Transfer to Penn or stay at UT Austin?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>hi,</p>

<p>i m sort of in a dilemma. i was accepted to upenn as a junior transfer from ut austin, and i am not sure whether i should go. here is my situation:</p>

<p>i've completed my liberal arts degree at ut austin in 2 years, but i've just decided i want to go to medical school, for which i've done nothing (no premed courses, activities, etc) in the last two years. if i were to stay at UT Austin, over the next two years, i would take the required premed courses (in 2009-2010, two semesters each of chem, bio, english, and cal; in 2010-2011, two semesters each of physics and o chem). if went to upenn, though, on top of the required premed courses listed above, i would have to take 8 more courses in my liberal arts major and 3 additional requirements courses to graduate from there.</p>

<p>b/c of this situation, I'm not sure whether I should go to upenn or stay at ut austin. if i went to upenn, i would have to do summer school and take additional courses over the years to the tune of 2, 2, 1, 1 liberal arts major course(s) over my four semesters there (these don't include the summer semesters), but I don't think they would be too much of a burden (but I could be wrong--i always underestimate how much time i spend doing work).</p>

<p>but if i stayed at ut austin, i could avoid having to do those liberal arts courses (which i frankly am tired of doing) and hopefully spend time doing substantial activities and work.</p>

<p>but here is the catch: i do sort of want to go to upenn b/c it would be nice and i always wanted to go to a "better" school, but i have a feeling that for the most part upenn and ut austin will be the same, in the sense that students study everywhere, party everywhere, take part in similar clubs and do similar activities. as a result, i feel that staying at ut austin would be good as well b/c i could avoid those extra courses and focus on non-course work, though i've been bad at finding stuff to do outside of the classroom for the last two years; hopefully i could do better over the next two years. but on the other hand i wonder whether i am being too narrow-minded by not wanting to take some (11 to be exact) extra courses b/c in the long-run i'll still get to graduate in two years and taking the extra courses won't be such a big deal (hopefully they wouldn't affect my grades in my premed courses).</p>

<p>anyway, if i can find meaningful stuff to do in austin, i wouldn't mind staying.</p>

<p>i've thought this issue quite a bit, but i would be interested to hear others thoughts. thanks.</p>

2

<p>If you are in state and paying in state tuition, stay at UT and save your money. Medical school is very expensive and there is no need to take on additional debt just to fulfill med school requirements. In addition to higher tuition you’ll be faced with much higher housing and living costs. A degree from UT will open just as many med school doors as one from Penn will as long as you have the GPAs and MCATs required to open those doors. If you said you wanted to go into IB and were accepted to Wharton I might have a different response.</p>

<p>On the social/living side there is NO comparison between Austin and Philadelphia…and we haven’t discussed weather and quality of life yet…Austin, hands down!</p>

3

<p>I despise 39 of the 40 acres at UT (with Plan II being the “other acre”). Even with that being said, stay put. Truly. The flexibility you will have financially and educationally outweighs the admittedly better “panache” of Penn. Source out incredible research, enrichment, volunteer, and travel experiences. Take “goofy” interesting courses along with your pre-req’s. Save yo’ money for the application process. Click. $100. Click,click. $180. Click…</p>