<p>I've been accepted into a couple of colleges now, and a common theme that obstructs my ability to make a decision is prestige vs. potential. For instance: University of Florida is an up and coming school. With the astounding volume of applicants, the students who they can accept are going to be brilliant, and the school will get better and better in the future. New College of Florida is also going to get quite good in the coming years. Meanwhile, Tulane is a prestigious school with a lot of history and renown, countering the party history of UF, and the lack of history of New College. I'm hoping to do medicine in the future, and a well-known undergrad helps in the extremely competitive med school game. The surroundings of each university all fit me pretty well. Tulane costs about 15 grand more/year. Is it worth this sum of money to go for the prestige?</p>
<p>No. I'd go for UF, which is known as an excellent school. The difference in prestige for med school is negligible.</p>
<p>thank you for the advice. There is an added complication however. I got into the Honors program at Tulane and not at Florida, how does honors enrollment affect postgraduate admissions?</p>
<p>UF and Tulane are pretty close though, aren't they?</p>
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Tulane is a prestigious school with a lot of history and renown, countering the party history of UF, and the lack of history of New College.
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I think you're exaggerating the difference between UF and Tulane. While a solid school, Tulane's prominence is pretty much limited to the south and just isn't that prestigious to the rest of the nation -- certainly not nearly as much as Duke or even Vandy.</p>
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UF and Tulane are pretty close though, aren't they?
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Probably a more accurate statement...</p>
<p>yeah i don't know if i would necessarily consider tulane as exceptionally more prestigious than UF, if at all.</p>
<p>tulane is smaller, there's always the possibility of augmented professor interactions vs. florida, which might help when considering med school.</p>
<p>the bottom line here is for you to go where you are going to perform better, because that will have a much greater effect on your future in medicine than any hair-splitting comparison of tulane vs. UF.</p>
<p>that being said, my personal opinion w/o knowing you is that tulane is not worth an extra $15k a year over florida, and even if the prices were identical it still might be a hard call.</p>
<p>It depends. If you can afford it, Tulane is probably the better choice, and you might even be able to have a hand in New Orleans community service activities, which, if medically related, would look strong. However, $15k is $15k. The schools are very similar, though. Heck, even US News puts them at 49 and 50 (U of F, then Tulane, for some reason).</p>
<p>Just some perspective:</p>
<p>Tulane SAT range: 1220 to 1430 (of 1600)
U of Florida SAT range: 1140 to 1360 (of 1600)</p>
<p>Tulane has slightly higher SAT averages, yet they are very, very much the same.</p>
<p>You should take out any and all medical school considerations from your decision making process. Reasons being:</p>
<p>1) any help or hindrance that a school's name gives you, is easily outweighed (in some cases by orders of magnitude) by what you actually accomplish.</p>
<p>2) you'll be more successful where you're happiest academically, socially, physically and emotionally. </p>
<p>3) the vast majority of HS students who say they want to be pre-med don't even take the MCAT, let alone ever apply to medical school. Odds are you'll find some other major/career that fits you better than medicine.</p>
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Odds are you'll find some other major/career that fits you better than medicine.
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Translation: You succumb to all the pre-med weeder courses and decide to study sociology or art history instead.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether you're looking at prestige or potential, UF is the best known on a national level. Tulane is excellent, but only really holds a big name in the south. Hardly anyone has heard of New College.</p>