For the past year or so, I’ve been 100% committed to going to Howard University. I’ve visited the campus twice, one of them being an actual campus tour. However, this past weekend I visited FAMU’s campus and loved it more than I expected to. With that being said, I need help trying to figure out which school to go too. I can definitely see myself going to each school and loving it, I just don’t know which one I love more. For reference, I want to be an Anesthesiologist and I definitely want to go to school with high social activity and a strong frat/sorority presence (which I’m sure they both have). I absolutely love DC, but I also wouldn’t mind living in a college town. I’m also curious as to which school gives students the best opportunities in terms of internships, jobs straight out of college, etc.
It is okay to love several schools and be able to picture yourself at different places. That is a good thing. Just having one can be tough.
Is there any chance you are in-state for FAMU? The undergrad cost for in-state is significantly less than Howard. Keeping you undergrad costs low is important if you are shooting for medical school.
Wait and look at all of your admissions and aid offers and, if possible, go back and visit before making a decision.
Both are great schools and places to be, so you can’t make an objectively bad decision. Both have good, fun school spirit and will engage you academically and socially. Howard has 7500 undergrads and FAM has 6300, so they are similar in that respect. It’s going to be up to you to decide which you most want to attend. I would do more research about their locations.
HU is in a large city, and in a MSA that has almost 10M people. There is excellent public transportation and a lot of city “buzz” and city things to do. You can hop on the train and be in even larger cities (Baltimore, Philly, NYC) in little enough time to enjoy a long weekend traveling.
Tallahassee is a medium size city less than a third the size of DC and in a MSA with about 300,000 people. There are no very large cities within a few hours drive. There is no great public transportation to take you to those cities. On the other hand, you’ll have warmer weather, access to beaches not too far away. And you’ll be in a good college town.
Some would prefer the hustle and bustle of city life, and others would prefer the spread out, moderately-paced Southern lifestyle. Only you can decide which locale you think you’d like better. The good news is it is very possible for most people to enjoy either location, even if they might prefer one to the other. Again, not really a bad choice here, objectively speaking.
It sounds like you plan on being a really engaged student, and that is the biggest factor in tapping into the alumni network of either school. In other words, you will do great at either when it comes to internships and opportunities.
The published cost of attendance is $40,000 less per year at A&M than at Howard for in-state residents, and even for out-of-state students it is $15,000 less per year. But the published sticker price is not always what a family pays once scholarships are taken into account (and of course if your family is wealthy, maybe it doesn’t matter either way.)
One minor benefit of Florida A&M is that it belongs to National Student Exchange. NSE is a consortium of about 200 schools. Students can do up to a year of exchange at participating schools, their credits transfer automatically, and you only pay in-state tuition. A lot of fun schools participate across the United States, Canada and the Caribean. So let’s say that you live in Minnesota and your in-state safety college is University of Minnesota (totally just making this up, of course). Worst case scenario is you end up at the U of MN, but you get to do a year at Florida A&M anyway, for a really low cost. https://www.nse.org/exchange/colleges-universities/alpha-location/
You might look at pre med advising strength and medical school outcomes at each. I imagine shadowing and other clinical opportunities should be studied as well.
You want a vibrant Greek life and assume both have which your are ‘sure’ both have. You may be right but I’d look into that. Don’t assume.
Finally you want this high social activity school. But if you are serious about med school, while you can still have fun, in order for you to be successful, you’ll likely have far less opportunity for fun vs students not so focused on a very hard to obtain goal. In other words, the kid who has no clue what they’ll do in life and hopes to get a summer job in ‘anything’ will have a far different academic and social calendar than you as you’ll be in super hard classes and taking advantage of medical exposure as you create a path to your post college experience in four years that many who try are not able to obtain. So you’ll need that laser focus.
Lastly, I would not call Tallahassee a college town. Yes FSU is nearby and each person sees things differently but having spent time in the area for work, it’s not that vibe. Great area though. And as @EconPop points out the two cities have vast differences.
One thing is for sure, that there probably many colleges you can love and excel at, even more than these two - so assuming you get admitted to both, choose one and don’t look back.
Good luck.
You don’t need to select just one college to apply to…in fact, it’s often best to apply to a few in case you change your mind, or financial circumstances changes, or you want to see who will give you the best offer to attend.
You will be able to go on to med school from either Howard or FAMU. You may want to read @ChangeTheGame’s post here which includes a description of Howard (as well as other HBCUs like Xavier which is very well known for pre-med…in fact, it is planning to open a medical school). And perhaps ChangeTheGame will chime in on FAMU as well.
Have you run the Net Price Calculator at both Howard and FAMU? If either asks for your GPA and test scores, then it is likely to also provide information on the amount of merit aid you will receive. If you want to go to med school, then limiting costs as much as possible for undergrad is important, unless you have funding (no loans) to pay for medical school.
@TSC30, my kids faced pretty similar decisions and both chose Howard, but some of the other HBCUs they looked at were probably all close together. My oldest who just graduated was always a Howard lean, but the money mattered too, because that was a way for her to see who “really wanted her”. Both of my kids got into Howard and FAMU, but Howard offered a lot more money. I believe that you can get where you are trying to go from either institution so look at the fit and the financial aspects together because that may help you when making your final decision. Since you are considering Howard, please take a look a the Karsh STEM Scholars program which offers a 4 year Full Ride cost of attendance scholarship for STEM majors (household income must be below 150K or they make those families pay 25% tuition) who are interested in getting a PhD or MD/PhD programs.
Unfortunately I’m not, I moved from Florida a little while ago.
I’m applying to four schools, but Howard and FAMU are tied at the #1 spots. I’m just trying to figure out which one would be the best fit for me.
Thank you for linking ChangeTheGame and mentioning the Net Price Calculator, I will definitely be checking both of those out!
Thank you so much for linking the scholarship, I’ll be sure to apply ASAP.