Thank you @narkor - I didn’t realize that there might be an edge going to the top schools with challenging curriculum and maybe not so generous grading. Very good to know.
I’ve read your detailed write-up on the texas schools, it is quite informative - thank you! DD likes UH HSB approach, curriculum and focus, even as Pre-Med. Any additional information on that program, and the challenges or advantange of doing that for Pre-Med, intending to apply to medical colleges after that, would be very helpful.
@narkor…Yes I agree 100% its lot more complex and not just MCAT and GPA.
My DS went for a Baylor 2 Baylor Pre Med Track event last week. We were also very impressed with Pre-health advising team and the personal attention they were giving from their freshman year. The campus was beautiful and thought we would get more out of the program than UT Austin for Premed. Do you have any preference which would be better for Pre Med between Baylor / SMU / UT Austin / UH. He has full scholarship in all except UT Austin. UT Austin I heard rarely gives any scholarship to even top students. So we have hopes low for scholarship there.
@Mom22DDs Glad that my 2016 TX schools post helped. I can’t speak for all med schools. But,the school where I was on the committee does definitely factor this in. Also, talking to some of my friends from others schools it seems like a standard method that most med school committees follow.
I don’t know too much about UH 3/4. Dr. Simon Bott director of the program (since its birth) left the program last year. So, I’m not sure if the program has made any changes under its current head.
But, if you are considering UH-HBS for UG. UH-HBS has a Tier one scholars program (your D has to apply for it). It is a great program and she has to attend the Tier One Scholars Interview day and get selected. It is quiet competitive. A Tier one scholar has a lot of benefits like:
Extremely generous scholarship- free ride for most (NMS finalists)
On campus housing for free
Scholarship for books
Great research opportunities including a program called SURF (Summer Undergrad Research Fellowship for qualified candidates)
Fairly easily curriculum depending on the student’s efficiency of time management skills
Students at UH are fairly average. So, top candidates maybe able to stay at the top of their class and maintain a good GPA if they decide to go conventional route
Housed in Houston downtown- large city with easy access to an International airport
Close to the world’s largest medical center. But, Houston’s mass transit system is very inefficient and she will need to drive
Some of the TX med schools prefer in state candidates and hence doing pre-med here may be beneficial
There is a rumor that UH may be getting its own med school like UT-Austin which just opened Dell Med school.
Hope this helps making a decision. Although, I assume that reading my previous post from 2016 should have given you a fair idea of the negatives of going to UH.
@AllenTx15
Congrats on your son’s achievements/ scholarships. It really will help in making the final decision. I’m not sure if I can help you much with the decision making process. But, keep in mind all schools (especially private) want students to come in and hence their freshman orientation sessions have some of the best sellers. Make sure to tailor the choice- benefits and challenges to your needs. TX as we all know has some good, inexpensive UG schools. As a analysis to your schools of interest, I will give you my take based on my knowledge:
Baylor: We all know that Baylor is a good school and located in Waco. The campus is great. But, I’m not sure about the courses/ curriculum and place Waco. Waco is almost in no man’s very dry land and is a long drive from both Dallas and Houston (big cities). But, the Baylor bears that I know love it there. I do know that Baylor is very good about giving scholarships as it is a private school. But, keep in mind that the students are forced to take some ethics/ religious classes which may or may not equate into their pre-med track requirement which would still add to the cost. I would advice you to get in touch with a current student or someone who knows better before making the choice.
SMU: I don’t know anything except that it is a good private school.
UT-Austin: Personally, I would choose UT-Austin as it is a great public school. UT’s Natural Sciences program is very good and competitive. If your son is in the top 5% of his graduating class he should be automatically admitted to TX state school. But, he may not get into the program of his choice at UT-A. Getting into Honors Biology will really be an honor (as much a challenge with the course load and competition). The students in that program are simply stellar. You could be in the top 5% of your TX high school class and be an auto admit and not get into Biology, let alone Honors Biology. The most beneficial aspect now is that they have the Dell Medical school where the UG pre-med students can shadow,do research and gain experience. Thus they will have an edge over others when they apply to Dell after UG.
Yes, scholarships are hard to come by at UT-A. But, My child had a full ride to Honors Biology (sadly, did not go to UT-A). This is because of the Forty Acres Scholarship. I would like to let you know there are some scholarships like Texas Exes/ Forty acres at UT-Austin which are very competitive but worth giving a try.
UH: I think you can refer to my previous post for @Mom22DDs for its benefits and flaws.
@narkor . Wow if ur child rejected 40 acres scholarship to go somewhere, she must have gone to an even better place. Good Luck to her where ever she is.
We are waiting on UT-A Honors program notification. Appreciate ur input on all schools. Will wait till March end to figure out all the options. Until then it will be painful.
