@grtd2010: On what experience are you basing that assertion on? What adcoms look for in HS students (a variety of things) and what a high GPA in a pre-med track requires may be pretty different.
Yale would not be any easier, but Yale presents better fallback options in case someone can’t or doesn’t want to go to med school.
Pitt Med acceptance rate
https://oafa.pitt.edu/explore/guaranteed-admissions-programs/medicine-gap/
Q: How many Pitt undergraduates, with or without the GAP, are admitted to Pitt’s School of Medicine?
A: For the fall of 2015, 5,371 students applied for admission to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and 390 were offered admission. Nine percent (9%) of the applicants accepted completed their undergraduate work at the University of Pittsburgh. In the same year, the first year class consisted of 148 students. Fourteen percent (14%) of the first year class completed their undergraduate work at the University of Pittsburgh.
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Based on my D1’s class of GAP admits, she would say around 50% joined her at Pitt Med, rest either did not qualify or left for other opportunities. And yes, getting a 3.75 cGPA for Science subjects, even for the smartest of students, is not a cakewalk.
Pitts requirements for the program include a minimum ACT/SAT of 34/1490 and they must maintain a 3.75 overall and science GPA. No MCAT is required. Given that there is a still a 50 percent drop-out rate with no MCAT, I would save the money and go to Yale.
http://www.medadmissions.pitt.edu/admissions-requirements/guaranteed-admissions.php
@PurpleTitan For pre-med Science GPA is important (Physics,Chemistry,Biology,Math). I hope your son is good at these subject and can get A’s. There are very smart kids in Yale to compete for A’s too. Other BS/MD programs have similar requirements like 3.6 GPA. Average GPA for entering MD class is around 3.7 in most schools.
@grtd2010: Indeed. I was responding to your assertion: “If your DS, can get into Yale, he can surely meet 3.75 GPA at Pitts.”
I daresay not every Yale admit can pull a 3.75 GPA at Pitt.
And as I mentioned, Yale would provide more options if med school is not wanted or possible. Not to mentioned cheaper as well.
@PurpleTitan Yes, you should consider other backup plans in case med school is not desirable/feasible. There is an element of risk in any choice. It depends on your DS and you to feel comfortable with the level of risk. It is the uncertainty what one fears the most.
@Deming Congratulations on the dream offer from Yale! 
This is a tough call. They each have their pluses and minuses.
As awesome as JHU is, it has a rep of being a grind for premeds. JHU for med or residency. Not so great for undergrads.
Yale is tough on premeds as well. I’ve told this story before. When my son was a college freshman premed I ran into an old friend whose son was a freshman premed at Yale. Her son was determined to go to med school and they were confident Yale would pave the way. The friend was aghast that my son was attending a mid-tier flagship and she voiced a lot of doubt about whether he’d get into a med school. Fast forward a few years, her son’s GPA was not med-school worthy. My son will be graduating from med school in May.
Don’t believe the hype about Yale inflation and that everyone gets A’s in their classes. Maybe it’s that way for other paths, but the premed prereqs are still weeder classes at Yale. Like every other college in the nation, they must reduce the number of their premeds.
As for UPitt @ucbalumnus is exactly right. College is much harder than high school when in a serious major. Adding premed path into the mix makes things even more difficult. I have two premed parent forums and every fall parents are posting that their child-who’s-never-received-a-B-in-his-life is now struggling to bring his mid-semester C average in Gen Chem or Bio up to please-be-at-least-a-B. These are kids who took the most rigorous high school schedules, took the zero period class, and were top 1-5% of their class.
I’m a little shocked that the 3.75 GPA req’t is “per semester” and not evaluated at the end of the year. Bio, chem, and physics classes are usually 4-5 credits per class and a B in one of them can sink a semester’s BCPM GPA even if the student gets A’s in the other BCPM courses he takes that semester.
Considering that the Pitt program only takes the cream of the high school crop (poaching from Ivys), and 50% don’t make it thru, there’s reason to be concerned.
Of course a Pitt student who gets booted from the program can still proceed as a premed, get GPA where it needs to be and apply to other med schools later. BUT…the $20k per year EFC may be an issue to the family. Is it?
