Hello! Yes, I know I have two days before the deadline, so any advice is VERY MUCH appreciated! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
I am currently interested in the pre-med track while also studying a social science to examine health disparities and system racism in patient care/the healthcare system. However, maybe the pre-med track isn’t for me, and in that case, I am also interested in going into the tech industry as a product manager or some similar role. I am having a really hard time picking between my top 3 schools, UCLA, Rice, and Pomona College (I know they are all very different, but they all have different pros & cons for me ahah).
*If you don’t want to read through… TLDR: Is paying $140k MORE (over the four years) for private schools worth it for smaller classes, maybe less competition, and more accessible research/volunteer opportunities? My parents say don’t worry about cost, but $140k is… a lot of money. I feel as if UCLA and Rice fit me best socially. I prefer California weather and location though. I really appreciate academic flexibility at Rice and Pomona, and in love with Rice’s res college system and culture of care. Scared to pass up Pomona especially though because it’s almost impossible to get into (though same could be said for Rice and UCLA). Also scared about horrible impersonal weed-out classes at UCLA and very competitive clubs/research/volunteer opportunities because there are a million pre-meds.
Rice pros:
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I love the res college system, social culture seems to fit me really well with strong res college spirit & traditions
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Very easy to change majors, even between natural sciences —> social science —> engineering
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Relatively small classes - I don’t need SUPER small classes
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Right across from Houston Medical Center which has lots of available research and volunteer opportunities for pre-meds, really great med school acceptance rate
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Would be exposed to a greater diversity of students (as least geographically) than UCLA
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Pretty campus & great facilities
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Culture of care - students and professors seem very supportive and helpful with mentorship and academic help
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I like the population size, small enough to know lots of people but not too big to feel like just a number
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Away from home, probably want to return to California later in life, so nice time to explore a new place/culture
Rice cons:
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Twice the price of UCLA (about $70k/year cause we didn’t get any financial aid)
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Not sure how exciting Houston is compared to the diversity of SoCal (beaches, downtown LA, nature, etc) nor how easy it is to get around
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Humid weather, can be cloudy even when hot, and I really love the sun
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Not sure how strong programs are if I don’t decide to do pre-med
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Name recognition is ok outside of Texas
UCLA pros:
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In-state tuition (about $32k/year with scholarships)
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Regents scholarship, so priority registration/small community of upperclassmen and faculty support
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Alumni scholarship, so eager alumni network and community of upperclassmen and alumni support
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Lots of clubs and extracurriculars to get involved in
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Great balance between academics & social life
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Big school spirit and D1 sports spirit!!
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Near hospital, so there are research/volunteer opportunities
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Went to Southeast Asian Admit weekend and loved the community there
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Would learn how to advocate for myself and grow as a person by seeking out resources
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Beautiful campus, great weather, nice location near LA/beaches
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Best food!!!
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Awesome name recognition
UCLA cons:
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Difficult to get certain classes
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Not as good academic flexibility if I decide to switch majors/career paths later on
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TONS of pre-meds - lots of competition for resources/research/classes
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In general, not as great support for pre-meds as my other schools, many classes seem like they want to weed you out
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Big classes - hard to get personal with teachers
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Might be hard to make friends because it is such a huge school
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Quarter system - midterms all the time and students seem to be grinding a lot
Pomona pros:
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Super personal education - professors really get to know you and want to help you
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Small tight-knit community but resources from greater 5Cs
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Flexible academics
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Really great med school acceptance rate
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Nice location near hiking, downtown LA, beaches, etc
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Easy to get involved in research
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Social events span 5Cs, can make it feel like a more medium sized school
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Pretty campus, nice weather
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College helps you do things in LA, around the area
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Lots of academic support
Pomona cons:
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Twice the price of UCLA (about $70k/year cause we didn’t get any financial aid)
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Feel like I would get bored and claustrophobic with the quiet campus, suburbs surrounding area, and small student body
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No strong spirit
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Name recognition with general public/smaller employers is not that great
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Liberal arts so no engineering if I wanted to switch to that
UCLA. Save the money and take all the benefits of the school you like. Someone gets into the classes, why won’t it be you?
