<p>hi. i dont usually post on this place but i was wondering if I could get some help deciding.</p>
<p>Ive gotten into Penn and I really like it there, but they are offering very little financial aid, versus Univ. Maryland College Park, where I have a full ride + lodging +books, etc.</p>
<p>Im leaning towards MD, but just wanted to know, does an ivy for undergrad really make a difference? </p>
<p>Its a lot of money in the picture here.</p>
<p>any suggestions would help. Thanks.</p>
<p>Since Penn is known to be very pre-professional, in that it can really prepare you for your career, I would say Penn. I know that I’m Pre-law and one of the major reasons that I am choosing Penn is that Penn will prepare me best.
I was in the same situation in that Wellesley was giving me a full ride, but you have to think about MKATS, LSATS, and what’s going to best prepare you for life and your career after college.</p>
<p>How about you go to Maryland, since I’m going to probably enroll at Maryland in hopes of getting off of the wait list. Lolz, but seriously, a full ride is an amazing opportunity that you shouldn’t pass up. Maryland is a very well recognized school; people certainly get into top graduate school programs from Maryland. If the financial aid really is bad… it’s simply not worth the debt and the hassle when you have such an amazing option.</p>
<p>are you in Wharton? </p>
<p>if not, go to Maryland imo.</p>
<p>Well obviously she’s not in Wharton - otherwise she wouldn’t be on the pre-med track.</p>
<p>But I know that it does matter about having an ivy-league education in terms of getting offered a job in this day and age. All of the doctors in my physician’s office went to ivy league undergraduate schools. </p>
<p>But ivy is not the reason, nor is rank. The point is, what will prepare you most for your field?</p>
<p>At Penn, you can even take chemisty-based writing courses. EVERYTHING IS FOR YOUR FIELD.</p>
<p>That’s why, being pre-law, I rejected Wellesley’s full ride, the reputatation of Princeton and the liberality and freedom of Brown for Penn’s pre-career excellence.</p>
<p>It depends. Are you going to have just a full ride or a sort of scholarship program that allows you to enter college at the very top of your class, with special advising, etc? Are you part of the honors collegium? Many schools with such a program have AMAZING placement for grad school, so if UMD is one of them, you could save lots of money and still go to an amazing med school (which is obviously expensive). </p>
<p>Also remember that for med school admissions, much emphasis is placed on GPA. So, while a challenging learning experience is obviously nice to have, if getting into med school is your ultimate goal, you should probably also consider the GPAs you feel you will be able to receive at each school. </p>
<p>People asks these types of questions all the time, and while Penn probably has more opportunities in general, maybe UMD has more opportunities for YOU, which is really what is important. Go where YOU can stand out.</p>
<p>Just a note…don’t take advice from people with Columbia 2013 as their location. These guys are incredibly insecure so they ■■■■■ this forum trying to get people to turn down Penn. They probably think that if enough people listen, Penn’s rankings would go down and Columbia can take its place.</p>
<p>Well, what did you decide?</p>