Thank you @narkor . I am passing this information to DD. I do not know if she applied to UT Austin, and I did notice that she didn’t respond eagerly to Baylor. She sounds excited about UH HBS, and now has better sense of pros as cons (thank you again!) to consider.
@AllenTx15
Not sure about my child’s choice. Thanks though for the wishes, But, having goals set on becoming a service oriented physician- chose a combined med program out of state. Obviously, we supported the decision and both child and parents are very happy with the decision. Eventually, its all about which school is the best fit for you which you wouldn’t know until the child is in the environment.
Good luck, just hang in there its almost coming to an end.
I am not sure lower GPA from a top school is looked favorably at medical schools anymore with thousands of applications. I have known few students who have 3.5 or above GPA from UC Berkeley and good MCAT score didn’t even get interviews from UC medical schools. They did get interviews from private schools and got admissions. That’s the main reason my DS chose to apply for BS/MD programs.
@Mom22DDs & @AllenTx15 Just wait till March end. Take the entire month of April to decide along with your Child where to go, whether the got in to any B/MD program or not. All possibilities emerge. Last year a student opted out Wash BS/MD with some merit aid and went to BS in UPenn for a specific business program. My D felt after attending Drexel interview, that she will not consider going there even if she gets only that BS/MD and will opt for regular route. So you never know and all that we can hope for the best and we can support our dear ones.
@narkor has given enough info on Texas and he is a resource with wealth of information as a physician and involved in academic selection and professional world. But let me give my 2 cents strictly based on a short trip during the interview and just as a parent. Both my D and I felt more comfortable with UTMB than UTH. UH for UG it is ok, but nothing came out extraordinary. Personally I enjoyed and have lot of respect for Dr. Simon Bott for his passion and dedication. I feel sad that he has left the program.
Feedback from my friend who lives in Austin and have 3 Ds in UTA. First one did very well and felt got excellent opportunities for research. She got featured in Ted talk and also selected as one of the 15 top students in the annual survey of a national magazine. Though she is not interested in medicine she just started her MS/PhD in MIT (and rejected Stanford and UCB). The other 2 twins just started their freshman this year and one is premed. They did not give favorable feedback about Baylor and hence we stopped processing for my D though we applied at the beginning for 2 reasons. First Baylor wanted to come physically 2 times which is very hard for OOS (we are from CA) and also it is around the first semester exams in school. Second students need to do some mandatory courses which my D was not keen.
You may have already noticed the feel for BS/MD admission. So MD admission, it very complex, competitive, holistic and unpredictable. Though UG GPA and MCAT scores allows them to take the resume from the big pile, the interviews are more on variety of factors including health related activities, IS vs OOS, economic status, URM etc etc. MD admission is heavily based on state bias. Also don’t conclude just because a student goes to a state for UG, s/he is now in state for that state. Mostly your current state is going to be your in state for all practical reasons (there are very few exceptions). I saw one situation (just a stat of 1) where the 2 Ds of my friend are called role models in our community since they did wonderful things. First one went to UPenn and did very well (majored in Bioengineering) and got MCAT 39. Applied to top 20 medical schools and got none. Waitlisted for her her own school UPenn and Wash. Don’t assume medical school will give preference if you have gone to that univ UG program. Her second D went to MIT and got started UCSF this year. So even they are not clear what worked and what not worked. The only observation they had was some change in their financial situation but they felt it worked best for them.
@srk2017 Some of the pros and cons of living in Sunny California. It is stated very well in the pre-med topics threads that students from CA are at disadvantage because of the extra ordinary intense competition. Heard the number of qualified of premeds from UCLA alone is more than the total number of admitted medical students in all of CA medical school. So though CA also heavily gives bias to IS, because of the sheer competition you can not assume you will get admission (see the example I have above for 1 student)
@srk2017
Just to clarify my statement- I did not mean that students from a top school can have a low GPA and get into Med school.
First off- med school selection like the UG or combined med selection is for sure a holistic process. It is based on various criteria including the very subjective human factor at the time of the interview. However, “given all other factors being constant” a student from a top school who tends to have a low GPA will not be rejected or looked below over a student with a high GPA from a low tiered school. This is because the selection committee is trained to process the school grading scale into the acceptance equation. Again- the critical point here is “all other criteria being constant”.
I was talking only about GPA because that was the only factor in the Q asked. I was of the impression that all other factors being constant was a given. Obviously, it was not. I apologize for any confusion caused.
@narkor - I do understand your point of view. My concern is with number of applications increasing every year, I am not sure how much time colleges are spending to come up with list of candidates to invite for interview. so those with lower GPAs from schools with grade deflation may be having more disadvantage now a days,
