<p>As an aspiring surgeon, I want to know which is more important in the long run; a prestigious medical school, or a prestigious undergraduate education. I live in Texas, and am guaranteed admission to UT Austin (top7%), and have heard that it gets the job done for pre meds. It would be an incredibly affordable option for my family, the instate tuition being a mere 9k. Over in Dallas is UT Southwestern Medical School, a top 25 university with strong hospital connections and 6 nobel prize winners teaching there, also an extremely affordable option, instate tuition being only 13k, aaaaand 90% of their admissions must be residents of Texas. They have a relatively high acceptance rate ( still low of course, thats med school). My family could afford more than this, and if the chance to attend a top college arises, should I spend more money on med school or undergrad? Due to the extremely low med school acceptance rates, wouldn't it be best to have a big name college backing you up whilst you try to make med school a reality? </p>
<p>You will probably get the same answers that you got when you asked this a few days ago. Big name colleges won’t get you much advantage in med school applications, and since there is little to no financial aid available for med schools, it makes sense to spend as little as possible on your undergrad degree.</p>
<p>Excellent grades, excellent scores on the MCAT and excellent LOR are what matters. If you do not get accepted into a medical school it will NOT be because you attended UT.</p>
<p>It also makes sense to get an undergrad degree that will help you to earn a living if you do not get accepted into medical school.</p>
<p>KKmama is correct. UT Austin is an excellent choice for your pre-med education. Any of the Texas medical schools would provide you with a solid medical education. You seem to be confusing excellence with prestige. If you want to be a surgeon you must demonstrate excellence in your undergraduate work, do well on the MCAT, and show real interest in medicine as a career so that you can win admission to medical school. In medical school you will need to perform well across the board and demonstrate a a real interest and commitment to surgery. Then in the match process you will need to find a program that will best suit you in preparing you as a surgeon. I sincerely hope that you would pursue excellence in surgery, i.e., skill and caring, rather than prestige. If I may be blunt, your post demonstrates a preoccupation with prestige and money that most medical school admissions committees would find undesirable in a candidate for admission.</p>
<p>The big bucks will be going to medical school. Whether you want to spend additional big bucks on undergraduate (perhaps taking on additional debt) is up to you.</p>
<p>Med school by far. If you do succeed in your goal of becoming a doctor (or whatever your career path is) people will care about your final or terminal degree, very few will care about undergrad.</p>
<p>In addition, med schools will pay more attention to your GPA and MCAT scores than where you went for undergrad. You can go to top med schools from a state flagships or virtually anywhere. If you were to choose a different school for undergrad, choose it because of the opportunities available, people, or environment, not necessarily because it has a bigger “name.” (Of course, one could argue schools with larger “names” are also more rigorous in some occasions) However, I do think you need to have a serious sit-down talk with your parents. Are they willing to help pay for an expensive undergraduate education and med school? Most students opt for their state flagship or cheaper options during undergrad for these reasons, and because they don’t want to be in excessive debt after graduation, which can significantly hamper your lifestyle.</p>
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Due to the extremely low med school acceptance rates, wouldn’t it be best to have a big name college backing you up whilst you try to make med school a reality?<<<<</p>
<p>Big names do not “back you up” for med school. Med schools don’t care about that. Besides, UT is a very fine school and no med school is going to question a premed education from there.</p>
<p>I don’t think you understand. Undergrad does not prepare students for med school or the MCAT. The prereqs are basic classes that other STEM kids are taking. They are BASIC classes…nothing special…nothing unique happening at “big name” schools. They don’t teach those classes “better.” lol Typically, they’re all using the same textbook. </p>
<p>If you get a high GPA and a strong MCAT score, and also have medically related ECs and very good LORs, then you will have the same options no matter where you go to undergrad. You won’t get a better MCAT score just because you went to X univ…it doesn’t work that way. You’re a strong test taker. You will likely get a strong MCAT score.</p>
<p>Med school is expensive - save your money for that.</p>
<p>It can depend very much on circumstances as to where to spend one’s money. I have seen a number of kids apply to top schools like HPY along with guaranteed admit medical programs, and it’s about split in the middle as to what is chosen when it comes down to one of the schools with the the most pananche or the sure med school admit. A real life example of such a thing would be, say Harvard, vs some school hardly known to anyone that has a guaranteed med school track. The danger in selecting the med school guarantee in such a case, is that young people do often change their minds and things happen. Which did happen to a brilliant aspiring surgeon I knew. She then found herself at a school she’d never have even considered other than the med school option, that she disliked intently and her transfer options did not pan out as great as her nouveau college choices.</p>
