Doing Biochem with Pre-med
In state for UVA
full scholarship + honors college for Pitt
I would say go to Pitt. If you’re gonna pay for med school, save all the money undergrad that you can.
Pitt
uva is a great school but pitt for science/medicine is the place to be.
and an added bonus pittsburgh is an awesome city.
@guitar321 assuming money isnt an issue?
They are going to feel rather different in that Pitt is very much an urban school. UVA is almost the quintessential college campus. All else being equal I would say strongly consider Pitt. Even if money is not an impediment you will have lots of opportunity to spend lots of money in med school.
Congrats on your full schol to Pitt ! My D1 went this route (she was a GAP attendee) and did not even apply to any other Med school after her undergrad. She is in the first year at SOM and is having a blast both academically and socially.
two very different student bodies in terms of culture and talent
The culture of the two schools is different, but the strength of the student body is not- the students in the honors college at Pitt are very very strong. My daughter received a full tuition scholarship to Pitt and was invited to interview for room and board. She was very intimidated by the caliber of students she met.
@guitar321 assuming money isnt an issue?
Thank you for all the replies so far!! Parents are a lot more in favor of UVA, mostly because it is ranked higher overall, and in pre-med schools according to most sites
We are doing some of the same “math” here with my ds. He has some full tuition scholarships or nothing in terms of scholarships at in state UVA. Will definitely be way more than a $$ decision for my (also pre-med) ds. He is looking at teachers, living arrangements, undergrad research opportunities, dining halls (ha he loves food), school spirit, proximity to home (hoping he lands on somewhere close), etc. I am finding that it is still a considerable expense when you account for travel, room, board, etc even with a full scholarship and UVA is quite inexpensive and an amazing school. Good luck with your decision. I look forward to knowing where our ds will attend!
Unless the difference in ranking is massive, I don’t think you should pay too too much attention to them. Make a decision based on finances and the actual quality of the programs. Visit both if you can?
Most of the top instate kids that are accepted to UVa would also be able to get merit aid at lots of places. UVa is primarily need based so no merit money even for top students, so top instate kids these days often start looking elsewhere. Pitt is wonderful ( I have a Masters degree from there ) and UVa is too (one of my kids went there instate at full pay). We asked him about applying to Pitt (years ago) as he was very competitive for their top awards and we had family in Pittsburgh. He declined to apply as he preferred UVa and we were willing to pay, as we always were willing to fund an instate school. Some kids really want to go to their instate flagship school,some instate kids would feel UVa is a great fit, others wouldn’t. Once you go down the road of applying for merit,it seems hard to walk away from it. Good luck with the decision. The choice is not easy, especially if paying for graduate school or medical school as well is a possibility… Different vibes but both good choices. If you don’t have a strong pull to attend UVa (have always wanted to go there, feels like a great fit), it might not hurt to follow the money!
Were you offered an opportunity to interview for the guaranteed medical school admission program at Pitt? http://www.medadmissions.pitt.edu/admissions-requirements/guaranteed-admissions.php
If you were to get Pitt GAP, it would make the decision easier.
Would you be getting any need based aid from UVa to bring the cost down at all? You say your parents are in favor of UVa. So, they are willing to pay ?
@sevmom yes i’m lucky in that way that they would help financially
@collegekid292 If money isn’t an issue, choose which school you fit best in. They seem to have two different campus cultures, etc. UVA is more prestigious, though.
@Flurite, could you please elaborate on your comment about UVA and Pitt being different in culture? My son is applying to both and am very much interested in learning the difference.
Even if money is no issue…I don’t see the point of paying for UVa if you have a full scholarship at Pitt. It’s an excellent school and if you have med school dreams, your parents can keep their money in their pocket and devote it to med school. (And even if you don’t go to med school, you could use that for something else later).
Here’s the thing about numeric rankings. USNWR, for example, is quite opaque with how they do their rankings. They tell you the methodology, and each school gets some kind of score that is associated with their rankings. The problem is, although you know the numeric order that the schools are in, you don’t know what the absolute score is. Rankings are less meaningful without that, though, because you don’t know whether the difference between a certain number of places on the list is actually meaningful. For example, University of Pittsburgh is ranked #68 and University of Virginia is ranked #24. But what does that even mean? On a scale of 1-100, maybe UVa’s ranking is like a 85 and University of Pittsburgh’s ranking is like a 79. Maybe all of the schools in the top 100 or so are so close together than the ranking is functionally meaningless. You don’t know, because USNWR never gives you that information.
Besides, how do you even know that the rankings are ranking things that are even important? USNWR uses a bunch of inputs, like SAT scores and GPAs. There’s no evidence that those lead to greater post-college success, though. Like does your high school GPA determine whether you’re more likely to have a higher salary or go to med school?
The other question is does the ranking even matter for the thing that you want out of it? If your goal is med school, is the #24 school going to be any better getting you in than the #68? We don’t know!
I’ve never seen any schools ranked for pre-med. I’d be curious to know where your parents are getting that information from, since pre-med is usually a collection of prerequisite classes that’s fairly standard across most universities (freshman biology is freshman biology). Some schools may have better pre-med advising than others, but that’s different.
@bpc2017 The biggest difference is that Pitt is right in a decently-sized city and Charlottesville is located in a much smaller more rural city sort of thing. Also, Pitt greek life is virtually non-existent while greek life at UVA is very popular. Also Pitt’s campus is pretty much just right in the city while UVA is a UNESCO world heritage site. Pitt’s probably more metropolitan while UVA has a lot of historic tradition that influences its vibe