<p>My son has been accepted to both. He wants to major in biology or chemistry with a pre med curriculum.
All things equal Pitt is a better school. Especially in the medical field. Heres whats making the decision tough...</p>
<p>WVU offered him some great scholarships and financial aid. He would leave after 4 years owing about 20k in loans</p>
<p>Pitt he would leave owing about 60k.</p>
<p>How much does his chances of getting into medical school improve by going to Pitt? Is it worth taking on that much more debt?</p>
<p>This one would be a tougher call at our house. I think I’d be contacting their pre-med advising and asking for stats about recent grads and med school apps before making the decision. (How many applied, where did they get accepted, if there are cut offs for recommendation letters, etc.)</p>
<p>Med schools generally do not care where one is from if you have the MCAT and GPA (+ ECs), but Pitt is set up pretty darn nicely for pre-meds to get a lot of experience. Then again 40K is not pocket change. It’d definitely be time for more research if those were choices here.</p>
<p>This is really a tough call. Normally I would suggest the cheaper of the two schools, but I’m not sure that’s the best option in this case. Could you contact Pitt and tell them you situation to see what they would say?</p>
<p>I have several doctors who went to Pitt. My daughter goes to WVU (not for med but we talk about it). They have actually had great things to say about the WVU medical school and think it’s a fantastic place. Not that this is hard evidence of anything but the medical folks seem to think it is a good school.</p>
<p>60K undergrad debt + Med. school debt sounds like a lot debt. And what if, he chooses Pitt w/the 60K debt and maybe changes his mind about med. school …Say he falls in love and wants to get married, move across the country for a job and start a family?</p>
<p>Or he finds a different passion during undergrad and want to pursue a job that maybe doesn’t come with a big salary… or suppose he doesn’t get in med sch. right away for some reason but still has to pay off the 60K while reapplying (this happened to a friend’s kid who was applying to dental sch…didn’t get in the first time around…luckily he graduated debt free from state u. so was able to hang on til he got into a pricey private university dental school.</p>