So, as some of you might have seen my last post about choosing between Penn State Schreyer Honor College and University of Pennsylvania, but I found out like a week ago that I was accepted into Carnegie Mellon as well. So now I am basically choosing between these three now. I have visited all three of them for their Admitted Student Days, and I liked all three of them in term of their enviroment. My main goal for the future is to get into a good medical school and make some new friends in college that maybe we could study and hang out together. So I most interested in their academics, research opportunities, academic supports, and the ability to do volunteer works before applying to medical school.
Cost of Attendence:
Penn State Schreyer Honor College: ~12-15k per year for only tuition and room and board
University of Pennsylvania: ~3k per year for everything including 2kish for personal expense and transportation
Carnegie Mellon: ~4k per year for only tuition and room and board
Which has the best program to prepare you for medical school? I have two friends who both graduated from UPENN and went on to medical school well prepared. How much does cost factor in?
I’m not sure I understand what you are saying with your costs. At Penn State and CMU will you have to pay fees, travel
expenses, books, etc? Can your family afford those? You got substantial aid packages at these schools - are there loans or all grants? This can make a difference later.
I would pick UPenn or CMU over Penn State for for cost alone. Which school at CMU? Both Penn & CMU can be tough with grading - need good grades for med school.
Cost definitely matter to me and my family, but we are able to afford the cost for any of the three. So cost isn’t the deciding factor for me and family.
Yes, which they are costing around 3k-4k per year at Penn State, and around 2k-3k for CMU.
Yes, we would be able to afford whichever school I choose for all 4 years.
All grants at CMU and UPenn (unsubsidized loan available if needed), and around 4k in federal subsidized loan at Penn State.
Have you visited Penn & CMU? What did you think about each campus? Do you have a preference for Pittsburgh vs Philly.
Again these are both good choices but will give you different experiences.
The main reason that I was still considering Penn State is because I was accepted into their Schreyer Honor College and many people have been telling me that they offer just a good academics as the Ivies and top schools as they are “comparable with the Ivies”
Yes, I visited through their accepted student day(but I only get to stay at CMU for one day, so I didn’t really get to see everything), and I liked both of them in term of their enviroment.
They are both huge cities (I think they are the two biggest cities in PA, but correct me if I am wrong) so I am fine with both since I come from the Philly suburb (10 minutes drive from Philly and ~25 minutes from Penn) and go to school everyday in Philly.
The honors program at Penn State is fine and if finances were flipped you’d get advice to follow the money. UPenn and CMU are stronger programs. And the finances are leaning that way too.
If you are familiar with Philly and want a change then go to CMU. But you can’t beat the price for UPenn. Not a bad choice here.
Three ridiculously great choices. Congrats. Tough decision with not a bad option on the table.
But since you asking and it’s five days until deposits are due…
Penn and CMU would be my finalists. Then it would come down to where I would like to be for four years. Pittsburgh is a really great city. Safe and fun. Philly is much larger feeling and full of city buzz.
If you don’t mind being so close to home I would gently nudge my child to Penn.
However I would not blink an eye or be anything but thrilled if she said CMU.
Penn st honors is a great reward for your hard work and top of the food chain in state college.
Seems like U Penn is,the best choice. Can’t beat the price and the reputation. Considrring that you liked them all, you should choose the most affordable option.
Considering that UPenn is an excellent Ivy League school and the cheapest of the three, I would absolutely say UPenn is the way to go! Congratulations on your acceptances!
@Lindagaf@privatebanker@Dancer14 Does going to an Ivy League school help in any way during the med school application? Does reputation matter? Or just GPA and MCAT?
@Dancer14 isn’t Penn one of the lower Ivies compares to schools like Yale, Harvard, and Princeton?
In the world outside of CC, there is no such thing as a lower ivy.
I don’t understand how this isn’t an easy decision. Penn is the best school, and it’s the least expensive. The fact that you won’t make the decision makes me wonder what else is going on. Do you really not like Penn, but you’re afraid to say so? Are you intimidated by it? Is it that you really want to go further away from home? These are all valid reasons for choosing one of the other schools, if you can afford the difference. What is keeping you from saying yes to Penn?
I agree with the comments of @me29024 and @MYOS1634 Choosing Penn should be an easy decision for all the resources and connections. It is truly a world class university. Honors program at Penn State Schreyer won’t help you for med school and could even hurt you as grading will as tough or tougher than your other choices. IMO choosing an honors college should only be either if it’s your safety school (and you cannot afford your reach/higher ranked school) so you are with other students who are more equal peers academically and intellectually OR if the cost is considerably less expensive and you use the savings for grad school later on. But neither of these situations apply here.
There are no “lower” Ivy’s. There’s the Ivy League, that’s it. There is literally no disadvantage to choosing U Penn. The only reason to not choose it is if you really don;t care about the money and prefer another college. If med school is the goal, it will depend on grades and the MCAT. If a school uses grade deflation, it will probably be known. Your recs will be important. Go to the place you like the best, because in truth, you have no bad choices.
@Angelababy30 if it helps, I know freshman at both CMU and UPenn. The UPenn person is studying Neuroscience with an eye on medical school. Valedictorian who never got below a 96 in 4 years of high school - loving UPenn, seems to be having fun as well as maintaining a 4.0 this year.
CMU - biology major, top 10 in the same high school class. While he’s enjoying the school, he has complained that he feels the professors are more concerned with their research than teaching their classes. He’s gone in for extra help and works very hard, but his grades (which I don’t know, exactly) have been disappointing to him.