<p>I'm planning on going to medical school, but I have a really big dilemma on where to go for my undergraduate years. I have to choose between the UT - Austin, UT - Dallas, and Texas A&M. I got a full ride at UT Dallas, but I don't know how good they are at medical. Do you guys think it's better to go to a bigger school but pay the full tuition or go to a smaller school for the money?</p>
<p>What I'm afraid of the most is that it would affect my chances on getting into med school.</p>
<p>It won't matter, you can go anywhere. If you are aiming for the top top med schools go to Austin, but in fact it might be better to go to the school you can get the highest GPA. </p>
<p>It would be hard to turn down Austin, which has such a great social scene. I would suck it up and pay the loans just for that.</p>
<p>I was leaning towards UT. Anyone else have any opinions on this?</p>
<p>Go to the school where you feel you would get the highest GPA.</p>
<p>Undergrad doesn't really matter for Med School because as long as you have the highest GPA with good MCAT's and meet the premed requirements you're fine.
Just remember, HIGH GPA HIGH GPA</p>
<p>Go to pre-med topics on the forums and see if that helps your decision.
Also PM the user sakky for help</p>
<p>Contact the medical admissions office or pre-med society or whatever, they have at UT-Dallas, find out what programs they have for pre-meds.
For med school admissions, you need high GPA, high MCATs, good recommendations, experience in a clinical setting (can certainly be volunteer), perhaps research. You must be able to articulate the reasons why you want to be a physician (not why you want to go to med school, 2 slightly different things). It helps to have as much exposure to various aspects of medicine as possible. For your own sanity and future, you must have knowledge to make the decision that medicine may not be right for you, counseling to help you choose another path. Finally, it helps if all this is going on in a non-cutthroat atmosphere, it will be competitive, that's the way pre-med/med school is, but it doesn't have to be cutthroat.
As you can see the things you can do something about are the GPA and the MCATs - you need to find out about internship opportunities, who writes recs, and how do you get to know them, the atmosphere of the school.
IN my state, the flagship unis are some of the best places to go for pre-med, although they tend to write recs for people who have borderline qualifications, so the overall acceptance rate may not be the highest - if this is the case in TX, it could be a good or bad thing for you, depending on how your grades/ scores are. Another good place is a smaller school (often a LAC) in the same city as a large medical center - the school develops relationships with the medical center for the benefit of the students.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help! So prestige doesn't really matter as much? I got a full ride + 12k for UTD, but it is also very close to my home. UT is further away and I think it would be a nice college experience, but they haven't sent me anything yet. What would you do in my situation?</p>
<p>Personally I would go to UT:A assuming they don't completely stiff you on financial aid (and that you are in-state). This is because many people change their minds about what they want to do in college, and should you want to do something else there is more to pick from at UT:A. Also, I think that Dallas has about 65% men, if that matters to you. While it's a good school, it just doesn't have the resources of UT:A. Of course, UT:A is also much bigger than Dallas, so if you don't want a <em>huge</em> school then go to Dallas.</p>
<p>Personally I would go to UT just for the experience.</p>
<p>I agree with Ohnoes as a personal preference for some of the same reasons, but i would investigate the pre-med resources at all the schools you are considering. Good Luck!</p>
<p>I think I'll do some more research now. Thank you so much! This really helped.</p>