I have been accepted to UCB and Duke for Bioengineering. I plan is to go to med school. Cal is instate tuition at $33K and Duke is $67K no aid. If money is not a major factor then is Duke worth the extra $ and distance over Cal.
Also I have presidential half tuition at USC, would I be crazy to pick that over Cal.
That makes so sense. Duke is not worth the extra $. This makes it a major factor.
About USC, it depends how much the cost of attendance is. Do Berkeley and USC come out about equal at that point? Either will be fine for pre medical studies. USC might be easier to maintain a high GPA.
USC is about $42K and Cal is about $33K. USC gave invitation to their Engineering Honors and also I have heard that you can ask for paid Research awards etc. The reason why I choose Bioengineering is to keep it as a backup plan just in case if I decide against medical school and still have the opportunity to work in consulting do MBA etc. With a lot of hard work I can do well at Berkeley but then is that really practical do that much hard work and compete with several other students who are in the same boat at Cal trying to go to med school? The med school acceptance data and the stories about Berkeley is confusing me.
I was leaning towards USC more than I was towards Berkeley for premedical studies, but that was because USC was much more generous with financial aid for me. In your case, Berkeley sounds like a smarter choice if you’re willing to work hard and see a solid career in engineering. You can attain paid research awards at any school, its not just a USC thing. Research awards are usually really competitive to get, though.
Many engineering students are also pre med, and they often complain that engineering GPAs are lower than non-engineering. It makes an interesting application to see an engineering student among the biochemistry students. You will probably work hard for less than stellar grades, as is common in engineering. If youre determined to do engineering + medicine, this is no reason to scare you, however.