Pitt. vs other schools

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>As May 1 approaches, I am in a bit of a bind trying to figure out which school I would like to attend. Right now the decision is between Case Western Reserve University and the University of Pittsburgh. I applied to schools that were in close proximity to home (Cleveland) because my mom wanted me to be closer to home. I plan on being a biological sciences major/pre-med student. I would imagine that Pitt. would be a better choice because of the fact that its medical school is phenomenal. Additionally, I got almost a full-ride to Pitt., whereas at Case I would have to pay about 11k. Case is the overall better school, but my question is: would Pitt. provide better opportunities for me as a pre-med student? (I should also note that I have been accepted to its honors college). Also, what are your opinions on Pitt. as a whole? (I have heard others call it "mediocre"). Do med schools typically look at the name of your undergrad. school?</p>

<p>The only two REALLY good schools I applied to were Wash. U. and U. of Notre Dame. At Notre Dame, I received full tuition (and would only have to pay 10k to go there), but I don't think I would fit in seeing as to how I'm Jewish (I only applied there because of its science program).</p>

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<p>case western would be the better choice since it is the more prestigious school. i have been told that pitt’s med school does not care whether or not you are an undergrad of pitt(i hope i understand that right when you say better opportunities at pitt). so just go for the more prestigious school.</p>

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<p>I was deciding between Pitt and Case last year with the same scholarship amounts. I chose Pitt. If you’re talking about opportunities, I would say that Pitt has a slight edge over Case in terms of research and volunteering. At Pitt, you have UPMC on campus and other branches a short walk or bus ride away. Case has a nice hospital on campus too, but it is not as encompassing of the area as UPMC is in western Pennsylvania (IIRC however the Cleveland Clinic is ~1 mile away from the Case campus). Also IMO, Pittsburgh > Cleveland as a city.</p>

<p>I’d look at that Notre Dame offer again as well. ND may have an affiliation but they still do have a sizable number of students and faculty who don’t identify with that affiliation.</p>

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<p>I don’t think you know anything about medical school admissions if you’re saying this. Prestige is subjective, and if someone were to compare rankings of the two there is not an enormous difference between the rank of Pitt and Case (41 vs. 56). We’re not comparing Harvard vs. Podunk U here. Not to mention it has been rehashed many times on CC and elsewhere that prestige may play a small part but don’t expect the name of a school to make up for a not-so-great gpa.</p>

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<p>I’m confident in my ability to succeed no matter if I attend Case or Pitt. I just don’t know which one would help my chances for admission to medical school. I agree that Pitt would provide me with more hospital research/volunteer opportunities, but my chief concern is the degree to which med schools use the undergraduate school name when they are benchmarking student applicants against each other. This is probably a trivial concern…so at the moment I’m leaning toward Pitt. Considering the med school tuition price tag and the fact that my twin brother will also be attending college next year, Pitt’s offer is something I don’t think I can pass up.</p>

<p>As a side note, if I do decide to go to Pitt and take some UHC classes, won’t med schools consider the rigor of those over the college prestige? Does a 15-spot gap justify turning down money and possible hospital internships? And does a rank of 56 on U.S News & WR deem Pitt as undesirable for would-be sub-ivy prospects? (All of the above is probably just my paranoia talking…I just want to make sure that I can compete with pre-meds from other schools given what Pitt has to offer, especially since I didn’t apply for the guaranteed med school acceptance because I forgot to indicate pre-med on my app).</p>

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<p>When I think Case versus Pitt neither one fires off fireworks as being more prestigious. They are both good schools, and going to one or the other is not going to make you seem more or less prestigious.</p>

<p>Honestly, I’d say go with the money and rock it out with ND or Pitt.</p>

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<p>Thank you for your input. If my discussion with an FA officer at Case next week doesn’t yield more money, I think I might go with Pitt.</p>

<p>After looking at the ND numbers again, I realized that I forgot to add on personal expenses and fees (which are not accounted for in the aid letter). Bearing that in mind, the ND cost comes to about 12k (before loans), which is decent considering that ND costs 53k to attend. I don’t know the results for outside scholarship awards, so I’m not going to base my decision off of the mere possibility of receiving any. Pitt costs about 7k (before loans), so I’m about 95% sure that’s where I will enroll (unless I figure out a way to come up with the 5k difference). Plus, Pitt seems to offer more than ND because of its location, and I would probably fit in at Pitt as opposed to ND.</p>

