Can you sit down and have a “heart to heart” with your parents about paying for Duke, paying for med school, etc.?</p>
<p>JHU is #1, Duke is 2 and UCSD is number 5 for Biomed. There is very little difference to give up a free education if that is your specific major.</p>
<p>If I take UCSD, my parents have no problem paying for the entirety of my medical school costs. On the other hand, if I go to one of the other schools, they will help in whatever way they can for med school, but I will definitely need to take out significant loans at that point (I also have a younger sibling that will attend college in a couple of years). There is no full college fund set aside for me; my parents would would be taking out a portion of their income. Is there any significant advantage (in terms of med school acceptance and in general) to be gained by attending Harvard, Duke, or Hopkins over UCSD? If not, then I will definitely be going to San Diego.</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>Then it’s a no brainer, go to UCSD. You will be glad when you don’t have med school loan payments for years on end.</p>
<p>*There is no college fund for me; my parents would would be taking out a portion of their income. Is there any significant advantage (in terms of med school acceptance and in general) to be gained by attending Harvard, Duke, or Hopkins over UCSD? If not, then I will definitely be going to San Diego. *</p>
<p>Not only will there not be any significant advantage, but since your parents don’t have a college fund for you and would have to pay out of current income (about $5k per MONTH!!!), it will be very difficult for you knowing how your college costs are negatively affecting them and your younger sibling. And, it will negatively affect you as well…when parents are super cash strapped for 4 years, believe me, there are going to be many times that you will feel it, too.</p>
<p>And, since they don’t have a college fund for you and would have to pay out of current income, there is a significant chance that at some point during your 4 years, they will find that continuing to pay won’t be affordable. It’s really hard for people to come up with that much money out of current income when they have no history of setting money aside for college in the past. </p>
<p>This is a no-brainer…go to UCSD. And, in the meantime, I hope your parents set aside some money each month for med school.</p>
<p>Sorry I should have clarified. They do have money set aside, but not the 200k+ for a private school. More like a bit under 100k. But yeah, I do think UCSD is the better option. I just wanted to make sure I was thinking correctly. I guess I’ve been sucked up in all the Harvard-mania…</p>
<p>Do you like the social climate at UCSD? (Some people love it, others hate it.) Beautiful campus, but LaJolla is not much of a college town. </p>
<p>What are your other options?</p>
<p>What about the other UC’s? If you received a Regent’s at SD, I assume you received something similar at the others? Yeah, I get that BioEng at SD is top-ranked, but if your ultimate plan is med school, a higher-ranked Eng department won’t matter to med schools. A higher gpa will, and if you’d have more fun at Davis, for example…</p>
<p>No, What I received at San Diego is the Jacob’s Engineering Scholarship (in addition to regents), which covers absolutely everything for 4 years. I didn’t get regents at Berkeley, and at UCLA and Davis the Regents Scholarship only covers 2k and 7.5k per year respectively. I went down to SD over the weekend and liked at least what I saw/experienced. Not AMAZING, but definitely enjoyable.</p>
<p>San Diego has the best weather on the planet. Who the heck would want to bother with the crappy weather that other areas have. As a Southern Cal (Orange County) native myself, I would love to spend 4 years in La Jolla. </p>
<p>And I don’t think anyone should complain about being in La Jolla…that’s a vacation destination. And, the beach is super! </p>
<p>Glad to hear that your parents have about $100k saved for your education (is that for you alone or does that include savings for sibling???) Any way, that is good because I was wondering how they would be able to save enough for med school but now I can see that they have a healthy start and over the next 4 years, then can add about $30k each year to have enough for med school. 
