<p>@marlierae uf has a good one actually</p>
<p>First, don’t worry about med schools, all of them are very good. Worry about your undergraduate degree and whatever pre-med support is offered at the University. When you graduate, you will be applying to several med schools and will be happy at any of them (including UF’s med school; it does have one).</p>
<p><a href=“http://med.ufl.edu/”>http://med.ufl.edu/</a></p>
<p>I recommend you check out the Pre-med & Medical School forum.</p>
<p><a href=“Pre-Med & Medical School - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-medical-school/</a></p>
<p>Either school can prepare you for medical school. However, “pre-med” is more of a thing at UF. Last year UF had 708 applicants to med schools (behind only UC-Berkeley, UCLA, U-Michigan, and UT-Austin), while UA had 150. It feels like every freshman is in pre-med or engineering, but that changes by the end of the first year. :)</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/321458/data/2013factstable2-7.pdf”>https://www.aamc.org/download/321458/data/2013factstable2-7.pdf</a></p>
<p>This table will give you an idea of the MCAT and GPA requirements:</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/321494/data/2013factstable17.pdf”>https://www.aamc.org/download/321494/data/2013factstable17.pdf</a></p>
<p>@Gator88NE </p>
<p>since UF has so many applicants to med school, do they do Committee Letters? That would be hard to do for such a large group!</p>
<p>Alabama does do Committee Letters for its med school applicants. </p>
<p>Dont’ worry about particular med schools right now. When it comes time for you to apply to med schools (if you are still interested or qualified at that point), you will apply to many with hopes of getting into at least one. All US MD schools are excellent. </p>
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<p>Just because you havent heard of a particular school’s med school does not mean that they don’t have one. When you research med schools, you will hear about some med schools that you have never heard of. </p>
<p>@Gator88NE </p>
<p>…I just reviewed UF’s premed advising. UF does not do Committee Letters. this isn’t unusual for large publics that have an unusually high number of applicants because it is a costly process. Furthermore, UF only does mock interviews once you have received an II (interview invite). </p>
<p>I can understand UF’s limitations with 708 med school applicants and only 3 advisers. </p>
<p>Bama has 4 advisers for 150 applicants. <— That is a significant difference…along with the fact that Bama does Committee Letters and Mock Interviews for every applicant. Additionally, a few months before the Mock Interviews for the Committee Letters, Bama brings in real med school interviewers to give mock interviews so that the applicants can receive “real” experience and feedback from actual med school interviewers. </p>
<p>@mom2collegekids </p>
<p>Not much point in doing a mock interview, if you can’t land an interview. :)</p>
<p>You see 708 applicants and think, “that must place limitations on the resources available to each applicant!” </p>
<p>I see 708 applicants and think “UF must have the resources available to support the generation of so many applicants!”. </p>
<p>UF and UA have plenty of information their websites, the student should do the research (and visit each school) when comparing the schools. </p>
<p><a href=“Pre-Health – Academic Advising Center”>Pre-Health – Academic Advising Center;
<p><a href=“http://prehealth.ua.edu/”>http://prehealth.ua.edu/</a></p>
<p>To bad the “acceptance rate for medical school admission”, that’s self-reported by universities always has to be taken with a grain of salt (since each university has it’s own definition for “acceptance rate”), or we could have numerical data to use for comparisons.</p>
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<p>Undergraduate institutions play a small role in the admission process….</p>
<p>Which brings us back to the point that you can succeed at either university. However, it’s up to the student to perform (GPA/MCAT), get the EC’s and letters of recommendations, etc. </p>
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<p>Actually, there is. Sometimes there isn’t time to schedule a mock interview between the II and the actual interview. Also, since some students have to do or plan on doing a Glide Year, then doing a mock interview before an II is important.</p>
<p>Gator…if you have not been thru the med school app process, you are not going to be aware of these details. I went thru all of this 2 years ago with my son who is now in med school. The process is like no other. I have also been thru the PhD app process with my other child and that is peanuts compared to the med school app process.</p>
