D19 is making a decision on these two. I am not going to say which way she is leaning. Please give me your opinion on which would be better for a science/premed kid. Don’t worry about cost. We know the cost.
I think it largely depends on the atmosphere she wants. Miami is a midsized college town with a very quintessential campus feel. It has an excellent reputation for undergraduate teaching and a strong Greek presence. The nearest major hospitals for shadowing would be in Cincinnati or Dayton.
Pittsburgh is more like a college city and much much more urba. Other than the tower of learning it doesn’t have a true campus feel. It’s an excellent university with a superb hospital system nearby. Your going to find a similar caliber of student at both universities. I would consider them peers academically.
Your D will have more competition at Pitt for premed. Pitt is well known for its strong premed program and has more of the smartest students competing for higher gpa, which is all-important for med school. Checkout this link:
https://www.aamc.org/download/493728/data/factstablea2.pdf The class size of Pitt and Miami are roughly the same, yet Pitt has almost 3x as many applicants to medical school. Your D should really try and speak to some premed students at both schools—sometimes admissions will arrange for prospective students to get in touch with someone in their planned major. See what they think in terms of the premed atmosphere, make sure that Pitt is not a grade deflator for premed because that would hurt your D’s chances for achieving a high gpa needed for med school. We visited Pitt and liked the facilities and the UPMC. But my D didn’t like the city feel. Miami is very country-like so I would be surprised if your D feels the same about both schools.
@trackmbe3 Is there a report that shows students accepted at med schools and what colleges they did undergrad?
@gpo613 There is no such report produced by the aamc. But each medical school would have the report you are looking for, just not sure how easy it is to obtain. I think it would be useful if you can ask the premed office at both Pitt and Miami what is the acceptance rate of their applicants to med school and what was the median cumulative gpa (both science and non-science). Each undergraduate school keeps those statistics and shares them with its students who ask. The average acceptance rate nationwide for med school is about 40% I believe (and this may include osteopathic med schools in addition to allopathic schools). But that is because students send apps to about 20 schools each so the percent accepted at each medical school is much, much lower. The Aamc produces a lot of interesting tables but none that answers the most relevant question for premed students,
https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/
If you want to go pre-med then think about:
- The cheapest reasonable college so you/your parents can use the money for med school
- The college needs to prepare you for MCATs but still allow you to get a good GPA
- Access to volunteering opportunities (e.g., near a hospital)
- Success in graduates getting into med school
- Options if you don’t go to med school