<p>In your case, you are giving very little by picking UTAustin, an excellent school. From a cost perspective, it’ makes a lot more sense to take that route than to spend money for a private expensive school, when there are money limitations in the picture. You would not be as “loaned Up” an issue a lot of young doctors are facing these days. Believe me, it makes a difference. My close friend went to an in state med school, commuting for that reason, and her brother gave up Harvard for UMich with a med school track. Neither owed money after they finished med school and could see what an advantage that was over those who did owe. </p>
<p>What is important for med school admisssions are grades, and it doesn’t much matter which school, and MCAT scores for which having money for test prep can be important. </p>
<p>The main questions is whether you should give up an opportunity to a most selective school accept over a less expensive and excellent in school option. That’s one that many students have to ponder if they are fortunate enough to have that choice. There is no question that there is the allure of a big name school like HPY, and if you should choose not to go into medicine, that can be a factor in other options, though UT Austin appears to me to pack quite the whallop too, especially in Texas. But that’sa personal decision a lot of students face.</p>
<p>There are many medical students at prestige medical schools who went to the state flagship, or a smaller, less “prestigious” private school. There are also many residents at “prestige” programs who did not attend med school at “prestige” programs. And last,y, there are many doctors who did not do any of the above at “prestige” programs…but they are doctors, nonetheless.</p>
<p>As has been pointed out to you…UT is a great research university. A great place to get your undergrad degree at an affordable price. The medical schools in Texas are very favorably priced for their instate residents. That is a nice thing too. </p>
<p>If money is no object, and you will be paying out of pocket without loans…then anywhere is fine. But really, you should be trying to keep your undergrad debt to a bare minimum because you very likely will have debt for medical school…regardless of where you attend.</p>
<p>There is so much more to consider here. Do you want to live in Texas? What kind of surgery do you want to practice? What is your undergraduate interest? You can do fine going to UT Austin and then UT Southwestern. </p>
<p>My vote would be to go to the undergrad school that you want to go to and then worry about med school later. Those college friends will be your friends for life. Plus, they will be the alumni network that you hang with later when you are some hot shot doctor going to athletic events or other school events. </p>
<p>Do you want to be an ortho? Go to a top flight engineering school and make top grades. Do you want to be a cardiovascular surgeon? Go to an exclusive university, make very top grades, go to med school and make very, very top grades. Then, save your money for those years doing fellowships where you will be working incredible hours and your spouse will be bored senseless. Plastic surgery? Private school for undergrad–Vanderbilt or SMU, maybe Baylor (show that you are a member of the country club set). Do you want to be a general surgeon? Go the UT route and settle down in some suburb of some medium-sized town, become president of the local hospital board and live the dream.</p>
<p>But realistically, if you aren’t even in college yet, it is impossible to know what area of medicine you will be drawn to or even if you will stick with medicine. I know of plenty of people who had ideas of going to med school, only to decide they didn’t want to work that hard. They became dentists and make more money with better hours.</p>
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Do you want to be an ortho? Go to a top flight engineering school and make top grades. Do you want to be a cardiovascular surgeon? Go to an exclusive university, make very top grades, go to med school and make very, very top grades. Then, save your money for those years doing fellowships where you will be working incredible hours and your spouse will be bored senseless. Plastic surgery? Private school for undergrad–Vanderbilt or SMU, maybe Baylor (show that you are a member of the country club set). Do you want to be a general surgeon? Go the UT route and settle down in some suburb of some medium-sized town, become president of the local hospital board and live the dream.</p>
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<p>The above is the strangest advice I have ever seen in regards to picking an UNDERGRAD when you have aspirations of becoming a doctor. Your undergrad has little/NO impact on what your specialty will be. </p>
<p>Why would anyone need to go to a “top flight engineering school,” if they want to become an orthopedic surgeon? lol…I doubt that very few othopods went to “top flight engineering schools.” (Ok, my son has interests in becoming an orthopod, and he does have an eng’g degree, but until he gets to rotations, he’s not set on that. But, none of this has to do with going to a “top flight engineering school” (he went to a flagship), and none of that would matter anyway.)</p>
<p>For any very competitive specialty, you will want to be in the top quartile of your med school class…but that does NOT mean that you have to go to an “exclusive univ” for undergrad (where is this coming from???)</p>
<p>As for Plastics…yes very competitive specialty…but certainly NO NEED to go to a private univ for undergrad, particularly Vandy or SMU (not that there is anything wrong with those places. 