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<p>You have no idea how lucky you are to have parents who will pay for med school under this situation.</p>
<p>If you get into Harvard, they have a reasonably generous financial aid. It sounds like the others are not making any effort.</p>
<p>If this family has $100k in savings for each child’s college education and has the income to pay the rest, I doubt that they would even qualify for aid at Harvard.</p>
<p>I have no idea what is happening in this thread. This is absolutely not a no-brainer decision. It’s a very very difficult decision. I don’t know what to advise the OP, but this is absolutely not an easy call.</p>
<p>My inclination would be to matriculate at Duke while pushing the Harvard waitlist. (By the way, if you get into Harvard don’t bother with engineering.) That’s not the obviously right choice, but it’s certainly not obviously WRONG.</p>
<p>Look, going to college for free is a pretty sweet deal but the UC schools in general are horrible, horrible places to be a premed. They’re absolutely huge, they’re very constrained in the advising they can provide, and the reality is that your peers are generally not going to be medical school material. Can you make it into an excellent medical school from San Diego? Absolutely – that’s why I think it’s a hard choice. But when you’re surrounded by kids who simply aren’t medical school material, that’s going to rub off on your work habits and on how well you learn the material. A great deal of your learning and growing comes from your peers, and for a premed that’s one advantage which a UC simply can’t replace.</p>
<p>This is NOT an easy choice for the private schools, either. We’re talking about an awful lot of money here. But it’s just ridiculous to talk about this like it’s an easy choice for UCSD. It’s not.</p>
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<p>For whatever it’s worth, I won a Regents from UCLA (back when it was worth a lot more than it apparently is now – they would have been paying me to attend) and had preprofessional aspirations myself. Despite that, I didn’t ever seriously consider taking the Regents at UCLA or, for that matter, the Regents at Berkeley. It literally never even crossed my mind.</p>
<p>BDM…it really is a no-brainer…even if it’s a difficult choice. </p>
<p>It is not a good idea to matriculate at Duke and see if Harvard comes thru. Maybe it’s a good idea to matriculate at UCSD but see if Harvard comes thru.</p>
<p>The negative stuff about the UCs is largely exagerrated for political reasons. I have several nieces and nephews at UCs or recently graduated from UCs…all graduated on time and with high GPAs. </p>
<p>The “problems” that students have are often self-inflicted and happen at all schools…kids take longer because they’ve…</p>
<p>1) changed their majors.</p>
<p>2) dropped courses so they no longer are on track to graduate on time.</p>
<p>3) had to work while going to school, so they didn’'t take enough classes each quarter/semester. </p>
<p>4) refused to take a needed class because it was only available at 8 am or some other “unfavorable” time. </p>
<p>But when you’re surrounded by kids who simply aren’t medical school material, that’s going to rub off on your work habits and on how well you learn the material.</p>
<p>I have no idea of what you’re talking about. Do you really think that his UCSD ENGINEERING classmates are going to be too dumb for med school? Are you serious? That is so wrong.</p>
<p>Again, it’s not an easy choice, but it is a no-brainer. I know it’s not easy. Tonight my son had to contact the schools that he was declining for his PhD program. It was VERY difficult. It was easy to choose the school he wanted, but it was very hard to email the other dept heads who had been so gracious over the last few months/weeks and tell them that he was declining their offers. So, I know that it’s not easy to choose or decline admissions. But, when something is a no-brainer…you need to go with that.</p>
<p>How have you paid for college/med/law school? Do you have affluent parents writing big checks without much personal sacrifice? Are you able to complete your education without huge loans? If so, then choosing the pricey school would be the right choice for you, because it’s not negatively impacting your parents or any siblings that you might have.</p>
<p>You’re suggesting that UCSD is the choice that ought to be made, and very little thought is required. That’s what “no-brainer” seems to suggest to me. And this is a decision that requires a lot of thought and a lot of discussion.</p>
<p>For obvious reasons I’m not going to get into my family’s finances, but suffice to say that it sounds like OP’s family is… quite a bit better off than mine. And in my case, being paid to attend UCLA never even crossed my mind. It simply wasn’t on the radar.</p>
<p>Look, around 50% of medical school applicants from UC Berkeley get into medical school. That’s after the students have self-selected into reporting, and after Berkeley has (informally) weeded out the kids who couldn’t make it through organic chemistry and the MCAT. And that’s the most selective UC of the bunch. So when I tell you that the majority of kids at UCSD aren’t going to turn out to be medical school material, that’s simply reporting numbers.* You can even select into engineering (which I wasn’t contemplating) and you’re still going to be in a weak academic pool compared to an eventual medical school class.</p>
<p>*(EDIT: Original statement was technically correct but rhetoric was too strong.)</p>
<p>Does that matter? Not a ton. Plenty of kids do great, and your nieces and nephews sound like they’re among them. But some, absolutely.</p>
<p>Besides, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do something like… change your major? Have a solid brand-name school if you decide not to go to medical school? Be able to take a job while in school and have classes that you can actually get into so that you can shop around and figure out which professors you like? These are things you talk about at a UC like they’re some kind of ridiculous, meat-head like things to do but it’d sure be nice to go to a school where changing your major at nineteen years old isn’t ridiculous and foolish.</p>
<p>Are these NECESSARY? Of course they’re not. That’s why this is a complicated decision.</p>
<p>Look, there’s no way to make this decision in the abstract. I simply would have gone crazy at a UC, but maybe the OP will actually like it there. The only way to really get a feel for these campuses is to go and visit them – in detail. Go and meet your future classmates. **Talk to the seniors at these schools and decide which ones you’d most prefer to be like in four years.<a href=“Not%20just%20the%20tour%20guides;%20hang%20around%20in%20the%20student%20center%20and%20the%20cafeteria%20to%20get%20a%20feel%20for%20the%20regular%20students.”>/b</a> Sit in on a seminar. Don’t take my word for it that the more selective schools are going to have stronger classmates and, with it, stronger classes. Go decide for yourself.</p>
