Hi, I’m a senior from Alaska trying to decide between loyola chicago, the university of utah, and UW. I plan on majoring in neuroscience with a possible minor in psychology or chemistry. I eventually want to go to PA school, so I want a school with the best possible opportunities and advising to prepare for that. I would also like to go somewhere with good student life(clubs and activities).
University of Utah:
Offered WUE tuition so tuition/fees would be about 34k per year
Accepted into Honors college
Pros:
-cheapest option
-honors college/nice dorms
-two major hospitals right next to campus
-research opportunities
-the area is really pretty
-close to the city
-lots of outdoor activities
Cons:
-big school
-utah gets hot
-applied undecided so I might have to apply to my major(not sure what the process is like there)
Loyola Chicago:
presidential scholarship 25k per year so about 37k tuition/fees
Pros:
-already in major
-my favorite campus
-like the size of the school
-being in a city could be fun
-the people there seem really nice
Cons:
-probably less safe than my other options
-I have never lived anywhere without outdoor activities
-I have heard research opportunities are slim
University of Washington:
Purple and gold scholarship about 5k per year about 53k tuition/fees
accepted as a prescience major
Pros:
-lots of shadowing opportunities
-research opportunities
-good reputation
-shorter flight
-I love Seattle and the rain
-not landlocked
-outdoors and city
Cons:
-expensive
-grade deflation
-have to apply to major/might have to choose a less selective major other than neuroscience
-competitive environment
I’m following this thread as my son is looking at both UW and Loyola so I’m interested in what others might share. I did want to note that he received the same scholarship from Loyola and it seems your total cost of attendance assumption is too low. Cost before scholarship at Loyola is about 66k minimum. I think the max presidential is 25k.
I am a BIG fan of The U. Utah feels far smaller than the numbers indicate because there are a substantial number of commuter students. Students who stay on campus become pretty close knit. From what we were told, they number about 10,000 total. The academic facilities are very nice. The hospital complex is extensive and top notch so volunteering and research opportunities should be plentiful. The airport is easily accessible. The MUSS is super active. The dorms are really unparallelled, especially the honors dorm. As you said, the outdoors, especially skiing, hiking and MTBing are amazingly accessible. Then, there’s price. You are just starting your journey. Having some dry powder (no pun intended if you board or ski) would be nice. My son ended up in a very competitive engineering program, but almost made The U his top choice because there’s so much to like.
The only caveat I’d add about The U is to see how the honors curriculum integrates with your major curriculum. For engineering it didn’t…at all. It would have been 10 additional hours on top of a packed program.
I’d cast UDub off. It’s too expensive and won’t give you a leg up on your other choices.
Only for someone from Alaska I guess! Coming from CA we worried more about the cold and snow. Temperatures are pretty moderate during the school year, apart from a few weeks in August.
I don’t understand how you get to $34K for tuition/fees at Utah. It should be more like $15K-$16K for WUE. Add about $8.5K for honors dorms and $4.5K for a meal plan and you still don’t get to $34K? Even the COA on the website is less than that when adding the 50% premium. My sense is that the difference in cost with your other choices may be quite large.
Yes but with $25K scholarship at Loyola I get about $7K more for tuition and fees, $1K-$2K more for room and $1K more for board. So about $10K difference ignoring health insurance, incidentals and travel (and I suspect SLC is cheaper than Chicago for entertainment, meals out, etc). That’s a big gap.
I do agree that the honors program isn’t really integrated, but it is possible to limit the excess courses somewhat with careful selection or cover off a lot of it with the summer ecology and legacy minor, which is somewhat expensive but includes some great travel (Patagonia).
I wasn’t sure how it integrated with other curricula.
I agree, pretty big cost difference.
When my son was applying he wasn’t offered WUE. Instead, they gave him one year of tuition and fees free and suggested he spend the summer to be eligible for three more instate. It was a GREAT deal, only exceeded by the scholarship that is tuition free for 4 years. I mention that because it would be worth checking into staying over the summer. IF you can do that having accepted WUE, it would save you close to an additional $15k over the next 3 years.
