<p>I'm trying to decide where I should go to college next year, either Texas A&M or University of Texas at San Antonio (I got caped from UT Austin). My major at A&M is biomedical science, and at UTSA, psychology. Since psychology is in the College of Liberal Arts, I'll be guaranteed admission into UT Austin after a year if my GPA is high enough. I haven't really decided what I want to be in the future, but right now it's between a psychiatrist and a genetic biologist. This brings me to the question as to which school I should go to.</p>
<p>I don't mind the bucolic setting of College Station, but everyone's been telling me that it'll be very boring there and that I'll probably not be able to stand it. As for UTSA, my parents' concern is that it'll be hard for me to maintain a high enough GPA to transfer to Austin and that it's a hassle for me to transfer and to make new friends when I do move from UTSA to UT Austin. As of now, I don't know anyone that's going to A&M, but several going to UTSA. I know that when I graduate, my diploma will be from UT Austin.</p>
<p>Since I'm planning on going to medical school and obtain higher degrees after college, people are also telling me that it doesn't matter where I obtain my undergraduate degree or what I major in in college. But surely there is a difference between graduating from UT Austin and A&M?</p>
<p>I'm now stuck between the two choices. Please provide me some insight with which school is better and where I should go? I've already made a list of pros and cons of each school, but I'd like to hear what others have to say. Also, will it be hard to maintain a 3.2 GPA at UTSA?</p>
<p>Since psychiatrists are physicians (MD), you need to maintain a GPA significantly higher than 3.2 to have any realistic chance at getting admitted to an MD medical school in the US.</p>
<p>No specific major is needed to be a pre-med, although you need to take the specified pre-med courses (which do have some variation between medical schools). Be aware that medical school is expensive, so if the cost of each route is significantly different, that can be an important factor.</p>
<p>PhD study also likely requires doing a lot better than a 3.2 GPA. Note that job and career prospects in biology at the bachelor’s degree or PhD level are not particularly good, so watch the costs and debt in this case as well.</p>
<p>You won’t know whether it is hard or not for you to maintain whatever your desired GPA is (presumably a lot higher than 3.2 for medical school or PhD programs, even though 3.2 is the needed threshold for UTSA -> UTA) until you have been to college for a few semesters.</p>
<p>I did the CAP program at UTSA and I can guarantee that it will be no problem for you to maintain that required GPA. As long as you out forth ANY effort at all it will be doable. Beware however, UT Austin is much harder than UTSA so when you get in you are going to have to step it up, dont think that all universities are like UTSA. </p>
<p>As far as losing/keeping friend I had no problem with that. Most of the people you will meet more than likely will be doing the CAP program as well. And the ones that dont usually will come visit Austin bc honestly, Austin is much better than SA as a city. </p>
<p>Unless you are dying to go to A&M I would say that its not for you. School spirit and tradition are the lifeblood of that university so if you havent been dreaming of going there since you were a little kid, I would say that it is probably not the right school for you.</p>
<p>There are differences, but not in terms of reputation. On the other hand, there isn’t much positive to say about UTSA, especially in terms of reputation. Simply stated, it is at the bottom of the UT schools and will not offer much as far as college experience. </p>
<p>I would highly encourage you to take a closer look at TAMU and decide which type of school you really want.</p>