<p>I am not new to the forums nor am I new the whole pre med process. I honestly can't decide on the dilemma I'm in. I am a junior currently at East Carolina University and have had great opportunities. 4.0 gpa and gained significant research experience in the medical school. </p>
<p>I applied to UNC Chapel Hill in October and ended up being accepted as a transfer student. Both schools give me benefits.</p>
<p>ECU -</p>
<p>Pros: grades, comfort, research, friends, closer to home, living is cheaper
Cons: school has bad reputation for being a party school, if med school fails I would still like a degree to fall back on and UNC is more profitable in this area, greenville</p>
<p>UNC -</p>
<p>Pros: reputation, more research opportunities/facilities, chance to work with better faculty, chapel hill is a great location, friends
Cons: will be uncomfortable for at least 4 months, GPA may slightly dip, having to migrate to a new lab is not enjoyable, miss friends in greenville</p>
<p>I mean what should I do? What would some of you do? If it matters I am a white male. Still need to complete organic chem and physics. Thanks guys.</p>
<p>I think it would be tough to justify a transfer in your situation. It sounds like you are doing a great job at ECU, given your academic performance, your social circle, your research position, etc. It would be a totally different story if you were absolutely hating ECU, your grades were suffering, you felt out of your element, and you truly believed the solution was transferring. </p>
<p>It sounds to me like the main reason you’d want to transfer is to go to a school with more of a “name” than ECU. So I think what you really need to do is weigh whether the potential boost from going to UNC is worth the potential loss of friends, relationships with professors who can write incredible rec letters for you, your comfort zone, etc. </p>
<p>Thus, it would be important to know whether the UNC name would give you any kind of boost in the admissions process. How important prestige is seems to be a hotly debated topic on CC, and the simple answer is that no one really knows for sure. It seems like there is some benefit to going to a more elite school, but that it’s hard to quantify. But the catch is, would UNC count as an elite school? Probably not. It seems like the ones that “count” are mayyyybe the top 20 (Ivys + LACs).</p>
<p>How much do you value learning in an environment where you’re comfortable and familiar with your surroundings? Do you care more about building relationships and community, or do you want to be as challenged as possible at all times? What’s missing from ECU that you think you can find at UNC? Is finding that thing worth what you would be leaving behind? Will it really matter in the end? I don’t think there’s a right answer to those questions, but I think you should have a much more solid reason for totally uprooting yourself and having to go through the process of integrating into a culture that is probably already formed (because keep in mind, your new classmates probably have known each other awhile, and it may be tough to be the new kid) than simply wanting to go to a more prestigious school.</p>
<p>Did you apply to UNC as a senior in high school? How did you end up at ECU?</p>
<p>As a NC resident and transfer it is more difficult to get into UNC coming from ECU than a NC CC, so congrats on the UNC admission! You are one of the chosen few that got admitted, that in itself is a great accomplishment!</p>
<p>What made you decide to transfer to UNC initially? Do those reasons still hold true today?</p>
<p>And yes as a NC resident myself I do know the HUGE differences between UNC and ECU. As far as undergrad UNC is a no-brainer. However, you as a pre-med and transfer are in a different situation. But not that much different.</p>
<p>The people and resources you have made at ECU can still be in your contacts and you could always split your summers between schools/research opportunities. I would see transfering as just increasing your number of contacts and opportunities.</p>
<p>Will your major be different at Carolina?</p>
<p>As you know ECU and UNC are both your in-state public med schools, and each give a slight preference to their own undergrads. But it is probably just slight.</p>
<p>Son is now at UNC for med school and his class is made up of many different undergrads/diversity of schools. App state, NCstate, Duke, UNC,ECU…many NC state residents that went OOS for school…ivys, CA, michigan
ECU med school takes no OOS, and UNC caps OOS to 18% although his current class is less than 18%…more like 9%.</p>
<p>It truly is up to you but as I told my son, enjoy your 4 years of undergrad. This time is most precious and will not come around again. Your GPA is great, and your ECs also sound fine…where do you want to spend the next 2 years?</p>
<p>Thank you guys for the posts! I don’t have much time but I want to address a few things (hs background, major, etc).</p>
<p>I didn’t apply to UNC CH right out of HS because my grades were not good. Simple as that. I figured what the hell I’ll give it a try and it worked out good.</p>
<p>At ECU I’m majoring in neuroscience and I really like it. ECU’s neuro program does a really good job at incorporating lab work and making that the focus of undergrad. If I do decide to transfer I will either major in psychology and continue my research with the pharmacology/neuroscience departments (hopefully), or philosophy. I am actually passionate about philosophy and UNC has a top notch undergrad program. One thing that’s going to suck is the schedule difference and is really affecting my decision right now. If I stay at ECU my schedule will look like this:</p>
<p>org
phys
calc
lab work</p>
<p>if I go to UNC (philosophy):</p>
<p>ethics
logic
calc
greek history
phys or org (whichever one I can get in)
maybe spanish</p>
<p>UNC will be a tougher schedule, especially for me. I would enjoy studying a humanities before med school though.</p>
<p>I would like some more people’s opinion on the matter. Thanks CC!</p>
<p>I need to decide soon but I still have a little time. I visited Chapel Hill a week ago and it was awesome. Really love the town and the university. I hung out with some of my friends that go there and it was a blast. I would really love to go there, but I am still not convinced if I should. I guess I just want some final opinions on the matter. </p>
<p>East Carolina offers me a lot of opportunities. I am very involved in research here. My PI is publishing his work and he assured me that I have contributed enough to be published. He says he wants me to take on some projects, if I decided to return next year. I imagine that I would gain some independent experience. I would have a pretty easy junior year (fall -spring 12-13), I just have to finished organic chem and physics then I take my major courses and lab courses. I would begin MCAT prep this January and take the July session, hopefully matriculate senior year ('14).</p>
<p>UNC offers me a higher education and a great social life. If I transferred into UNC I would technically be a sophomore. I would study philosophy and maybe, if credit hours permitted, minor in italian. I would get the chance to study abroad and get to do some really cool stuff. Plus the girls plentiful. Chapel Hill is an awesome town. Probably my most favorite that I have ever been to. I have plenty of friends there although none are really my best friends. However, when thinking of medical school I begin to worry. My GPA may or may not take a hit. I am taking an online class right now and honestly the competition is not that bad. The professor grades a little bit more strict than ECU but it is not a marginal difference. I am, however, worried about organic and physics here. I will have to make relationships with these professors and I know that will be competitive. Since I am transferring biology and general chem credits and will be a humantities major I will have to get my LORs from those two professors. As it stands on the MCAT - I will not be able to take both organic and physics at the same time due to time restrictions of other classes. I would start physics in the fall and organic in the spring. This would leave me with little time to study for the MCAT and my memory of the classes will be much weaker. Overall I may lose a year or two of potential admission to med school and realistically that is money that I could be making.</p>
<p>Somebody asked me why I even applied to UNC if I would be hesitant in my decision. It wouldn’t have been a question if I would have been accepted at the time I applied. So many opportunities have come my way. I also know have a girlfriend that I am very interested in.</p>
<p>I am sorry for the redundancy and hope I can get a few my opinions on my dilemma…</p>