Hi all! I just wanted some input on whether I should choose UCLA or Johns Hopkins based on my circumstances. I know for sure that I will pursue medical school in the future. I have no preference for location and weather.
UCLA
-Major: Physics
-Estimated Cost of Attendance: $9,500
-One hour away from home.
Johns Hopkins
-Major: Mechanical Engineering
-Estimated Cost of Attendance: $38,000
-On the opposite coast.
UCLA
How rich is your family? $120k isn’t an insane amount of debt if they are well off. I personally took around $100k in loans for JHU and now earn more than twice that in a given year. But then again, I didn’t incur 300k of additional debt for med school. You could theoretically change majors/field, in which JHU would likely be a stronger choice more often than not.
If the family were well off, it wouldn’t need to take on any debt. UCLA.
@Blah2009 My family is just average, but they are willing to send me to Hopkins if I really want to go. Hopkins has been my dream school, but I want to make sure that if I go, the cost would be worth it.
UCLA!
Half kidding, but you are failing your first test for medical school. -$150,000 or so before entering med school is not worth it. Nothing about you, but as far as I know more people start out wanting to go to med school than than apply to med school, and about twice as many people apply to med school than go to med school. Kudos to your parents but their money is better spent after you are accepted to med school.
Talk to your parents about how comfortable they would be supporting this debt. Have an honest talk. Are you depending on them to fully shoulder med school debt as well? Most of my med school friends suffered 250k to 300k in debt themselves (but their parents paid for college). They are all doing well now (gen physicians make 200k, my friends in radiology make over 300k annually now). However, It is not up to any one on here to tell you what to do as none of us truly understand your circumstances. We cant guarantee you med school acceptance or match to a selective residency.
There are definitely people at hopkins, duke, cornell, vandy in a similar situation that have decided to go given the average financial aid packages provided. But those are individual decisions made with the family.
UCLA, without question. Med school will be expensive and even if your parents can afford the $150K for JHU, they need to save that for med school. UCLA will get you into med school just as well as JHU will.
^insane, are you insane?
Ucla stats are quite bad for premed: http://career.ucla.edu/Portals/14/Documents/PDF/MedStats/2014_Medical_School_Admissions_Statistics.pdf_042516.pdf
Jhu med school acceptance is at 78%. So there is a discernible difference likely due to the advising, recommendations, and students. Still up to op to determine if the value is worth it, but let’s use facts here
^and that is for first time applicants applying during their class year. Including People applying after graduation or reapplying results in over 80% overal acceptance.
UCLA for sure, not that much difference academically, better location, better social life.
http://www.jhunewsletter.com/2016/03/24/hopkins-admits-3098-to-class-of-2020/
California is actually amongst the top 3 states in jhu admitted and enrolling students who more than likely had ucla and berkeley as cheaper options. So again, it wouldnt be a deviation from the norm necessarily if you choose to go. But now sure how much debt those students might be taking on either
Fit is important, but is it worth $114,000 over four years, when the ultimate goal is med school? That’s a tough call.
Because $114,000 is a great deal of money, I think UCLA is the better choice, if you think you can grow to like it.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the vast majority who start out Pre-Med do not end up in med school. A great many are weeded out and some who do make it to the application stage fail to be accepted. It’s a hard road.
So in the back of your mind, amend your thinking to allow for the possibility that you will not be going into Medicine. If that were to happen, does it change how you view the schools?
JHU’s high medical school admission rate is due to its use of committee letters. The process ensures that only stronger applicants apply, unlike at schools which are basically free for all in medical school applications.
While this can be construed as “gaming the stats”, it does bring some advantage to the student in that a student who is a weak applicant is discouraged from wasting time and money applying to medical schools and can concentrate on alternate plans at an earlier stage, while a stronger applicant knows earlier that s/he has a better chance of success.
Whether this is worth the substantial extra cost is something you and your parents need to decide. Will parent loans or parent cosigned loans be needed? If so, that can be a very high risk choice.
What would you do if you did not get into any medical school?
Jhu med school acceptance is at 78%. So there is a discernible difference likely due to the advising, recommendations, and students. Still up to op to determine if the value is worth it, but let's use facts here
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No.
The acceptance rates differences between UCLA and JHU have LITTLE to do with advising. The difference is that UCLA is mostly full of Calif residents, and Calif residents have an awful time getting into med school, particularly in their own state.
this student’s chances will not be increased by attending JHU. He’ll still be a Calif resident.
Totally insane for an average family to be spending $100k+ more for JHU. UCLA is more than fine.
<<<<<
UCLA
-Major: Physics (Can I switch to engineering? Heard it’s impossible…)
-Estimated Cost of Attendance: $9,500 (received a lot of need-based aid)
-One hour away from home.
Johns Hopkins
-Major: Mechanical Engineering
-Estimated Cost of Attendance: $63,000 (received very little aid)
-On the opposite coast.
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$63k and received VERY LITTLE AID. What aid did you receive???
Incorrect assertion UCB, applicants are not forced to use the committee. Infact, the overall acceptance rate including those that do not use committee recommendation letters is still 78% as I indicated in my link.
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Jhu med school acceptance is at 78%. So there is a discernible difference likely due to the advising, recommendations, and students. Still up to op to determine if the value is worth it, but let’s use facts here
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No.
The acceptance rates differences between UCLA and JHU have LITTLE to do with advising. The difference is that UCLA is mostly full of Calif residents, and Calif residents have an awful time getting into med school, particularly in their own state.
this student’s chances will not be increased by attending JHU. He’ll still be a Calif resident.
Totally insane for an average family to be spending $100k+ more for JHU. UCLA is more than fine."
This makes zero sense. Are you saying UCLA students only apply to UC med schools? Because there’s a table below where the average acceptance rate to other schools out of state is atrocious in the link I provided.