<p>I am a high school student from Missouri. So far I have been considering Mizzou or Michigan for pre-med. I know that Michigan has a superior program, but I could go to Mizzou for free. Could a Mizzou education get me into a top 15 med school or do I have to go to a more qualified institutuion?</p>
<p>Please help!</p>
<p>Provided that everything else about Mizzou checks out, and if you like it comparably enough to Michigan… go to Mizzou. UGrad institution matters very very little as long as your school is on the map (which Mizzou is–it’s far from unheard of) and if you can make the GPA/MCAT I’m told school name has near-zero weight among all the other factors in the med school application process.</p>
<p>We have a very recent Mizzou grad on the board. She’ll see this and respond, I’m sure. IIRC , she was in a similar situation.</p>
<p>^^^ She was able to build up an amazing profile at Mizzou which allowed her to get interviews at some of the best medical schools in the country. You won’t be putting yourself at a disadvantage by going to Mizzou. Since you aren’t paying anything for Mizzou might as well go there and save the extra money.</p>
<p>
Maybe you are more ambitious than most of us. But why would you set a goal so high even before you set your foot on any campus?</p>
<p>A top 15 med school is a “reach” or even a crapshoot for anybody, even for, say, a top 5% student graduated from an elite college. I believe that, even after DS had completed all the medical school requirements and his stats are “up there” for a top med school, he still never set a goal like this. (Although he did end up at a top school, it would be also fine for him to go to any top 60 school – I think US News and Reports only reports its research ranks between 1 and 60 or 70?)</p>
<p>Maybe some other student, like the MS0 who was referred to by curm and colleges00701, could you a more relevant input. But my advice is: whichever college (Mizzou or Michigan) you attend in the end, do not set a goal like that – It will only give you more pressure on the premed track, e.g., the night before the orgo final or the MCAT.</p>
<p>Hi Tauchen!</p>
<p>I’m the kiddo Curmudgeon, Colleges, and mcat2 is talking about (thanks guys!). They’re correct, I had similar options as you do now when I was in high school (Mizzou, Michigan, SLU, UVa, Elon). I chose Mizzou and would do the same again in a heartbeat. It is a truly incredible place if you are willing to put forth the work to make it the school you’re looking for. I liked it so much I’m sticking around for medical school!</p>
<p>To answer your first question, no you don’t have to go to a top school to get into medical school. Send me a PM with any Mizzou-specific questions. Happy to help!</p>
<p>MIZ,
Kristin</p>
<p>Thank you all for the input.</p>
<p>Do you really want to pay $50k per year for UMich? </p>
<p>If you’re affluent then I guess that’s fine…but if you’re not affluent, then save your money for med school.</p>
<p>*but I could go to Mizzou for free. *</p>
<p>Do you mean “free tuition” or free tuition, room, board, etc?</p>
<p>If you have high stats, and want more low cost choices, there are other schools that will give you merit scholarships.</p>
<p>m2ck, can you name some colleges that give merit scholarships? D still has a year to go before she will be in a position to apply. Just getting prepared. Of course she has to do well on MCAT first.</p>
<p>QuietThinker: I think you are getting this mixed up. Mom2collegekids was saying to the OP that he could get merit scholarships for undergrad, if he had the application that could get him a free ride at Mizzou.</p>
<p>You seem to be referring to your D attending medical school with scholarship money. Most med schools have some scholarship money, but they use that to attract top candidates. There isn’t that much scholarship money in med schools.</p>
<p>bookiemom is right.</p>
<p>My post was in reference to the OP’s decision between Mizzou or (pricy OOS) UMich. </p>
<p>I was just saying that if he/she doesn’t want to go to Mizzou for whatever reasons, and he has high stats, there are other schools that would also give him large merit scholarships.</p>
<p>I also wondered what he meant by saying that he could go to Mizzou for free. Often when people say that, they don’t really mean “free” because they only have tuition covered. However, if he has a “full ride” (tuition, room, board, etc) scholarship or he can commute to Mizzou, that’s different.</p>
<p>And…Bookiemom is right…not much merit in med schools. In our state, we only have 2 med schools, one is very well ranked, while the other is unranked (but still very good). The unranked med school does offer merit to instate med students with high stats to attract them away from the UAB which is usually the preferred choice.</p>
<p>Go for free!!! you will have enough chances to spend your $$$ (or your parents’, which is about the same thing if you are planning to go to Med. School). D. was on full tuition Merit $$ in UG. She did not even apply to any that would not give her a lot. She did not apply Michigan for that reason.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>I agree! </p>
<p>Younger son has nearly a free ride for undergrad…he has Free tuition and $4500 per year. We only have to pay for some of dorm and books. The 4500 covers meal plan and some of his dorm.</p>
<p>But, again, if you want to venture OOS and you have high stats, if your Mizzou scholarship is for free tuition, and you still have to pay for room, board, books, then it’s likely that another good school will give you free tuition as well.</p>
<p>Go with the “free”. Mizzou is a good school. And it’s free.</p>
<p>Medical school debt could add up to a considerable amount very fast. Very. Take the free money and do the best you can and shoot for the moon for medical school.</p>
<p>Most graduate and professional programs could give a rat’s ass about where you went to undergrad. As long as you take the prereqs for medical school (1 year of bio, 1 year of gen chem, 1 year of ochem, X amount of math, etc., etc.) and do well in them and on the MCAT, you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>So, take the free money and run. Enjoy not burdening yourself or your parents with large debt. You’ll have plenty of time to rack that up in medical school. :)</p>
<p>(It’d be really hard to get a full ride at an OOS public school.)</p>
Hey, yeah no offense mcat2, but you are very pessimistic. A top 15 or top 10 medical school is realistic. To the original post-Do not let them talk you down. I have three friends that have gone to Yale, washU, and Harvard for medical schools (btw these are all top schools). And guess what, we’re from the middle of nowhere Louisiana and they went to LSU for undergrad. The negativity in mcat2’s comment really bothered me so much that I’m responding years after the fact. You can do it. It is very possible. Some people I know didn’t make it to their top choice, but my friends who did, were exactly like you. They dreamed high. They chose a free education and worked their butts off and made their dreams come true. I mean, I’m in PA school in Philadelphia that is one of the top in the nation…I had a child in undergrad and felt as though PA would be a better option than MD for me since I’m very family oriented but I believe if I had tried, then I’d be with my friends right now. Never give up, people have done it before you and people (by now) have probably done it after you. I hope you are doing well and made it. Never give up. Anyone can do it if they try hard enough. I was president of my biology undergrad, i volunteered at hospice for 1,000 hours, I was in tons of activities, and I was summa cum laude when I graduated from college in biology. And it all worked well for me. If you try, then you can DO it. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. And btw…I had a 1.8 in highschool. I never turned in homework or did really anything because I didn’t care…and I scored a 32 on ACT(to my teachers surprise) and went to LSU for free, where I made higher grades than my fellow classmates who were in the top 10 of my highschool. Sometimes the underdogs take the win in the end.
@Zklein125 did you notice the date of this thread? The student is likely already in college by now since he graduated from high school in 2014.
But, to address your point…
A top 10-15 medical school is not a realistic expectation for a high school student who was a rising junior in HS when this thread was active and made.
This issue is not “where he’s from” or “if he goes to Mizzou.” The issue is that most premeds never even get into one MD med school, and only a small fraction get into a top 10-15 med school.