Got off the waitlist at Vanderbilt. USC is still affordable and shouldn’t be a problem but I don’t know if it is worth giving up the full ride at Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt
Pros:
More “Prestigious”. I personally don’t care about t his but would prestige help me get into med school?
From California and a change of location would be nice
Smaller student population
Better academic programs?
Cons:
Much more competitive than USC, my GPA and test scores are at the 25th percentile of the admitted class…imposter syndrome?
Farther from family
Grade Deflation
USC
Pros:
Close to family
Has an accelerated MHA program I can fall back on if I decide med school is not for me
Trojan Alumni Network since I want to live in California (if I decide not to go to med school, this is very helpful)
I feel like I would be a more competitive applicant coming from USC
I would probably choose Vanderbilt even if the money were the same, but since you’re hoping for med school, it would be nice to save the money for that. I’m sure the pre med classes will be challenging at Vandy but I wouldn’t think there would be any more grade deflation than at USC.
I would favor Vandy, all other things being equal. But in this time when we are expecting school to be disrupted, there’s something to be said for staying closer to home.
When you look at costs, factor in the additional cost for Vandy of 1800 mile airline tickets multiple times per year, the cost of shipping possessions back and forth, and the cost of air fare for any family members who might want to visit while you’re there. THat $10,000 savings might get eaten up pretty quickly.
I’m surprised by the number of “Should I go to college X because it’s easier than College Y” threads. If a college as big as USC had that much grade inflation, don’t you think the med schools would be aware of it?
I vote USC unless you really want to get away. I think Vandy is a bit over-rated and not as presitigious to medical schools as you think. If you want to go away, could do it for medical school.
Oh, and med schools don’t care about perceived “prestige” of a college or university. They care about GPA, MCAT score, your medical volunteering/job-shadowing, etc. If/when you do get to med school, you will have classmates from all sorts of places you’ve never heard of before.
@circuitrider
Some schools are known for grade deflation. They are out of step with the general trend in higher education, and given that grad school, professional school, etc are more and more necessary in today’s world, I think it is a real negative. Its not about being afraid of hard work, rather not wanting to put yourself at a distinct disadvantage for future goals.
@happymomof1 It depends on the medical school. Ivy med schools (according to my sister anyway) do favor kids from Ivy undergrad, and prestige counts. But in this case, I don’t think Vanderbilt gives such a boost.
@mathcsb - Ivy med schools appearing to favor Ivy graduates might not be a prestige thing, it is more likely to be they-already-are-clearly-super-smart thing. But @mom2collegekids is one of our experts on pre-med issues so I will tag her here in the hope that she will spot this and clarify.
It’s a medical school by medical school determination; for example, Jefferson and Emory both state on their official websites that college attended is a selection factor. Other medical schools make no mention of college attended as a selection factor.
@oldlaw I am pretty sure it is a factor. Harvard Medical School first year class is not likely filled with kids from unknown schools. Maybe one or two here and there, but not generally. I think there are also regional aspects to this. Sister is pre-med, and going through looking at medical schools.
How are you “pretty sure”? Is there data to support your assertion,?
And according to the HMS website, their first year class has 74 colleges represented out of a class of 165. https://meded.hms.harvard.edu/admissions-at-a-glance
@injparent
I was going to agree with you at first, but then I remembered reading about this. If a professor creates an exam that has 30% of questions that are of material beyond the scope of the class or expressed expectations, and then gives an A only to top 20% of the class, that would be an example. I don’t think it is about level of difficulty. It has to do with testing and grading practices that go outside the norm of standard practices. Such a school or professor would be creating a relative disadvantage for their students.
@oldlaw My sister is starting to look at medical schools. She is obsessive. lol. She looks at things like this (i.e., how many kids from Duke vs. Yale got into Cornell’s medical school). Apparently this is something available. Have not done the research myself. But it stands to reason.
Actually, it doesn’t. Since there’s no data-HMS isn’t telling-an equally plausible argument is that HMS takes the very top student available from as many different schools as possible. Hence, 74 different schools represented.
And I’ve been through the medical school application process multiple times the past several years, and don’t know where “something is available” in this regard.