<p>You have to be there to make a decision like this. I can’t make a complete and compelling case for Harvard. And the others can’t make a complete and compelling case for San Diego. In the end, the schools themselves and their students are going to have to convince you, one way or the other.</p>
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<p>A lot of people want to get outside of their comfort zone to grow. Highly recommended for college students, IMO. Both of my kids went east. There was nothing better than hearing about da boy playing broom hockey on a frozen pond – and this from a kid who had never seen snow before.</p>
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<p>I know of many parents who would enjoy that as well, but the issue is an 18-year-old on a student budget living in an area where the median house price is just short of seven figures. Not exactly a college town atmosphere. Not that everyone wants/needs college town.</p>
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<p>On a starving-students’ budget?</p>
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<p>Nothing negative from me about the UC’s. I just personally like the collegiate atmosphere at Davis better than SD (which is why I asked about the numbers for that campus). While not free, perhaps worth the $$ for a different environment.</p>
<p>A good friend’s son only stays at SD bcos he’s guaranteed into the 8-year med program; he also got (close to?) a full ride. Otherwise, he is absolutely miserable. It’s a shame to spend four years of your life like that, even for “free”.</p>
<p>One thing negative about the UCs is crappy advising.</p>
<p>Personally, I’d recommend at least working the H wait list. H has more money than Congress and offers terrific need-based aid. Who knows, maybe a tuition discount in Cambridge could change the equation.</p>
<p>Wow thanks for the feedback guys. First of all, I am almost positive that I will not receive any financial aid at Harvard. When I visited UCSD I definitely didnt feel like I would be miserable there. I still need to visit the other campuses, but for now I am leaning towards accepting UCSD’s offer and trying to get into Harvard through the waitlist. Given that my career/major choice may change in college, I think Harvard will offer a better platform for whatever I eventually decide to do. I really don’t feel like I can justify paying the money for Duke/Hopkins at this point… Sadly, the chances of getting off the waitlist are extremely low, but I will try my best. Do you guys have any tips?</p>
<p>OH and @bluedevilmike: could you elaborate a bit more on your comment about not bothering with engineering if I manage to get into Harvard?</p>
<p>LMAO @ bluedevilmike’s quote: “But when you’re surrounded by kids who simply aren’t medical school material, that’s going to rub off on your work habits and on how well you learn the material. A great deal of your learning and growing comes from your peers, and for a premed that’s one advantage which a UC simply can’t replace.” </p>
<p>@ the OP: UCSD, and the UC system in general, are GREAT places to be a pre-med student and you will find hundreds of peple who are just as motivated or even more motivated than yourself. I have 4 friends who attended UCSD and are now in top 20 medical schools. All 4 of them absolutely loved being pre-med at UCSD.</p>
<p>While I do agree wth bluedevilmike that it is not an easy decision, I tend to agree more so with the others - attend UCSD</p>
<p>The problem at the UC’s tends not to be motivation. If anything the students are all frantically motivated because they know the vast majority of them are not getting into medical school. With that said, it’s certainly possible to be happy and successful at a UC.</p>
<p>I would seriously, seriously urge you not to make any decisions without visiting a campus. The chance to interact with the students there is really just irreplaceable. In retrospect, I would have wanted to go to a MORE selective school, not a LESS selective one – but maybe you are wired differently. (Also, I didn’t get into any schools that were more selective, but that’s another point entirely.) Let the students speak for themselves. Sit in on a seminar and listen to them speak. Listen to them analyze a topic. Talk to them about their leadership endeavors.</p>
<p>Visit Duke and visit UCSD. (I know much less about Hopkins.) Maybe you will find the students at UCSD equally or more impressive – that they are the kind of senior you wish to grow into. Or maybe you won’t, but you will also realize that you just don’t care, or that you don’t care $200,000 worth. Either way, that’s great! But don’t make this decision until you’ve actually met and spoken to them.</p>
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<p>Let me close with one story. I had two friends who took the MCAT. One was one of Berkeley’s brighter lights – his friends called him “the golden boy.” One was a perfectly adequate but somewhat below average student at Duke. Let’s call him Average Devil.</p>
<p>They each scored a 32. </p>
<p>The Golden Boy’s friends threw a huge party for him. It was well-attended (except that a few of his premed friends were so jealous that they couldn’t bear to attend, since they felt he was rubbing it in). He graduated with a 4.0.</p>
<p>The Average Devil’s friends all commiserated with him. We reminded him that his prep class had a free retake if he wanted it, we gave him our leftover prep material, and held him accountable to studying over the next few months for his retake. He improved a little, but not much. He eventually graduated with something like a 3.4 or a 3.5.</p>
<p>When the time came to apply, the Golden Boy picked out the few most selective schools in the country and tossed them an application. He was roundly rejected. He decided that an MD/PhD track would be easier to get into for some reason despite not having any research experience, so he applied to the five most selective MD/PhD programs. He was rejected again. Eventually Golden Boy had to retake the MCAT and apply to schools which he considered “beneath him” until he got in somewhere. (Actually he’s at a very fine school, but he didn’t think it was.)</p>
<p>Average Devil got in on the first cycle to a fine place – if memory serves it’s ranked somewhere in the 20’s, around where Golden Boy finally ended up as well. So in some ways, they both did fine in the end. But the process was much less painful for Average Devil.</p>