All undergrads weed out pre-meds. Some do it more aggressively than others, but science everywhere is survival of the fittest. Only the strongest students make it all the way through.
Some things to consider–
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it’s estimated that between 60 and 75% of freshmen pre-med will never actually apply to med school. Weeding is only partly the reason. Most high school students have had very little exposure to medicine as a career and find out through shadowing and volunteering that medicine isn’t what they thought it would be like. Also many students decide that the number of hoops they need to jump through isn’t worth the effort or that they don’t want to postpone beginning their lives for 12 to 15 years after high school. (Medicine as a career. is all about delayed gratification.)
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Of those remaining few pre-med who actually do apply to med school, more than 60% of them will not receive a single acceptance.
MORAL: all pre meds need to have a back up plan for a Plan B career.
Think about which of these schools offers you the best opportunity to explore other careers and offers the best support for finding post-graduation employment.
- medical school is enormously expensive. Typically (even at public instate med schools) costs run into the $200,000+ range. There is very little aid for med students except for loans, loans and more loans. And as a California applicant, you need to expect that you will likely end up at an OOS public or private med school–which puts the costs well into the $350,000-$500,000 range. (CA produces far more applicants for med school than it has seats for. Only 17% of CA med school applicants end up attending a CA public or private medical school.)
Pre meds are strongly advised to minimize undergrad debt because they will taking out huge loans to attend med school. BTW, having too much in undergrad loans will disqualify you from qualifying for Grad Plus loans (which most med student need to pay their COA since the max in unsubsidized federal student loans a med student can borrow is $40K/year.)
Can your family pay for Rice or Pomona without taking out loans? Will paying for your undergrad impact their ability to save for their retirement or pay for college for your siblings?
If any of the above financial impacts are true–then the decision is a no brainer. Go to UCLA and don’t look back.
- both Rice and Pomona use committee letters of recommendation. Schools that have committee letters effectively use the LOR to control who is and is not allowed to apply to med school. HP committees act as gatekeepers by only providing LORs to those student the committee feels is most likely to receive acceptances. UCLA doesn’t have a HP committee and doesn’t offer committee letters to its students.
There are pluses and minuses to the HP committee system, but you need to be aware of its existence or absence at your options and include that in your decision process. Committee letters are great if you’re a top student and get the committee’s endorsement, but marginal but still viable applicants may find themselves shut out of the application process by a a HP committee.
Getting a med student acceptance is really about you and what you do during
undergrad.
My general advice tp pre-med hopefuls to consider factors in this order:
cost> cost> cost> fit.
If cost is not an issue, my vote would be for Rice. However, if your parents could really use that extra money in retirement then UCLA is a great choice.
My daughter wants to be a doctor too and was deciding between UCLA and Rice as well. We are OOS for UCLA, but her brother just went through his undergrad there, so we knew what to expect. He did a STEM degree (not pre-med, but had to take all the same pre-med prerequisite classes) and it was difficult at the start to get the classes he needed. However, you have Regents, so you will have priority in registration which will help a lot. His roommate was pre-med, and he had the hardest time to get in to any of the medical related clubs or research opportunities. They are very competitive.
My daughter committed to Rice a few days ago for all the reasons you mentioned above. She loves UCLA too, the campus, food, weather, and already knows who would be the best profs to pick for her pre-med classes, but the great research and volunteering opportunities at Rice especially, were really too hard to give up.
You cannot go wrong with any of your choices really!
Rice offers the most flexibility combined with the quality of instruction in a smaller environment. It’s worth the extra cost. Your parents say not to worry about the money, so I take them at their word.
Regents at UCLA is a huge benefit and will remove essentially all potential concern about not getting the classes you need. And being in the top 1% of admitted students means you shouldn’t worry too much about your grades. Save your money.