Tough Decision for Pre-med

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I plan on majoring in biochem/bio (though not 100% sure) and doing premed. I'm not sure what would be the best choice in my case for undergrad (considering the competitiveness of getting into med school in general + expensive cost of med school)</p>

<p>Scholarship Program to lower tier university (ranked about 150 on US News) (full ride, all expenses covered with travel abroad, etc) VS. Duke/Cornell/Dartmouth/Rice.</p>

<p>Going to Duke/Dartmouth/Cornell will cost roughly 35k a year. Only one parent works with an income of about 100k. Also have a younger sibling about 7 years younger.</p>

<p>My parents can handle the cost of the top universities as of now, but they can't pay for this + med school later (esp if its an expensive med school) esp with my younger sibling or if someone unexpected occurs in the meantime (illness, job loss). For med school, I'd have to take out some pretty big loans (if I can get there in the first place without being "weeded out" first)</p>

<p>I know that some of these top schools (esp Cornell) have high drop out rates for premed. At the full ride school though, I'm very unlikely to get weeded out. But at a top university when the drop out rate is >50%, I don't think anyone can go in supposing they won't be "weeded out" so to speak, for sure.</p>

<p>I suppose the con of taking the full ride is that maybe not-so-good brand name of the full ride school may affect me in the future? (not sure) It seems the safest, easiest route though....
On the other hand, I do wish to be at a top university like Duke for the opportunities, experience, and perhaps there, I have the chance to be able to do more than I could at the lower tier university (but of course, it comes with more risk and money)</p>

<p>I'm cautious but not terribly loan adverse - but basically without having to be under a lot of financial burden/risk my parents can only afford for me to attend a prestigious undergrad or a prestigious med school.</p>

<p>What would you do? Take the scholarship and spend during med school or take a risk with a top university and perhaps get more out of it?</p>

<p>Also - does the prestige/name/ranking of your medical school matter for practicing physicians (say, internal medicine, anesthesiology, cardiology, etc?)</p>

2

<p>High medical school debt (on top of undergraduate debt or using up your money for undergraduate) may make it financially unfeasable to go into a lower paid specialty, even if you would otherwise prefer the lower paid specialty.</p>

<p>You probably have little control over medical school costs, since most pre-meds are lucky to get even one medical school acceptance. Here are the medical school costs:</p>

<p><a href=“https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/select.cfm?year_of_study=2013[/url]”>https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/select.cfm?year_of_study=2013&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;