<p>So I have recently been admitted to UCLA, USC, UCSD, NYU, and UT (which are all GREAT schools) and I've had some trouble narrowing down my options to just a handful. I live in Texas so I'd be paying out of state tuition for the UC schools but in state for UT. I have family in California so there is more of a location reason for me to go there than NYU. I'm also an LGBT student.</p>
<p>I'm not exactly sure that I want to travel down the pre-medical path but I think it is a good route for me to take for the moment (as well as the one my parents would want for me as well [that's a completely different discussion]) so I wanted to know what the school's pre-medical programs are like and how they would help me in the future.</p>
<p>For each of the schools, I have applied as either undeclared or general chemistry for my major. </p>
<p>My top-deciding factors on which college I will be attending will be based off of the following:
1. Will it get me into medical school?
2. Quality of Education
3. Cost ( :/ not an issue but more of a question of "Is it worth it?")
4. Location (urban? suburban? Safe neighborhood?)
5. Campus Life
6. Housing
7. Food</p>
<p>NYU:
I feel like if I'm not going to NYU for Stern's or their study abroad program for Shanghai or Dubai, then I shouldn't be spending $63K a year to go to a college in a city where I have no family in a major that it doesn't specialize in so I have pretty much crossed off NYU off my list.
-Pros: urban culture, networking ability, study abroad program, LGBT strong
-Cons: COST, no family there, risky city</p>
<p>USC:
I applied as undeclared for this school however I managed to also get into the pre-medical area for it too so I'm not exactly sure what that means. I'd like to know just how good their pre-med program is in comparison to the rest of the school (I have been lead to believe that it's mostly a liberal arts school).
-Pros: near family, Trojan networking, private college (has lots of money to spend on its students), already in pre-med program, class size is smaller, faculty would monitor our progress more closely, LGBT strong
-Cons: shady area (bad part of LA), COST ($62K - is it worth it?), party school, </p>
<p>UCLA:
I applied as undeclared physical sciences but I know that their pre-medical program is great so I'm unsure about how easy it'd be to switch into their program and if I'd be accepted or not for it. I'd like to get into their program or if I decide not to, go into general chemistry until I find out what I want to do.
-Pros: great location (near mom's side of family, near beach, safe neighborhood), I'd have a car, food, liberal students, LGBT strong
-Cons: class size is really big, COST (out of state!!!), less networking power,</p>
<p>UT:
As a Texas student, I got into the College of Natural Sciences for general chemistry. And because it's in-state, my parents think that this is a very very wise choice because UT is pretty well-rounded but I wanted to get away from UT because most people from my high school do end up going to UT so I wanted a fresh start away from all the high school drama, especially the drama I get for being an LGBT student. But at the same time, UT isn't known for being wonderfully strong in its sciences.
-Pros: close to home, COST (in state), urban culture, weird stuff (in a good way), LGBT strong (well for Texas anyway)
-Cons: big class size, much high school history :/, party school, </p>
<p>I'm having such a tough time deciding where to go so please put in your input. All answers are much appreciated :)
Thank you guys!</p>