I am struggling to decide between University of Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech. I was accepted into the guaranteed acceptance for dental school at Pitt but I am worried about the GPA requirement I have to maintain. I have to maintain a 3.7 in bio, chem, and math. I am worried about organic chem most of all since I did not have a good chem background at my school. I also wanted to do bioengineering at pitt as my major for undergrad but I am scared about pursing that and keeping up my gpa. Should I switch to a bio major if that is easier?At gt I’m worried about the overall stress levels at the school. I am deciding between industrial or biemedical engineering. Both are great schools so it’s a tough decision. If anyone has any advice or tips I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
I visited Pitt and I really liked it… I’m probably going there. I didn’t look into Georgia Tech at all, but I’m sure they are vastly different environments. If you are able, try and visit both you will be able to tell which you like better. They are both excellent schools
Going the BioEngineering route for pre-dental at Pitt (or any engineering at Pitt actually) will require you to take a full 17 hr load the first and second semesters. In addition to all the core science classes (Physics 1, Chem 1, Calc 1 and an elective) you will take Engineering Analysis which will require hours of coding and writing assignments. You are also required to go to a 1 hr seminar class per week for no credit and a little seminar hour long class per week for also no credit.
You are right to be concerned about your GPA. We were told specifically by the lead advisor for engineering (at the engineering PittStart in July 2017) that the average GPA of first year engineering students after just the first semester was 2.98.
Are you absolutely determined to do engineering as your pre-dental work? Seems like there would be a more balanced way to go—still challenging of course to keep a competitive GPA but maybe not so crazy.
Do you want to be an engineer or a dentist? Both are going to be challenging and rigorous. No easy paths here. But one might allow you to protect your GPA a bit more. Both schools are going to be tough.
I have zero experience with Georgia Tech so I can’t speak for your experience there.
OP, I think you have to make a career choice and then decide which school to attend as they offer different paths. My D1 was a GAP for SOM attendee (she is in the 2nd year at Pitt Med now) and my D2 is a senior at GTech studying Mech Eng. Neither one can be considered as an easier option in terms of workload, competition or grades!