I am currently a senior in Michigan trying to decide which undergrad program I should attend. Tell me your thoughts!
Wow! Those are two wildly different educational institutions: one is a small Christian liberal arts school in far western Michigan; the other is large research oriented engineering university in the South.
Why these 2 schools?
What are you looking for in a college environment?
What are the anticipated costs for each over 4 years?
Other than pre-med, what are your academic interests and career goals? (Pre-med is a highly risky endeavor where 70% of freshmen pre-meds never even apply to med school and 60% of those who do apply to med school get rejected everywhere)
We need more information to answer your question.
What’s your net cost at each and what is your budget?
Is growing in your faith a priority?
Hello!
I am looking for a school that I can succeed in and that will help get me to med school. Hope College is small and very good at what they do since they are all undergraduate based. They are big into research as well which is what med schools like. Georgia Tech is a well known school that has a great program! By going there I could receive more opportunities than i would at Hope and the name seems to be more well known.
As for college environment I honestly do not know. I like the idea of Atlanta in the big city and all of the opportunities it brings and activities it does. But i like Hope because class sizes are smaller which allows for more one-on-one interaction which I learn a bit better.
The anticipated costs for each are irrelevant and the exact same price… around $40,000.
Other than pre-med I plan to major in business as it is a good plan B if something were to happen and I do not get into med school but It also can pair well with it. I could move on to get my MBA or run my own practice, etc.
Growing faith, honestly, is not a top priority. I want to choose a school that will best give me opportunities and prepare me well for med-school. I would rather go to a smaller name school and be in the top of my class with GPA than a well-known school with a lower GPA. In the end, graduate and med schools love a high GPA.
Have you been admitted to other universities?
Hope if you’re not interested in your faith is not a very good fit (they take faith quite seriously) and GTech is a fantastic college but the students suffer from great grade deflation which is bad for med school.
Not sure if Business is good at Gtech, it is known for STEM, nevertheless, business and premed do not mix well. Basically, as business major, you will be required to take so many trade related courses that takes away most of the science aspect of the premed spirit. In addition, if you are interning in business, for example Accounting, Marketing or Finance, you cannot get enough medical ECs. As a result, very few business major apply for med school, but it can be done.
You will be very busy as a business major, even if you can take premed requirements on the side, you will have no time to take higher level science courses to do GPA repair in case if you did not do well in one of the weedout classes. Of course, if you can do all As through out UG, you have no worry.
My nephew just graduated from small Christian college in Michigan with a similar academic profile to Hope. (75% admission rate, average SAT ~1060.) I have to say my nephew’s college has not had much success in placing its students into med school. You may want to ask the HP advisor at Hope to show you the stats for last year’s med school applicants. (And only last year’s since what happened 5 years ago is old news and not reflective of what’s currently happening in med school admissions.) Specifically ask where they matriculated for med school and for what degree. (HINT #1: if the school is not located in the US, that’s a bad sign… HINT #2: if the degree isn’t a MD or DO, it ain’t med school.)
RE: Business and pre-med–another vote to rethink this option. The solo practice physician is a model of practice that is deader than the dodo. Most physicians are paid employees of large healthcare provider groups. Even small group practices hire a dedicated business manager. It’s simply not cost-effective to have a physician (who could be seeing patients and generating income) work the business side.
Nearly all MBA programs expect 2-3 years of real world work experience in the industry you’ll be focussing on during your MBA studies.