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<p>After around 40 or so on US News everything gets kind of muddled. With the rankings, it’s HYPSM clustered at the top and people have a general idea of what’s where (ex. people can guess Duke is behind HYPSM). But once you get to the 40s, people aren’t as aware of which schools are ahead of which. For example, Case, Pitt, Tulane, BU, UConn, and UMiami are all in that range, but do you know their order of rank?</p>

<p>Out of Case or Pitt, neither one will give you a significantly better advantage of going to medical school over the other reputation-wise. I do not know if there is grade inflation/deflation at Case so I can’t comment on that. </p>

<p>Btw, taking honors classes over regular classes in college won’t give you a big boost in med school admissions. The topic is explored much more in depth in a Pitt UHC class, so take honors if you are really interested in the subject, but don’t expect that it is then permissible to get a lower grade than in the regular course. It’s similar to how taking a 21 credit courseload or majoring in an engineering discipline are more rigorous, but it’s not worth doing these things just to impress an adcom.</p>

9

<p>Ah…well that makes sense.</p>

<p>Unrelated question, if I were to go to Pitt, would it be wise to apply my AP credit for Bio (a 5) and then take Bio 2 or higher at the honors level? Or if I were truly bent on taking a UHC bio course, should I just start fresh (I took AP bio last year)? On the other hand, I don’t really like chemistry, and I finished gen. chem 1 post-secondary (effectively earning the equivalent of an AP credit), so I could see myself taking regular gen. chem. 2 from the get-go.</p>

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<p>Sure, a lot of people place out of intro courses with AP or college courses taken in high school. IIRC it is recommended to have taken AP bio in order to take UHC bio.</p>

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<p>So I wouldn’t be able to place out of UHC bio into UHC bio 2 with my AP bio credit? It would just make me eligible for the UHC version of bio 1?</p>

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<p>I’m not sure, that’s something you’d have to ask your advisor when you register for courses. In regular classes, a 4 on AP bio allows someone to place out of Bio 1, and a 5 allows you to place out of intro bio entirely (both bio 1 and 2).</p>

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<p>TO:schrizto. Hi, i heard someone saying that even if you have AP credits for waving those intro courses, you should still take them to make your GPA look good bcoz higher level courses may decrease your GPA. My question is, does not med school take into consideration what level of courses u took in undergrad?Like, a 4.0 in intro, and a 3.7 in upper level, which is better? THX!</p>

14

<p>Lesson number one (this is very important):</p>

<p>Do NOT make an undergrad decision based on the Med school associated with the school.</p>

<p>That said…frankly I think you are making an enormous mistake to be discounting UND.</p>

<p>Sure it is a Catholic university (and you are Jewish) but there are plenty of non Catholic, non Christian students there and it is by far the highest ranked (and most selective) school you are considering. In fact, being Jewish at UND might even be helpful to you come application time. It’s about a four and a half hour drive from Cleveland and it’s alumni are among the most loyal and are part of one of the most amazing networks of any school, including Ivies. </p>

<p>Getting a UND education for less than $50K should NOT be taken lightly and will serve you well not only in Med school applications but also do FAR more for you later on in life than either Pitt or CWRU.</p>

<p>Add to everything else the fact that you will have an incredible undergrad experience on one of the most beautiful campuses in the US vs living in University Circle or Oakland…there’s no comparison here…</p>

<p>Do yourself a favor and take another real serious look at UND.</p>

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<p>4.0 is better. Medical school adcoms do not have the time to scrutinize your transcript. Usually, there is no way for them to tell how difficult a course is compared to another, so generally, they don’t care. (Obviously, if your transcript is loaded with clearly lightweight courses like Flatbreads 101 or Winetasting, that’s another story.)</p>

<p>Regardless, you should not be relying on your transcript to make your application stand out. If that is the most interesting thing about you, you are in big trouble.</p>

16

<p>Drop all science AP credits and retake them. There is no reason not to. Jumping into higher level courses is difficult because you are competing with people that are more experienced. Even if you wait a year and start the upper level courses at the right time, a lot of medical schools will only accept AP credit if you take a higher level course in that field as well. That’s not a big deal for, say, biology, but it would really suck to have to take a higher level physics if you have no interest in it. Take the class over again for experience, easier A, etc.</p>

