Full Ride WSU or UW?

<p>Hey ya'll,
I want to get everyone's opinions on whether I should take the Full Ride to attend WSU this falls in their honors program or whether I should go to UW (nothing big happening here :/ ). I'm planning on majoring in either Pre-Med or Computer Science. I have about a year's worth of AP credits if that mattered. And it would be very appreciative if you guys could give your input on Seattle and Gonzaga University where I received quite a bit of scholarship aid from them.</p>

<p>I visited every campus except for Gonzaga, and they all seem fine with me. Education and Opportunity wise (and considering finances a bit) what is the best option for me? Thanks!</p>

<p>For CS, UW.</p>

<p>For pre-med, go the cheapest route and save you money for med school.</p>

<p>cellopop has good solid advice</p>

<p>Are you a socialist? If not, you might not fit in at Seattle U. There is a group of 5-10 Socialists from Seattle U, occasionally led by Seattle U professors, trying to recruit socialists at UW literally every week.</p>

<p>Are you a guy? Try to get into Paul Allen’s frat if you go to WSU, they have excellent outcomes for their members, they hire private tutors for cram sessions and you never have to cook your own food. Also, it’s a dry frat that doesn’t allow parties, so you’ll be able to get great grades to go to med school.</p>

<p>If you really like Pullman, UW actually operates a small medical school in Pullman. So if you can get into UW Medicine, you could continue treating your fellow cougars.</p>

<p>Based on my friends who went to Seattle U, I wouldn’t say that not being a socialist will make you ostracized from the university or anything.</p>

<p>Anyway, cellopop gives good advice. Premed: Get good grades, do well on the MCAT/DAT/OAT/PCAT/whatever you’re going into (some people bunch all these under premed, so yeah), good essays, apply. CSE: The internship opportunities really differs from school to school. UW > WSU here. We have lots of great research opportunities. The only problem is that it’s really competitive to get into UW CSE.</p>

<p>If you didn’t get into CSE already, I would maybe go for the full ride. UW is more prestigious but free money is free money. It’s not all about the school you go to, but rather what you make out of it so I don’t know…it’s a tough decision for me if I had to pick because there are so many other factors, such as location, but you are saving a lot of money but taking the full ride. Spend your money on grad school at UW or something.</p>

<p>For WSU, if you mean WSU, “Vancouver,” then its CSE is not ranked far from UW’s CSE, so I would suggest you to take the full ride (plus you can use the 1-year-old new building for CS, more graduate research opp in undergraduate, guaranteed class size less than 200 people, and more opportunities to win scholarships). I don’t know about the “Pullman” one, though. For pre-med, either is fine. Although UW’s program is more famous, the class size for the freshmen class is usually large (count in the unit of hundreds of people). The efficiency of learning is usually poor. Depending on your learning type and need of money, you should choose different schools.</p>

<p>Another thought: </p>

<p>Do you ultimately want to do premed or CS?</p>

<p>If you want to go to medical school FOR SURE, CS may dampen your grades somewhat. To finish all the premed prereqs AND a degree in CS may take you 5 years and you may not even get into your med school(s) of choice. Think about what you would have to take in college - compilers? algorithm? at the same time as ochem, microbio … etc.</p>

<p>I went to UW with interests in both pre-dent and cs … and ultimately chose cs. To be successful in the industry, it’s highly, highly recommended that you’d have to spend a lot of outside time on cs on projects … however, with a premed track going - volunteering at a hospital, working at a medical center, keeping up stellar grades … will you find time for everything?</p>

<p>That would be my biggest concern when choosing the university. If you don’t care about going into industry for cs, go with a full ride. Otherwise, consider the options that will be opened to you at the CSE department at UW.</p>

<p>Seattle U assumes you’re an über leftist. It’s in the culture there. Just as WSU came across as blatantly conservative to me when I visited.</p>

<p>Also, socialist doesn’t always mean communist light, it also means the Michel Foucault sort of Democratic Socialist idea.</p>

<p>Hm, I understand what you mean speedsolver. I don’t think it would be feasible for me to do both (not that I was planning it) but it is also that I don’t really know what I want to be yet. I feel like I can’t commit to a career until I am absolutely sure what I want to do. So, for this ambiguous state that I am in, I feel like I should go to UW (take some loans) as their whole overall educational program is better. </p>

<p>Yeah, I should probably just forget about the private colleges at this point. I was set on going to UW and all until this whole situation with not paying to go to WSU at Pullman popped up. Not sure if I’m missing anything when considering both of these colleges, but basically I feel like I’m looking for which college will yield more opportunities with whatever I end up majoring in and whether the full ride overrides the gap in education quality between the two… decisions, decisions…</p>

<p>I don’t know that much about WSU, but for premed, UW has great research, volunteer, and employment opportunities. There are some hospitals around here that premed students usually volunteer/work at. There are numerous premed clubs and the advisers are great. </p>

<p>A friend of mine is a bio major on a premed track at WSU. He volunteers at one of the clinics there, but when he comes back to Seattle last summer, he said that the opportunities were more abundant and diverse here.</p>

<p>Have you visited either campus? Talked to some students on campus or in the program?</p>

<p>Yeah, I have visited both campuses. I haven’t talked to any in the biology/pre-med program, but have to the general students as well as the honors students. As for impressions, I liked the modern feel of the WSU Campus, but something about it just didn’t really click. Although a lot of the honors students there say that it is much easier to get a very high gpa there which could be helpful for getting into med school.</p>

<p>It is easier to get a high GPA, but medical schools know that. Most schools have multipliers on GPA depending on the rigor of the school.</p>

<p>So if you get a 3.8, your GPA could be looked “less” than, say, a 3.8 from UW or UC Berkeley. However, your MCAT scores would say a lot since it’s standardized.</p>