He has full tuition option at Mississippi State U, which is too close to home, which is a problem!
And UAB is close enough and has good med school, but not a great engineering program. So these other options are being explored. Thank you for the info about Pitt.
Thatās so correct!
Pre-med to med school is a tough road. Not everyone makes it. GPA is critical and BME is a challenging major to say the least. Might be worth investigating pre-med advising and recommendation committees, grade deflation, volunteer/internship opportunities. UPitt has an amazing hospital and medical school for example. I donāt know if they favor their own undergrads but worth checking out.
Also, medical school is incredibly expensive, like $400,000+ so thatās something to consider. Money saved in undergrad can go towards med school tuition.
If, however, med school doesnāt pan out will the undergrad engineering degree be worth more from one school than the others? I donāt know enough about engineering degrees to say.
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Back when my son was thinking of becoming a doctor (he changed his mind), we always heard to do undergrad the cheapest you can because med school is so expensive.
Everyone always says it doesnāt matter where you attend school as long as your GPA and MCAT scores are high, but you should probably ask this on the board where all the knowledge folks about med school post.
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If heās happiest at USC, then that seems like a solid pick since itās a fabulous school with lots of options in case BME doesnāt last. Depends if the extra $17k over Pitt or $9k over UIUC is manageable. Illinois is a fabulous engineering program and overall school but itās different than SC. Pitt is also great for lots of things. Basically Iād go in order of cost except put UVA behind SC and UofI.
Thank you very much for the wonderful advice about engineering program. Much appreciated.
I think he is just fascinated by USCās popularity and the location.
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I will ask in med forum as well. Thank you for the input.
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One thing that we are confused right now is which one is good for Biomedical engineering if he decides against medical later on? Thank you for your suggestions.
UAB or Pitt. If med school is the goal, the student needs high GPA, high MCAT, and low undergraduate cost. They would both get the job done. If the family can afford Pitt, itās a better school.
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If money is no issue then the kid should go to the school he wants to go to that had the best program and fit for him. There is no guarantee he will go to med school in the end as many donāt go on to do that. If money is an issue then I would absolutely avoid going to any of those expensive schools and consider the fact that debt may be an ongoing and possibly lifelong issue for this kid. My ex husband had a scholarship to Emory and graduated with no debt but then went to U Chicago for med school and 250k in debt. This was in 1996. That route today 25 years later would be at least 400-500k as someone else said. Probably more considering undergrad schools are costing 80k/year all in and thatās exactly what USC will cost at least. So back to if money is any issue this kid may actually be looking at almost $1m in debt by the time he can start paying these off since payments can be deferred through residency. Who wants to have that kind of debt when theyāre 30? What kind of quality of life is that?
Now of course if they go to the cheapest undergrad with best offer they may not be getting into the U-Chicagoās of the world either but that does not matter. If he does great which he will need to do anywhere, is a standout, has excellent MCAT scores, research, summer experience etc he can still get into a good medical school program and ultimately a chance at a great residency which is what matters in the end.
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Iām with srparent15 100% on this one. If your son knows in his bones that he wants to go to med school AND money is an issue, I would for sure convince him to go to UAB or, even better, Mississippi State (where you said heāll pay nothing).
Med school doesnāt care what you majored in. All they care about is did you complete the eight or so required science and math classes with an A average, is your overall GPA 3.6+, and did you do well on the MCAT.
And as others have said here, med school is EXPENSIVE. However, your S can get the Feds to pay off some of his med school loans if works with an underprivileged patient population for the first several years of his practice.
I live in Cali and total understand the USC mystic. But itās not worth $300,000 if money is an issue, and since he wants to go to med school (where heāll need the money). And there will be a LOT of kids with sky HS credential trying to go to med school at USC. Theyāll be a lot of gunners in the science weeder courses (like organic chemistry).
Bottom line - go to UAB or MSU, major in something heās really strong in and dominate, and do well in the med school prerequisite classes. And make sure he does a science or medical internship or has a part time job at a hospital or lab or something. Med schools require that to show true commitment.
Lastly, the University of MS Medical School is approx. $61,000 - not bad at all. Unlike law schools and the prestige/elite or big city law firm issues, all US med schools are good. It doesnāt matter where you go to med school - getting in is the issue (3%-5% admit rates).
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A day late on posting results summary:
All for majors in the range of Biology/Ecology/Env. Science/Botany/Wildlife Biology
Accepted: Reed, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, Humboldt State, CU Boulder, UMontana ($) , UOregon ($) , Lewis & Clark ($) , Willamette ($) , Western Colorado ($) , Evergreen State ($)
Waitlisted & Denied: none ā no reach applications
4.68 W, 3.96 UW, 33 ACT, 11 AP & 3 college classes, biology/museum/outdoors/art ECs & jobs, transgender
Will be attending Humboldt State University for likely double majors in Botany and Biology/Ecology. Wanted forests, mostly rural setting with rain and focus on wilderness biology. Seems like HSU (Hills & Stairs University) has all that.
He was lucky in the housing lottery and got an on-campus room yesterday in the dorm for freshmen in a special program for College of Natural Resources and Sciences majors. They are saying all rooms will be single occupant again this fall (which he wants). Not sure they will stick with that once everyone is vaccinated.
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Humboldt is excellent for his specific educational/career focus. And it competes with UCSB and Pepperdine for gorgeous college settings near the ocean.
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Your kid sounds a lot like mine. May I ask why he didnāt pick Santa Cruz?
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Why do people like USC so much? As an outsider I donāt understand why my child and my friendās kid are so impressed by USC?
I agree that $61000 sticker price for UMMC is great!
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Thank you so much for your help. 1 million debt hit me with a shock. Never thought about it as that much. I think this makes sense now.
Thank you for your advice. I think they can afford UPitt more than USC.
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He chose Humboldt over UCSC for a mix of things, mostly related to expecting that he would get lost in a large crowd at UCSC. UCSC was his 2nd choice. Reed was 3rd, but workload seemed scary, and not really the same for emphasis on non-pre-med biology.
ā Heād have basically no priority for class registration at UCSC. (Probably a lot of other kids come in with units from AP credit.) At Humboldt, the program for incoming biology/botany/zoology freshmen blocks spots for them in all the fall classes they need. And, heāll come in with junior status by units.
ā Emails unanswered or curt answers by UCSC, while Humboldt has been very responsive and personable. One-on-one zooms with Humboldt vs. large groups on set topics with UCSC.
ā Heāll have most of the GEs done via AP credit at Humboldt, while UCSC oddly gives 4 units credit for some categories where you need 5 units of GE, so youād still need to take the class.
ā Because Humboldt is not impacted, weāve been told there will be little pressure to graduate early because of all the credit heās bringing in.
ā Housing situation is generally bad at both, but seems worse at UCSC.
ā Smaller class sizes; more opportunity to get to know professors.
ā He loved the Humboldt area and campus. Smaller town, farther north. Occasional snow.
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Hey, Iām a Cal guy, so I donāt know either. Lol.
In all fairness, itās L.A. and all that the allure entails. The football team is one of the crown jewels of college football. The school spirit is real. The Trojan network is real as well. The academics are high level. The campus is quite nice (although some neighborhoods a few blocks away are sketchy). Itās 30 minutes from the beach (15 minutes when thereās no traffic - like at 2 a.m. 
).
There are a LOT of rich kids and the student population is very diverse. The school has a lot of money. And the Operation Varsity Blue scandal was actually helpful to SC - kids think the school must be good if wealthy people and celebs are paying gobs of money to shoehorn their kids in.
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