<p>The OP to this thread asked a very specific question which is easy to answer without getting into a nasty back and forth.</p>
<p>To the OP…both schools are fine to prepare you for almost any career. If finances don’t play into your decision, then you have the freedom to choose either school.</p>
<p>If you are instate for Alabama, and finances are an issue, I can’t see why you would choose Florida over Alabama. The schools have very similar programs and are both large state research universities. As an instate student from Alabama, you would have a great bargain. And if you are eligible for any of their merit awards…an even better financial deal. Florida would be much more costly.</p>
<p>If you have medical school in your future, it would be best to graduate from undergrad with no debt…or as little as possible.</p>
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<p>UF doesn’t seem to think much of it either. If your point is that UA somehow would better prepare a student for med school, I find that hard to believe. </p>
<p>I think the OP got whatever info they needed from this thread; going back and forth on UF v. UA would be a waste of time. </p>
<p>@gator88ne how is it a waste of time?</p>
<p><<<
UF doesn’t seem to think much of it either. If your point is that UA somehow would better prepare a student for med school, I find that hard to believe.</p>
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<p>Gator. I think you misunderstand. UF may or may not think it is important. More likely, the fact that it only has 3 advisors for so many applicants forces them to take a triage approach. That wouldn’t prove that that they don’t think there is value to having all applicants have mock interviews. It suggests that they are doing the best that they can do with limited resources.</p>
<p>as far as education goes…no, I don’t think that either school does a better job preparing a student for med school. That said, I do think that there is value to having a Committee Letter.</p>
<p>As in arguing over which school is “better” is a waste of time, as it doesn’t really address the OP’s question. </p>
<p>This thread got wayyy off track with insults and, frankly, absurd interpretations of comments in some cases. I deleted them. Let’s keep it on track and polite, please.</p>
<p>Philly - you just posted about my comment. It’s okay for you, just not for me?</p>
<p>lilelmo - I don’t know you. All I know of you was that you posted a very disrespectful comment to an extremely helpful poster on this forum. You had the grace to apologize to her and I respect that. </p>
<p>M2K has been a tremendous help to countless people on this forum, myself included. I have discovered that most posters on this forum are kind, helpful, knowledgable, enthusiastic, and delightfully entertaining. They are like family at times. It is difficult to stand by and see them insulted. That’s all.</p>
<p>@lilelmo- You’re missing the bigger picture. It’s not about “being better.” I find it helpful to read about the perspective of parents and students. Clearly, any kid in med school is doing it themselves. Moms are not taking the classes for the kids. Maybe your med school application process did not include parent involvement- but many families provide a wonderful support system to their students as they move on to the next level. If you are in med school and have done it all on your own then you can provide the experience from your eyes, and I would love to hear it. What do you think about the mock interviews, etc.? </p>
<p>It seems to me that a student can achieve the end goal at UF or Bama- but I get the feeling that you a more of “a number” at UF. </p>
<p>@BocaTerp Please correct me if I’m misinformed on this issue, but I interpreted the Florida Incentive Scholarship to read that it is for National Merit Scholars, not Natonal Merit Finalists. The Scholar awards issued by NM Corp are few (800 nationally, I think) and EXTREMELY competitive . Since UF is no longer a National Merit Sponsor College, I don’t think it’s safe to consider the school as a “gimmee” for NMFs. Last year, NM Sponsor Colleges in Florida included FSU, USF, UCF, New College and U Miami. Of course, if your employer is a sponsor, that may make a difference.</p>
<p>@3boystogo
@BocaTerp </p>
<p>Not just the one time 2500 recipients, but also the corporate and college recipients (AND you must be a FL resident…which the OP is NOT.)</p>
<p>3boys…you are right. The award can’t be considered to be a “gimme” for someone named a NMF. Unless a UF instate incoming NMF frosh has a corporate award or the one-time award, he won’t qualify if UF no longer participates at a NM sponsored univ. </p>
<p>If UF is no longer a NM sponsored univ, then I suspect that there will be pressure for it to become one. lol<br>
Did it discontinue its $5k NMF award? </p>
