Hey y’all! I’m having the same problem that a lot of kids my age are having right now… I have to choose between two schools.
The first is UC Berkeley. This has been one of my dream schools for a while, and I was incredibly happy when I found out I was accepted. After visiting, I feel that it’s a really good fit for me with the rigor of its academics, diversity, and vast resources. The main problem though is its $65K price tag - I didn’t receive any merit scholarships.
The second is the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. This was the safest of my safety schools, my whole family (and community) has gone there, and it’s only 20 minutes away, so it’s gotten a little boring for me. I know it’s a great school, that it’ll provide me with enough resources, that I’ll be happy enough there, and it has an unbeatable price - 20K/year with scholarships - but it’s not my favorite of the two options.
My parents claim that money isn’t a problem but I’m having a hard time justifying making them pay 3x the price each year. With the knowledge that I have plans to go to med school after undergrad, what are some things I should consider when making this decision? Should I splurge on the resources that Berkeley will provide, or save the money?
Side note: these weren’t the only schools I was accepted to, but I ruled out the others (Boston U, George Washington, UNC, UMich, UW Madison) for various reasons.
Will your parents pay for med school or is that on you? If they expect you to pay for that, maybe you can talk them into putting half of the difference between Berkeley and U of M into your med school tuition.
I doubt Cal would provide substantial more resources. Possibly not even more, period. Definitely not 3 times more.
Yes, saving money on undergraduate can be helpful to reduce your debt for expensive medical school. Also, staying near your state of residency can make it easier to get to medical school interviews at in-state public medical schools.
But also realize that most frosh pre-meds (generally) get weeded out by GPA. For example, grade distributions in typical pre-med courses at UCB indicate that only about a quarter of students in them earn A- or higher grades that are acceptable for a pre-med’s GPA: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/2071932-grade-distributions-in-prerequisite-courses-for-gpa-based-goals.html .
Minnesota’s grade distributions by subject and class level can be looked up at http://z.umn.edu/gradedistribution (look up 1000,2000 level courses in BIOL, CHEM, MATH, PHYS and 3000 level courses in BIOC for the categories that typical pre-med courses are in, but it does not show specific courses). It does look like Minnesota has slightly more generous grading in some courses, along with somewhat less fierce competition based on admission selectivity. So it may be a little easier to earn a pre-med-worthy GPA at Minnesota than at UCB.
If you were anything but pre-med I feel like it’d be easier to justify the price for Cal, but yeah…Cal isn’t great for pre-meds. Grade deflation. I also read somewhere that it doesn’t have great med school placements.