...may still get into a decent med school down the road.
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Lol…I can’t let that sentence pass. We don’t have any “decent” med schools in the US. All of our med schools are excellent. There are about 145 med schools in the USA. They all teach the same things; the education is flat. Any premed should be thrilled to get into any of them. No one is too good for any of them.
My vote is for Yale. Cost-wise it’s better. The Yale name will help if his career path changes. Just remind him NOT to believe the Yale-hype about 90% of students get A’s. That doesn’t apply to premed prereqs. He’ll have to be self-disciplined. Freshman have so many distractions and it’s their first time away from mom and dad.
If he gets at least a 3.7 GPA at Yale and scores well on the MCAT (sounds like he’s a strong test taker anyway), and has medically related ECs and some research experiences, he’ll likely get into a med school. As a Calif resident, he’ll need to apply broadly and include some Midwest privates since getting into a Calif med school is crazy difficult.
His ultimate goal is going medicine. Going with the Pitt's GAP is obviously the way to achieve his goal in one-step shot in a top-10 med school, however, he is looking at about 20k/yr for four under graduate years (he's awarded 20k scholarship but we have to pay the out-state tuition since we are from California), vs Yale offered a total package with only 5k EFC. The other thing bothers my son is that for the GAP you have to maintain a 3.75 for each semester (both overall and BCPM), which means if you miss one, you will be out from the guaranteed medical school admission and end up with a Pitt undergrad education for roughly a cost of 80k in four years, where with Yale you will earn a Ivy undergra education with far less cost and may still get to a decent med school down to the road.
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@Deming - I will also vote for Yale given that it’s almost full-tide. Right now we are debating between BU SMED (no aid) vs Vanderbilt full-tuition. We are also from CA and wondering if we should give up the choice of UC medical schools by going to BU (7 yr program). With Pitt, you have an option to apply out though.
@Deming - Vandy’s med-school placement rate is not that healthy compared to its peers.
As for BU SMED, they do require the MCAT, although the required score is not as onerous as some other combined programs, and the GPA requirement of a 3.2 is relatively low.
@Zinhead - Yes, BU requirements are not stringent. I thought Vandy’s placement record is decent. Do you have any additional info?
My post above should say: Don’t believe the hype about Yale’s grade inflation
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Vandy’s med-school placement rate is not that healthy compared to its peers.
@Zinhead
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Take reported numbers with a grain of salt. These numbers are often manipulated. Vandy is uniquely VERY forthcoming about their details, even putting them on their website. Other schools are purposely more vague (more loosey goosey.
Also, we don’t know if other schools more actively limit who can/should apply to med school.
BTW…JHU admits to having acceptance rate issues, but rightly explains them by saying that they don’t limit who applies and some students/parents ignore their wise advise and either apply to too many reaches or apply when their stats aren’t med school worthy.
@mom2collegekids - I think we discussed this on another thread, but Vandy’s acceptance rate and med school placement in terms of total number of kids accepted was low compared to its peer private universities. This is especially surprising since Vandy places significant emphasis on test scores on the undergraduate level and these kids should score well on the MCAT. The fact that other similarly ranked private schools have more kids enrolled in med school leads me to believe something is off about Vandy’s pre-med program. To spend $200,000 on tuition one would expect a higher placement rate than 66 percent especially since most of Vandy’s pre-med’s would have qualified for AU’s free tuition and 55 percent placement rate.
@Zinhead do you remember in what thread we discussed this?
How do we know how accurate the other schools’ numbers are?
@mom2collegekids - Sorry, I can’t remember. It was probably one of the College Search and Selection Threads.
The only real numbers one has to to work with is the AAMC application data which you are familiar with as well as the size of the freshman class. The other numbers like % of pre-meds is sourced from the schools and should be taken with a grain of salt.
So are you assuming that the peer schools should have similar numbers applying (proportional to frosh class size)?
@Zinhead this thread?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20313792/#Comment_20313792
@mom2collegekids - That thread was one of them.
Yale offer is amazing! Many doors will open up… :))