<p>(BTW…there are about 2500 recipients of the one time 2500 award. But of course, most of those are not FL residents.)</p>
<p>Florida Incentive Scholarship Program
The Florida Incentive Scholarship Program (FIS) is a new state sponsored scholarship that was approved in the legislative session. UF is a participant in FIS.</p>
<p>A student designated as a National Merit “Scholar” by the National Merit Corporation is eligible for the scholarship. To be designated a “scholar” a student must receive a scholarship from the National Merit Corporation, a corporate sponsor or a college sponsored scholarship. The terms “scholar” and “finalist” are sometimes used interchangeably when in fact a “finalist” becomes a “scholar” only if awarded a scholarship. Students who have received the National Merit “Scholar” designation will be eligible to participate in FIS.</p>
<p>Additional information on FIS can be found on the State of Florida’s Office for Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) website <a href=“http://www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org”>www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org</a> or by contacting the Office for Student Financial Affairs at (352) 392-1275.</p>
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Maybe your med school application process did not include parent involvement</p>
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<p>I believe that student is an incoming freshman in college…not someone who has been thru the med school app process.</p>
<p>@Gator88NE </p>
<p>If this student had instate tuition rights or had some other means to pay a lower cost to UF, then the recommendation would be to go there as a premed student. Unless the family is so affluent that they can spend $160k for undergrad and another $200k+ for med school, then the route that would end up with the least med school debt is to go to the less-expensive school. </p>
<p>Even when parents are willing to pay for undergrad at an OOS public, it can make better sense to ask them to put that money towards med school and go with the less expensive option for med school. </p>
<p>A flagship is a flagship in the eyes of a med school admissions committee. No need to spend a bunch of extra money for any of them. In the case of the OP, the actual cost for each school would be about $60k for Bama (after scholarships) and about $160k for Florida. One of these schools may not be better, but one sure will leave a lot more money to go towards med school. </p>
<p>@mom2collegekids </p>
<p>LOL! I hope you don’t expect me to defend spending $100K more for a pre-med program. :)</p>
<p>However, folks do it all of the time. UA has it’s share of full pay OOS students (it may even have more than UF, now that 60% of the incoming freshman at UA are OOS)… </p>
<p>^^
I don’t know any full-pay premeds except one that tried to be premed about 4 years ago and wasn’t a strong enough student (didn’t qualify for any scholarships). After the first semester, the career goal changed. </p>
<p>Most/all OOS premeds at Bama are likely strong enough students that they aren’t full pay…they received at least a half-tuition award (at least the ones who are strong enough to make it to actually applying to med school.) I will probably get flamed for this but it would be hard for a traditional unhooked student with below an ACT 29 to make it thru premed with a med-school worthy GPA. </p>
<p>The OP’s stats (ACT 34, 3.9 gpa) are plenty high enough to be a strong premed student who will likely succeed if she remains interested in medicine…plus she gets the full tuition merit.</p>
<p>Since no one addressed the OP’s question regarding Methodist and Baptist churches near UF, I can help with some of that information. The Gator Wesley Foundation is the largest Methodist church near campus located directly across the street from the business school: <a href=“http://gatorwesley.com/”>http://gatorwesley.com/</a>. Additionally, when I was a UF student in the late 80’s, the Baptist Student Union was huge on campus. Here is the website with some more recent information: <a href=“http://www.ufbcm.org/”>http://www.ufbcm.org/</a>. As far as academics, I never felt like a number at the University of Florida. I enjoyed my time there, and know of some kids who were premed and then stayed for medical school at UF and now have jobs at Shands Hospital in Gainesville. I have never visited the University of Alabama, so I can’t comment on that school, but I can say that I agree that you should visit both schools in order to get a feel for how you feel personally about each one. No one else can make this decision for you. Talk with your parents and figure out how each school works for you, financially and academically, and then go for it! Best of luck in your decision!</p>