<p>Would you rather be accepted to a college with more prestige with minimal scholarships and federal student aid or a seemingly average college/university with much more larger scholarships or even a full ride?</p>
<p>Both colleges have the majors and programs your interested in, which would you choose?
And by "prestige" you can view Upenn in this manner</p>
<p>The first choice: Honestly, prestige is such a superficial attribute to the college experience. </p>
<p>I would go with the college that gave more money in scholarships. Most of the time people get this idea in their heads that prestige will get them a job, well that might have a small bit of truth in it but in the end your hard work and your skills (which can be learned at most colleges) not the prestige. That is just my two cents. </p>
<p>The most “prestigious” colleges have the deepest pockets, and are able to meet “demonstrated need” for all admitted students. That “need” might not be the same as what a family feels it can afford. Every family needs to decide this once they have all their offers on the table. Had my son been accepted without aid to one of his top three choices, we might have had to do a lot of soul-searching. He wasn’t. The most “prestigious” colleges he was accepted to were probably Tulane, Pitzer, and UC San Diego - three very different schools, but none offered him anything more than Stafford loans. He ended up selecting the least expensive option, because he didn’t love any of the other choices enough more to justify the $25-40k in additional costs per year. He was offered generous scholarships at some other safe and low-match schools, but they weren’t even as good as the one (from a “match” school) he accepted. It’s always a tough call; just be grateful if you have that choice available to you.</p>
<p>I went to an above-average but not prestigious college on a full merit scholarship. I chose it over a prestigious college with very little financial aid. I only have $9K in debt from undergrad, mostly from books and transitional funds (living for a month before summer jobs, etc.)</p>
<p>I think I’m doing pretty well for myself - finishing up a PhD at an Ivy this month and starting a postdoctoral research scientist job at a major research university.</p>
<p>There are very few fields in which prestige is necessary. If you get enough aid to a prestigious college to attend, that’s great, but there’s no reason to go into untenable debt.</p>
<p>All great responses to that particular question, however hears another question i want you to consider…do you also believe “prestige” factors in medical school acceptances or any other graduate study. </p>
<p>Consider this scenario: I’m applying to med school from …lets say from Penn State or maybe UPitt. I have a strong GPA over the 3.8 mark,31-36 MCAT range, Good volunteering/shadowing experience etc.
Now lets consider me at UPenn with a GPA of 3.5 MCAT score of 24-27 range</p>
<p>Would admissions offices consider your undergrad place of study first or concentrate on academics, GPA, MCAT, and so on. </p>
<p>I assume your comparison works best if it is the same student in the two different environments. In that case, why would the MCAT score be lower for the Penn graduate, and why would you expect them to have less medical volunteer experience? I can see how the GPA would be lower at UPenn. But I also suspect that the more rigorous environment of a top tier school might help with MCAT preparation, and the MCAT scores might be higher for the UPenn student (assuming the same student goes to both environments).</p>
<p>I forgot to clarify that at Penn the figurative student would also have the same volunteer/shadowing experience however, for this certain scenario i’m making, the student at Penn has a less desirable MCAT score. Like i said this is only a scenario, lets not consider UPenn’s top tier MCAT preparation capabilities. The only difference between the two would students would be the GPA and the MCAT score. </p>
<p>All i’m saying is would the medical school take undergrad at UPenn in account considering its a “prestige” college or simply deny the student admission because another student from a average university received much higher MCAT scores and GPA. </p>
<p>Prestige is such a terrible way to determine where to go to college (outside of a few industries and circles).</p>
<p>Alumni network could be very important. What you learn and how you develop in school is extremely important (but that “fit” criteria determines that to a large degree). Cost can be quite important as well, depending on your family situation.</p>
<p>As for your hypothetical, those are some pretty big MCAT ranges. In any case, unless your family is loaded, I don’t believe that the bump you get at the more prestigious school is worth paying 200K extra for if med school is your goal. First off, med school costs a ton. Second off, where you go to med school matters more than your undergrad if you become an MD.</p>
<p>Also, “here’s”.</p>
<p>You’ve set such a wide disparity in MCAT scores that I’m not sure anything meaningful can be drawn from it. And this discussion is currently going on on another thread. But I would guess that if you raised the UPenn candidate’s MCAT score slowly, at some point before the MCAT scores cross, the UPenn applicant would become the favored candidate, even with the lower GPA.</p>
<p>For pre-med in particular, you generally want to go where you will spend the least money and get the highest GPA and MCAT score, while having convenient access to typical pre-med extracurricular requirements.</p>
<p>For other academic goals, professional goals, and students/family financial situations, the answer to your original question can vary all over the place. Without specifics, the answer is always “it depends”.</p>