Pitt vs IU vs OSU for Neuroscience major

Which scholars program did you D participate in. Did she like her LL Dorm?

Although subjective, I appreciate you providing me with different student’s perspectives. It’s good to hear the good and the bad. So my daughter was accepted into UMD as well and offered scholars but no scholarship which was not a deal breaker bc who can beat in state tuition. We also don’t feel it would be the best place for her as their neuroscience program is so new and they will only have their first graduating class this spring but we are intrigued by their global public health scholars program b/c we like the service opportunity she may get from that. I hear ya about the fierce competition for premed as well and my daughter consistently performs well but isn’t particularly the top stats kids. I think our priority as that we are looking for a program where there is enough opportunity to go around and that students are not fighting for limited spots for clinical/research experience. Yes, I agree with a good balanced schedule and not burn out before medical school as well.

Thank you! Yes we have discussed other possible plan Bs. It’s hard to predict how well any pre-med will do until after they start their programs and studies,

Here is the catch. Before looking into clinical/research experience, you need a very high GPA. Very high means no grades lower than A- (GPA 3.67). B+=3.3, so B+ will not do it. Yes you can have a couple Bs or B+ but then you need to balance them with A or A+
 If student does not get GPA into 3.6 , med school will likely not happen and clinical /research will become irrelevant.
If you have very high GPA and high MCAT you can take one or two GAP years and do all your clinical/research and get to med school. If you do not have high GPA and MCAT your med school plans are doomed
 Well, you can also go to Masters for GPA repair or retake some classes with As (not recommended route). You can also work couple years as EMT or paramedic. But anyway clinical/research is the last of our priorities as of now.

If I am not mistaken UMD is around 27K. That is 13K saving per year from OSU. Over 4 years it is more than 50k. That is a big chunk of money. For premed major does not matter. For neuroscience, you need at least masters.

She participated in Health Sciences Scholars and she did like her dorm. If you’d like more details you are welcome to pm me.

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You might be interested in this:

" Affordability and Transparency for Students and Families

A DeWine administration goal on day one, tuition guarantees are offered today at all 13 Ohio public undergraduate universities, giving Ohioans perhaps the strongest, most transparent universal price guarantee in the nation.

At Ohio’s public higher education state trustees conference
in 2019, Governor DeWine asked all qualifying public
universities to provide in-state graduate degree tuition
rates for all students who earned their undergraduate
degrees in Ohio. Without a mandate or a change in law, all universities in Ohio agreed to the Governor’s request. Having students complete their graduate degrees in Ohio provides a better opportunity to keep these students in Ohio to become part of our emerging economy."

The out of state surcharge is not included in the tuition guarantee, but it hasn’t been increasing drastically once set by cohort as far as I am aware. I’d think you’d see a lot of complaints online if it were. However, final tuition and fees pricing won’t be approved by the board until June for the incoming cohort, and once set it will be that price for your student for 8 semesters. You do see a lot of parents complaining about that bump in price every summer and I’d expect a slightly bigger bump than previous cohort changes given current inflation.

Not all graduate/professional programs at Ohio State participate in reducing the oos fee for oos students that earned their undergraduate degrees in Ohio (whether at a public or private), but a surprising number do. It was announced as a reduction of oos fees to $5 for some Ohio State programs a few years ago. I don’t know if that fee will be completely eliminated at some point or which programs will be added or taken off that list, but it is something to keep in mind if she chooses Ohio State.

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If I had a nickel for every kid I know who insisted on a university with a neuroscience major who ended up
 not majoring in neuro- I’d have a LOT of nickels.

At the undergrad level, the difference between a designated neuro major vs. another Life Sciences major at a rigorous research U is-- not very meaningful.

Please, please, please- eliminating a solid choice which is affordable because the “neuro” program is new- is crazy. The program will be drawing on faculty-- in many cases, seasoned faculty- who have been conducting research in this area for decades. They will be scholars who are published in all the right journals, have all the contacts in both academia and industry, many are credible and renowned subject matter experts to folks at the NSF etc.

Do not write off a university because it hasn’t peeled off Neuro into its own little bucket. It’s an interdisciplinary field which means it has professors trained in chemistry AND biology AND psychology AND math AND CS
 and on and on and on.

Good luck to your D!

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Columbus also has Nationwide Children’s. Research at Nationwide Children's

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+1 on not ruling out a program b/c it is newer than another! Rule it out for more consequential reasons- affordability, attractiveness of the overall program to the student, etc.

From @ColdWombat on another thread:

*I am a neurophysiology professor. I agree with the others that are saying having a “neuroscience” undergraduate program does not matter one whit. My undergrad is in biology (chem minor). It was a cell and molecular heavy program. My PhD is in biology. It was a neurophysiology heavy program. Med schools and grad schools won’t care about a neuroscience major/minor.

Your kid could do research with a prof if they’re interested. That’s a great way to get more specific. I did research with a neuro prof for all of undergrad.

There is neuro content in many bio classes that don’t have “neuro” anywhere in the title. I only took one neuro-specific course in undergrad. You can get plenty of neuro content in your classes without having even a neuroscience minor. Far more important are the general biology and other basic science courses.

That allows you to pick the school based on other factors – good luck!"

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I agree that GPA is of utmost importance and that should be the student’s primary focus
so asking the question where can I get the highest GPA should be a priority.

Even with undergrad access to getting clinical hours and research experience, it has become difficult for those coming straight out of undergrad to compete with med school applicants who have a few years of post-grad real world experience (average age of med school matriculants is 24-25).

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I completely agree that we should not eliminate UMD as a choice as we will be attending a virtual neuroscience info session in April. Other factors that go into her choice is that she grew up with UMD and is looking for a new experience. Father is a BS in electrical eng and MBA grad from Smith. Business All our close family friends are UMD grads involved in the university in some respect which puts heavy pressure on her to move in that direction. As we all know. push your child in one direction will almost always ensure the complete opposite outcome. LOL.

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Hello, Congratulations to your daughter. All great choices! My son is a freshman at OSU at the Neuroscience program and he loves it! He was accepted at UPitt as well but preferred the OSU program because the Neuroscience program is entirely taught by the OSU medical school faculty. He is also studying to complete the requirements for pre-med. We are from MD and traveling from Columbus to the DC area has been very easy. I personally love the City of Pittsburg. Your daughter just needs to look deeper at the curriculum and decide what appeals to her. Best of luck!

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