Hi all! My daughter has gotten accepted to Harvard as well as the RPI/AMC BS/MD 7 year program. She aspires to become a doctor who is also involved with healthcare policy. We are not completely sure which option she should choose. Any thoughts?
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Honestly the option that best fits her. She will enjoy anything she does.
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Easy choice - Harvard. If she does well there (rampant grade inflation), she’ll have better med school options than AMC. She’ll also have a better undergrad experience. RPI is a good school, but is rarely my recommendation, especially for a female student. RPI/AMC is not worth the cost, imo.
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thank you for this advice, it’s incredibly helpful
very true! thank you
Harvard.
Kids do change their mind. Does she have extensive experience shadowing docs?
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Harvard is a great experience. She can major in anything and still go to med school. Better to have some flexibility at 18.
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Definitely Harvard … if she does well (and she likely will), she’ll have options.
Harvard.
What are you paying at RPI for the first 3 years vs Harvard for the 4? If the cost for RPI (3 years) was near zero due to scholarships and H was near full cost I could see going the RPI route. I don’t know that program, but some of the BS/MD type programs have a very weak guarantee for the MD part. You need to understand it. I am assuming from the fact that she applied to the BS/MD program that she doesn’t have the dream of being a high level researcher/academic that would more likely require a top medical school. If that is true, the actual medical school doesn’t really matter.
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I agree with MacDonaldsLover - she should choose the option that best fits her - but I have to admit that I am pretty biased against combined college/medical programs. They rarely save students any significant amount of time (one year really isn’t meaningful in the long-term) or money, and they do lock students in at a time when they should have their minds open to a variety of careers and paths that may interest them.
And…it’s hard to argue against the value of the Harvard environment, students, resources, and alumni network. She could certainly still go to med school if she wanted to from Harvard. So personally, I’d lean that way.
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RPI women told me, “The odds are good… but the goods are odd.” But somehow, I suspect that your daughter is not going for an MRS undergrad degree.
The good thing is the guaranteed acceptance to Albany med school, and a year shorter program. But a Harvard undergrad experience would probably be better than an RPI undergrad experience, and she’s likely to do well on med school acceptances coming out of Harvard. However, many students wind up taking a year off in between undergrad and med school, so that they don’t have to be taking MCATs late in junior or early in senior year, don’t have to finish all their premeds before end of junior year. So it’s not just 7 yrs vs 8 yrs - it’s often 7 yrs vs 9 yrs.
It’s really a tough choice.
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Which may mean greater vs lesser chance of burnout as well.
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