Hey guys!! I’m having trouble deciding between Rochester, GW, and Northeastern. I am not someone who has a super specific ‘fit’ Im looking for and I feel that at larger schools you can make them small/ find your niche. I like each of these schools for different reasons; I’ve visited each of them once or twice and I can imagine myself at each one. Money wise, merit aid is approximately equal, but I’m lucky to have parents who’ve worked very hard and are choosing to invest in my education.
I am a premed student and I’ll major in Public Health/ Health Science or some derivative or these. I’m really interested in health policy and the intersection between government and healthcare. I plan to pursue research, shadowing, and an internship/coop at each school.
Pros of each school:
Rochester: Research grant ($3000?)/ plenty of open opportunities in medicine/ public health
GW: Honors program/ internship culture
Northeastern: Coop/ 4+1 MPH
Please give me any insights that may help me make a decision! I appreciate anything. It’s developing into a real nail biter because deposits are almost due (and I’m not planning to double deposit).
Hey ltu123,
At the end of the day you can really only answer this question for yourself. There are several steps, however, that you can take to elucidate your decision making process.
Supportiveness. You are going to spend the better part of four years of your life here, and you need to make sure that you won’t be miserable. In your visits, where was it clear that the students support each other (not super cut-throat), and that the teachers and administration want the students to succeed?
Career. Look at people you admire in either the Public Health field or just in Medicine. Look especially at the ones that graduated from these schools. If one school has a track record of producing people whose careers you admire, then perhaps it would be a good fit for you too.
Track. First look at what sorts of internships or coops you would be doing at each school, but then also take a look at what sort of stuff is available if you suddenly found out you have a passion for something else.
Grades. This is a double edged sword. A high GPA is important for med school. If a school has a high average GPA, that may mean grade inflation exists, or it may mean that the students all compete a lot with one another. Find this statistic, but take it with a grain of salt.
Required courses. You seem like a student who knows what he wants to do, so perhaps look at the courses available in each school, and also where students often intern.
Lastly, (and I really mean last in importance) the Northeastern MPH program may or may not help with medical school, but it would definitely help with a residency or even a different career later down the line, so that seems valuable.
Don’t torture yourself over this decision. The fact that you got into all these schools with merit aid shows that you are a bright student, and your success in achieving your goals will be determined by what you do, not where you do it.
I would say NE because of location. Assuming most other things are equal academically, NE sits in Boston. Boston is a mecca for biotech and health sciences and partners well with the universities and hospitals. I would bet there is more opportunity to work with those partnerships than the other schools. The Co-op program likely already has ties to opportunities for you to plug in to.
Congratulations on some great acceptances! And I appreciate that you are appreciative of your parents’ hard work.
Where is your heart? That’s what matters in this case. You can go to med school from any of these fine schools. If it were me, I’d go to Rochester. I like the traditional campus environment, and the other two schools are much more urban. I’d personally be less interested in coops/internships, though I would like some access to these. I’d think NE especially, and GWU somewhat also, would provide great academics but their strength is in coop/internship opportunities. UR, I think, would be a more classically academic environment, which would suit me, and be my preferred way to prepare for med school.
But that’s ME. What appeals to YOU? GW and NE are very urban schools. Is that appealing for you for the next four years? It’s not for me, and I could not have afforded it as a college student, but of course many students would prefer an urban choice. I prefer more traditional classroom learning/studying but others prefer learning by doing? Both are valid. Does one appeal to you?
I’ll just add that I think it might cost a lot more to be a college student at GWU than UR. GW students are pretty affluent. Metro is expensive, and I think GWU students Uber often. There’s a lot to do in DC, but most of it is expensive in terms of transportation and the costs of restaurants, clubs, etc. To do things with friends might be expensive. But, of course, lots that depends on you. Good luck!
Rochester would seem to offer you the straightest path to medical school while still offering you excellent opportunities for undergraduate-level research. UR would also offer you the academic, athletic and social balance of a typically collegiate setting, should that be important to you.