I have been accepted into Penn State and UCLA. I am currently a Pennsylvania resident and plan to major in the sciences to pursue medical school after college. I know that UCLA is generally ranked higher than Penn State (although Penn State is still respectable), however, I’m wondering if it makes sense to attend UCLA as Penn-State seems to have a good track record with Pre-Med students (and would be significantly cheaper and closer to home).
Thanks!
Minimize debt, go to Penn State.
OOS tuition and housing at UCLA > $55K annually. Do you have funds set aside for med school?
Save the $$, unless UCLA offers a program that PSU doesn’t. (which, if you want to be pre-med, you can major in many things…)
Yes, I should have sufficient funding for medical school. Nonetheless, UCLA would be more of a strain.
UCLA hands down… world renown research institution. global rankings UCLA cracks the top ten in some lists and consistently ranks higher than many ivies.
^ Unless you’re prepared to pay the $220,000 it would cost the OP to go there, I think that is very short-sighted advice.
Tagging in @mom2collegekids @WayOutWestMom – saw something recently about CA being a bad state to apply to med school from? Does that only apply to residents, or anyone going to college there?
UCLA is an elite university… shortsighted is thinking money is the issue IMO.
go to UCLA you will never regret it.
Yeah, you might regret it when you’re hundreds of thousand of dollars in debt after undergrad+med school.
I can’t think of any advantage ucla offers you. Med schools don’t care about college rankings. So maybe you’re thinking that ranking means they do a better job of teaching? Nope. At ucla you’re going to be in large classes as a science major pretty much the whole time thru school (you can look at the class enrollments online in the ucla schedule of classes). You’re not going to get personal attention or an assigned advisor. I’ve yet to see someone give a concrete explanation of what they’re going to do for you at ucla that you don’t get at Penn State.
At either school the outcome is going to be determined by what you do. Any college in the country offers the lower-division science and math tested on the MCAT. Whether you work work for good grades, get to know some profs so you get strong recs, take part in appropriate ECs, and develop compelling essays is up to you. Learn what it takes to get into med school by reading thru the very informative https://www.rhodes.edu/sites/default/files/PreMed_Essentials.pdf. There is also a good handbook at https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/careers/gradstudy/health/guide and no doubt many other websites, as well as books.
he real question to address at this point is not what college, but why an M.D? Have you looked into the medical field and considered the alternatives? From the day you start college it will be 11-15 years before you are a practicing doctor. Its almost a reflex action among HS kids, they think of a career in medicine and its “I’m pre-med!” Doctors are far from the only ones in the health field that help people. Physical therapists, radiology techs, nurses, speech pathologists, physician assistants, to name but just a few. Spend a few hours browsing on http://explorehealthcareers.org Unless you’ve considered the alternatives and have spent time actually working in a health care setting (which is an unofficial requirement to get into med school, BTW) its better to think of yourself as interested in exploring a career as a doctor rather than someone who has already made the decision
But, to change my tune a bit, I’m a CA resident. So I vote for you going to UCLA; we welcome that $100K in OOS tuition to make things better for all UC students!
I appreciate the help. I’ve been working as an EMT for several months now and worked extensively in a doctors clinic doing both research and working as a medical transcriber. I have really enjoyed these experiences so I am quite set on pursuing a career as a doctor as of right now.