<p>It's time for me to make a decision and I've narrowed my options down to these schools. I would love some input! I plan on pursuing medical school, so cost has been a major deciding factor for me.</p>
<p>Grinnell College
University of Alabama @ Birmingham (with Honors)
Birmingham-Southern College
Oxford at Emory U.
Brandeis U. (midyear admit)</p>
<p>UAB and BSC are giving me the most money (full-rides). Grinnell is also giving me a lot of money, I'll pay roughly $10,000 a year with a very small loan.</p>
<p>Oxford and Brandeis are offering me about the same, half of the total cost.</p>
<p>What do you think? It seems like every school comes with a trade off, not that I don't appreciate all the scholarships/grants.</p>
<p>Have you visited each school? What did you think about each school?</p>
<p>Grinnell is a lovely place, but $10,000 x 4 = $40,000 which would be a goodly chunk of your first year of Med School. Save your money and debt for Med School. UAB and BSC are your best bets for undergrad.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids I visited all but Grinnell and Brandeis. I’m planning on overnighting at Grinnell next week though, </p>
<p>@happymomof1 I’ve heard various conflicting things about the importance of undergrad for premed students. Some tell me rank matters, others say it doesn’t matter at all, in fact, which med school barely even matters… Which is why I’m experiencing mixed feelings about choosing a state school.</p>
<p>If you don’t decide to do premed, which school will you be happiest at? Remember, the vast majority of people who come in as premed don’t actually end up at med school.</p>
<p>I will say that the head of the environmental science department at Oxford of Emory noted that students who continue on from the school to the ES department tended to be a bit stronger in science than their counterparts that started at the main Emory campus. That being said, Grinell is an excellent school, and if you’re fine with the rural setting, probably better than any of your other options. Brandeis too is fantastic (full disclosure, my mom went there, and I seriously considered it), although the intro class sizes are considerably larger than either Oxford, BSC, or Grinnell.</p>
<p>I would probably still have to pick between Grinnell and Oxford. For both of these schools, I would say the main detracting feature is the setting. But, also, I know that I’ll make friends no matter where i go, and eventually get used to the nowhere-ness. </p>
<p>On another note, I see that you attend Oxford. Do you feel like there are a lot of negative feelings toward Oxford continues at Emory? I’ve also heard different things about that…</p>
<p>For med school admissions your undergrad GPA matters. Your GPA in the pre-med courses matters. Your MCAT score matters. Any shadowing, volunteer work, medical career related research matter. Your letters of recommendation from your professors matter. The college or university name on your diploma barely matters at all. Truly. People get into med school from places that have never been mentioned here at CC every single year. </p>
<p>If money is an issue, and you are devoted to your pre-med goal, then UAB and BSC are perfectly fine. Once you graduate from Med School no one will care where you did your undergrad work.</p>
<p>If you are concerned that it looks like more students from selective private college X get into med school than students from state U Y, you need to remember that X has already done some of the pre-selection for med school. The Y doesn’t do that unless there is a selective admission honors program - like the one that has admitted you at UAB. Better to compare med school admissions from the honors program than from the overall student body when you are trying to line up UAB with a selective private institution.</p>
<p>
I know a number of continuees and none report hearing negative things about themselves. If students that started at the main campus do think ill of their Oxford counterparts, they don’t express that sentiment to their faces. For the most part, if someone from the main campus meets an Oxford student, they ask what it’s like or just nod and say “cool”. </p>
<p>Additionally, Oxford is not nearly as isolated as Grinnell. It’s only 38 miles away from the Atlanta campus which has a MARTA (Atlanta’s public transit system) stop on campus. Last weekend I went downtown to see a few free concerts, and getting there was not an issue. Two other things that help to decrease Oxford’s isolation are the free bike program, which allows students to get to downtown Covington, the city next to Oxford, in less than seven minutes. Oxford also allows freshmen to bring cars, so many students take weekend trips to the University of Georgia, hiking areas, other places around Atlanta, etc.</p>
<p>I have also been accepted at BSC with a nice award package. Don’t they boast they have more graduates accepted to medical/law/graduate school? The campus is beautiful but worried about small campus and what’s to do in B’Ham- I’m into music and art and have no idea what there is to do there. Will probably choose BSC because of aid package. They really do seem to care about the students too</p>
<p>snapcrackle pop…uab is an excellent school for premed… 7 hospitals close to campus, wonderful professors that encourage research with undergrads, UAB receives more research money than all alabama schools combined. I noticed you said with honors…which honors college were you accepted to? Son will be a senior at uab this year and has had incredible opportunities. </p>
<p>freshmanwill…lots to do in birmingham…alys stephens center is on uab campus and always having something, birmingham convention center has many different performances.</p>
<p>@happymomof1 that’s good advice, I was only looking into UAB as a whole before. </p>
<p>@whenhen I did an overnight just the other day at Oxford and ended up liking it a lot more than I expected. It seems like there are a lot of events on campus, so there isn’t really much need to go into Atlanta.</p>
<p>@freshmanwill I think I remember their premed acceptance to be 65%… But I could be wrong. A lot of kids from my school are going to BSC and it is a really nice school. A lot of the teachers come and talk at my high school and the always make an effort to recognize us.
And, in Birmingham, it can get boring so you kind of have to make your own fun. The Bham Museum of Art has a lot of cool programs, the BJCC has a lot of great concerts, I saw Maroon 5 last month, the Red Mountain Theatre has a lot of small productions, and then 5 Points South is like a little square with a couple of cool places to eat in and around that area. </p>
<p>@parent56 I’m picking between sci-tech and experiental. I feel like with either of them I’ll have a lot of interning/research opportunities.</p>
<p>personally if you are premed, sci tech would be excellent…you will have research opportunities available from your first semester freshman year. Dr Tucker is wonderful. the sci tech honors group is a very close knit cohesive group…with special courses/classes geared towards your interests…ie public speaking for scientific presentations. you will have a peer mentor, retreats, sci tech meetings and speakers throughout the year as well as activities. What is your chosen major?</p>
<p>To the original poster: I just got back from visiting BSC and I love it, but, like you, I’m concerned about money because I’m planning on going to medical school too. If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of GPA and ACT/SAT scores did you have to get a full ride to BSC?</p>