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<p>

Bread happens to be a very difficult subject at my school :mad:</p>

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<p>The only B I ever got was in Bread.</p>

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<p>You guys are amateurs. You know what’s hard? Cupcakes! Yeah, you heard me right. It’s the dual challenge of getting the perfectly airy cake and the icing that’s neither too much sugar nor too much cream. That’s the type of course that med school adcoms KNOW is hardcore.</p>

20

<p>hahaha – the following is a true story.</p>

<hr>

<p>I was 18 years old at the UC Berkeley high school debate tournament. Our “codes” are based on our high schools – so, for example, I was “CPS A,” my teammate was “CPS B,” etc.</p>

<p>As CPS A, I walked over to my round. Rounds at Berkeley are notoriously late, so I sat down and began doing the homework that my insane Spanish teacher had assigned the week before – apparently she was trying to bring out our creativity or … something. My opponent, Miami Palmetto B, came by a few minutes later. While still waiting for our judge, I continued with my homework.</p>

<hr>

<p>MPB: “So… what’re you doing?”
Me: “I’m doing homework.”
<a href=“Pause.%20MPB%20seems%20a%20little%20nervous.”>I</a>
*
MPB: “… that looks like interesting homework. What are you doing?”
Me: “I’m coloring.”</p>

<p><a href=“Pause.%20More%20nervousness.”>I</a>*</p>

<p>MPB: “So, what class is that for?”</p>

<p>At this point, I decide to have some fun with him.</p>

<p>Me: (nonchalant) “It’s for coloring class.”
MPB: “Oh, that’s nice.”
<a href=“Pause.%20Awkward.%20Nervous.”>I</a>*</p>

<p>MPB: “What kind of classes do you normally take?”
Me: “Oh, coloring is the big one. But we also take things like conversation, tying shoelaces, naps, that sort of thing.”
MPB: “Oh, that’s interesting.”
<a href=“Pause.”>I</a>*</p>

<p>MPB: “… what’s your school like?”
Me: “Well, it’s a little weird.”
MPB: “Oh, really?” He does his best to sound surprised.
Me: “Yup. We only take 14 years olds who have already passed 6 AP exams.”
MPB: “… oh.”
Me: “Yeah, but once they get there, we assume they have no social skills whatsoever. So we spend four years trying to train them to be normal human beings. And part of that includes reliving your lost childhood.”
MPB: “Oh. I guess they’re doing… a pretty good job?” (He clearly means it as a compliment, but it is not necessarily a strong one.)
Me: “Thanks.”
<a href=“Pause.%20I%20continue%20coloring.”>I</a></p>

<p>At this point, my classmate CPS-C walks past. He hasn’t been listening in, we haven’t coordinated this – but apparently CPSC and I have pretty similar senses of humor.*</p>

<p>Me: “Hey, Alex – what’s your favorite class?”
**Alex **doesn’t miss a beat. “Trains.” MP-B’s eyes get wide. “Yeah, we take those little Brio trains and we make tracks and push them around. It’s fun.”
Me: “I though you weren’t doing very well, though,” I say.
Alex: “I’m not!” (distressed) “And if I fail, they’re going to send me back and I’ll have to repeat Duplo class!”
MPB: “Um,” he asks timidly, “what’s your least favorite class?”
Alex: “Conversation! It’s so hard!”
Me: “I know! They tell you to talk, but they won’t let you talk about easy things!”
Alex: “No Star Wars, no Fermat’s Last Theorem, no using Latin… it’s so hard!”
Me: “Yeah! They make us talk about sports, and the weather, and pop music! At least let us talk about Brahms! But no! It has to be Britney or Christina!”
**Alex **turns back to MPB: “Yeah, we’re both getting D’s in that class, but I think it’ll be okay. I had to spend a whole month learning the alphabet song last year.”</p>

<p><a href=“Pause”>I</a>*</p>

<p>MPB: “… what’s the name of your school? I saw on the post that you go to CPS…”</p>

<p>Alex and I look at each other. **Me: **“It’s the Coloring Practice School.”</p>