) My son worked with a top plastic surgeon (MD/PhD) this summer and she went to a public undergrad and public med school. </p>
<p>@mom2collegekidsm, I was writing somewhat tongue-in-cheek but also not so much. Obviously these are gross simplifications. No one NEEDS to go to a “top flight” school or a private U to be a surgeon. You can be an ortho with a degree in psychology from Texas A&M-Commerce as long as you have good grades, MCAT, etc. But certain practice areas attract certain types of people. Mechanically minded people gravitate towards and do well in, IMHO, orthopedics. Are you anti-social (not in a pejorative sense)? Maybe looking at diagnostic imaging all day and dictating reports would be your cup of tea (radiologist). Do you want to be a plastic surgeon? Who will be your clientele? Well-to-do ladies. In my opinion, doctors who are comfortable mingling in that social circle tend to have thriving practices. That’s not to say you can’t do well in Abilene, TX with degrees from Sam Houston State and Texas Tech Med School (there is a guy there in Abilene who advertises that ladies should come there so their peers won’t see them at the surgery centers in Dallas and know they had surgery). Are you a lab rat? Hematology is a good choice. I could go on and on with gross generalizations.</p>
<p>The question, as I understood it, was should the money go towards undergrad or med school.“Aspiring surgeon” is somewhat broad. In my opinion, this person should go to the best undergrad he/she wants to attend, work hard, find out where interests and personality would be nourished and deal with medical school later. The better the undergraduate school, assuming the person does well, the better opportunities that will exist for med school. </p>
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<p>I wouldn’t argue a bit with what you wrote above, because ^those things^ speak to interests and personalities…and have NOTHING to do with where you went to undergrad.</p>
<p>It’s not a coincidence that the more jocky or sports-interested types often have an interest in orthopedic or sports-med…or that those with some artistic sense/talents would lean towards plastics…or that the loner-type might lean towards radiology or pathology. </p>
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The question, as I understood it, was should the money go towards undergrad or med school.“Aspiring surgeon” is somewhat broad. In my opinion, this person should go to the best undergrad he/she wants to attend, work hard, find out where interests and personality would be nourished and deal with medical school later.
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<p>If someone wants to go to med school, then simply attending the best school he/she gets into can back-fire big-time. Every semester we see premeds posting that they no longer have a med-school-worthy GPA. Sure, some wouldn’t have one no matter where they went because their strengths aren’t there. But we also see a number of students who are attending dream schools that they luckily got into (avg stats for the school) and therefore they weren’t the strongest students in their premed classes…so they ended up with the Bs and Cs. </p>
<p>A student who is absolutely serious about wanting to go to med school should go to a school that fits, that is respectable, and that is a place where he can shine (which helps with both GPA and LORs.)</p>
<p><<<The better the undergraduate school, assuming the person does well, the better opportunities that will exist for med school.</p>
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<p>I don’t see how the “better the undergrad” leads to “better opportunities” existing at med school. ???</p>