Hi experts,
Would appreciate your inputs on this one:
My D went to good competitive high school in Michigan with 3.7 Ugpa and 30 ACT.
Got admission to Lyman Briggs at MSU with no financial aid whatsoever (EFC is high).
Got >50% tuition at Wayne State honors and wants to go into healthcare (try for MD, dentist) but not interested in engg or finance or CS etc.
Would she be better off at MSU or Wayne state in terms of being able to get decent GPA for med school with more opportunities for research or volunteer opportunities etc.
Also, she is not sure about the major as well (Biology/Chemistry/Physics for undergrad etc.)
If med school/dental school does not work out, then she plans to go for Masters etc.
Thank you for your input.
Can you afford Michigan state? My son is there studying chemical engineering and I pushed him there because of the brand recognition for grad school @jxn9999
Either school is fine. For medical school go to less expensive school. Wayne has become the “new cool” school to go to. It wasn’t that way when I went there in 1979… Lol… But it’s always been known for medical /psychology /health etc etc.
Medical school is all about grades and mcat scores.
@airway1: yes we can afford to send her there. Went to LB session and she liked it being close-knit with students staying in same hall and with professors (not TAs) teaching and having bit smaller classes etc. Few of good students from her school with admissions to UofM/MSU are opting Wayne State due to financial considerations. So, while I do believe MSU has definitely better branding and overall better known compared to WSU at the national level, is it worth the difference of $80k - $100k (depending upon whether she wants to stay home or Dorm) knowing we need $$ for medical if she get in (or Masters) down the road. Is the quality of academics/research/college experiences and better brand name on your resume worth the difference.
@knowsstuff: Keep reading lot of your valuable posts, thank you for your reply and did not know you went to Wayne.
How do we find out about the potential research opportunities/volunteer experiences in health related fields she can get at each place and talking to academic advisors has not been that helpful.
Lyman Briggs is one of the best honors colleges and it’ll provide lots of opportunities and support that will come in handy for med school. And if, like most pre-meds, she doesn’t, she’ll be served better by MSU+ LB.
@MYOS1634, thank you for your input.
@jxn9999. For medical I don’t know if I agree about the branding with MSU. Wayne has a nice reputation for medical. It always has. Has good association with Henry Ford, Beaumont and Providence hospitals.
But I didn’t realize your daughter was part of the MSU honors college. I thought there was a discount (merit) for acceptance? My OOS son (at Michigan) was accepted and it was a half scholarship plus a research stipend with guaranteed research and a study abroad stipend. It’s very impressive and the kids do great work. If you can easily afford the MSU honors program I might lean that way. If not Wayne is a great option with now a great downtown like Midtown.
Born in Chicago. Raised in Oak Park Michigan and back living in Chicago.) 
@Knowsstuff Sorry, my D is not in honors at MSU, just regular Lyman Briggs college. Her stats were not high enough to be invited to honors program or any other scholarship stuff (I believe you got be either NMF or ACT 33+). Looks like your son stats made him qualify for the scholarship and research assistantship/study abroad etc.
I am thinking @MYOS1634 mentioned LB as honors like in terms of it having smaller classes etc. and focused on Science with self-contained residential college where professors have offices along with classes and labs. When we visited, some students liked being in Honors as it gives early access to courses registrations but some students though invited to honors declined stating that it cost them extra 4-6 hours per week and they preferred to use that time for other purposes depending upon their personal interests.
Also, I would like to know what type of kids can get 3.8 gpa in undergrad at MSU to be competitive for medical school, not sure if they publish those stats, i.e. able to predict based on high school performance and test scores.
Now in terms of undergraduate students having access to either do research or volunteer at either Wayne State medical or hospitals you mentioned or MSU medical, it was not clear to us what are the opportunities though they are close by.
Another challenge we have is lack of clear major that she is interested in. Everywhere I read, for medical school it really does not matter but I think it really matters as 80% students who enter college as pre-meds don’t make it so your plan B should be Plan A and that is where it is important to know which school would serve better when my D does not make it to medical school and as noted by @MYOS1634, MSU might be better in this situation. Ideally, I would like her to do engg. (like Bio-medical) and try for pre-med but that creates lot of academic stress since it is going to be uphill battle to maintain high gpa and complete pre-med courses and prepare for MCAT etc.
IMO, biomedical is one of the worst majors around. An undergrad degree in biomedical engineering is almost useless for finding a job yet it’s a tough major.
Biomedical engineering is terrible - neither the job prospects of engineering nor the flexibility of other majors.
She can go in undecided at LB. She could major in biochemistry or English or Bioethics or bioinformatics… 
She “just” has to rank top 10-20% in every class.
Philosophy is actually a more practical major than BME (you’d gain strong logic skills which makes becoming a programmer or DBA a cinch).
I would not major in any engineering for pre med. GPA avg are usually low. Engineering is very tough. My son’s at Michigan and the first year classes are with the general population and those classes are tough weed out classes. So let her go undecided the first year and see how she does. She can take a general class on different engineering topics also. If she makes it through the first year with a great GPA then maybe medical school. If she’s doing well but not top GPA then maybe engineering or whatever her interests are in. But doing pre engineering and attempting medical school is setting her up for failure.
Also when I was in medical school I think everyone majored in psychology… There’s a reason for that, but even that is harder these days.
Hi @Knowsstuff, @MYOS1634, I am agree with your comments. I checked the Wayne State and it has bio-medical pre-med track and it requires student to commit first 2 summers full time to be able to complete the degree in 4 years while meeting all pre-med requirements and so no time any research, extracurricular or volunteering opportunities.
@PurpleTitan, I have seen some philosophy majors kick ass in corporate world given clarity of thought and logical breakdown of any problem and is a great major but do we need 4 years to gain such skills.Future jobs all seem STEM based with AI/ML/Connected technologies. I will explore some bio-xxxxx (bioinformatics, biophysics etc.) as indicated here as well.
^ IMO, your D should go with interests that hone marketable skills as a backup plan.
As you probably know, a philosophy major in the US isn’t just studying only philosophy for 4 years in any case. But I doubt more training hurts. Nobody would say that someone shouldn’t pursue a math major because there’s no need to study math for 4 years.
In any case, no, I don’t believe all future jobs will be STEM-based. Many are and many of the STEM majors give you good general skills (like quantitative skills) but I don’t see the edge of someone who has good/great sales/personable/social/persuasion/high EQ skills going away nor of someone who organizes thoughts well nor or someone who writes in a convincing fashion and can do so prolifically nor of someone who can motivate other people nor of creative out-of-the-box thinkers or those with an entrepreneurial drive.