Unfortunately with WUE it’s one or the other. The difference is pretty close (except for any additional first summer costs), pay $20K premium year 1 and then nothing in years 2-4, or pay $5K per year for four years. The calculation used to be strongly tilted in favor of residency because the OOS supplement was only $15K and there were a bunch of first year only scholarships, but those have now been cut back.
The University of Washington offers a superior academic experience to your other two options, but it may be unaffordable.
If the University of Washington is an affordable option for you without loans, then it should receive strong consideration.
If UW is not an affordable option for you, then Loyola Chicago because you were offered direct admission into your major.
Salt Lake City, Utah is a gorgeous city with lots of outdoor activities. A concern is that the University of Utah seems to be more of a commuter school than a residential college.
Due to COA, location, and a low stress environment, you might be happiest at the University of Utah.
As a healthcare provider myself, I can attest that this is vastly overrated. Most people could skip the bulk of what they are forced to navigate in undergrad as it will never be used again in practice.
If you think that college & university study does not develop one’s analytical abilities, then we will just have to agree to disagree.
The University of Washington is superior to Utah in student selectivity, student retention rate, and in a totally different class with respect to R&D spending ( UW = #5 versus #61 for Utah).
Both schools have medical schools with University of Washington ranked #1 for Primary Care & #12 with respect to Research, while Utah comes in at #34 & at #40.
respectively.
Maybe the above matters to OP and maybe it doesn’t.
P.S. OP: Google “University of Washington neuroscience major” (limited to 60 students). UW link
P.P.S. A concern regarding UW is that the neuroscience major might be too selective & too small as it is limited to just 60 students who progress as a cohort & are expected to engage in a research project at the medical school of at least one year.
Utah & UW-Seattle are certainly among most beautiful university settings in the country.
I’ve lived in both places. I did my residency in Seattle and lived in SLC when my second career dad did his. I know both institutions well, even to this day. The differences in everything except selectivity simply aren’t what you claim. Being around a “bunch of smart kids,” an argument some try to make in defense of highly selective schools has little to no actual value. It’s well known that high achieving students thrive literally anywhere.
Much as I love U Dub, that is a significant price difference, especially as you are planning postgraduate education in medicine.
I vote for Utah for the following reasons:
You are more likely to get into your chosen major because it’s less competitive.
It will be less stressful to maintain a high GPA
Yes, it gets hot in the summer, but you probably won’t be there during the peak of the summer. It’s dry heat, not humid heat, so more bearable.
It is less of a commuter school than it once was
There’s a lot to do in SLC and it’s easily accessible by air travel (does Alaska Airlines fly there?)
it’s located right next to the mountains. You can get to hiking or skiing easily.
price - as others have mentioned, it’s fairly easy to qualify for in state residency if you want, and that would reduce your costs for years 2-4. Current in-state cost is about 23K.
Are you sure about the 34K? 150% instate tuition plus fees, R&B comes out to about 28K.
Another vote for Utah. Utah has one the top ranked PA programs in the county, plus becoming a Utah resident is pretty easy. Utah even allows individuals to become state residents while full time students. Very few other states allow that. In-state residency offers you a significant advantage when it comes to getting admitted to the U’s PA program. (Utah strongly favors its own in-state grads for professional school admissions.)
Applying to a major is pretty straight forward at the U and science majors are not currently impacted. Even if you decide not to major in a science field, you shouldn’t have any issues enrolling in the required science classes.
(D’s BF is taking his pre reqs for PT school there right now and has not had a single problem getting the class he wants at the time he wants.
He also found finding people to shadow pretty easy and he had no trouble finding a part-time job at the U’s hospital to get the hands on work experience he needs for PT school.)
Did you know that PA schools have an admission requirement of 500-2000 hours PAID hands on patient contact employment? Are there any hospitals near Loyola where you could work? Is there public transportation to get to those sites?
Also LOL about Utah getting hot in the summer…Average summer daytime temperature in SLC are in the 80s! SLC is cooler than Chicago in the summer–plus it’s so much less humid. Plenty of houses in SLC don’t even have air conditioning [because it isn’t needed]. You can’t say the say the same about Chicago.
I’m westerner who lives near mountains. For grad school, I lived in Illinois for 5 years–it drove me crazy. Awful weather plus it’s just so…so…so flat.
No Brainer here. Excellent education at lowest cost.