UF Honors Program vs UCF Burnett Honors College and Medical Scholar. Please help!!!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Florida
1

I’ve been accepted to University of Florida (UF) and University of Central Florida (UCF).
Both offer free-ride (full cost of attendance) due to National Merit Scholarship. So, same zero cost for both.
I am absolutely torn between these great options. Please help!!! Any suggestion/info/pointer is greatly appreciated.

I am planning of majoring in biology (premed track). As far as I can tell I like medicine, but Idk much about it. So, it is possible that I may change my major. Nevertheless, at this time, I am pursing premed.

University of Florida is Florida’s flagship college, with USNWR of 42. It has a Honors Program, but it essentially boils down to living in Hume Hall and pre-registering up to 10 credit hours for the first two years. At UF, I have to take the weed-out classes (except Chemistry 2) in the regular section, with 100s of people.

UCF is a regional university (with USNWR ranking of 171) but it is considered up and coming. UCF’s Burnett College is a full-fledged Honors College. Almost all premed prerequisites/general education classes are offered in the Honors College, and they are capped around 25 students. Burnett has much better advising and a lot of activities arranged for NMFs.

Most importantly, I am a Burnett Medical Scholar, which means I will automatically be accepted to UCF College of Medicine upon graduation if I can get 3.75 GPA and 512 MCAT score.

In summary,
Solid education, reputable school, so-so honors program at UF
VERSUS
Not so-reputable school, a lot of transfer students, but great Honors College, capped weed-out classes in the honors section, guaranteed seat at the medical school, full support for NMFs at UCF.

Which one would you choose and why?

2

You and my son share the same decision, and he has selected UF. I believe that the primary factor in his decision is the difference in the schools’ reputations. He believes that UF’s reputation at both the undergrad and medical school levels will open more doors for him. Although Florida does not admit to their med school as a freshman, their medical honors program picks 15 students at the end of their second year, and they don’t then have to take the MCAT. That’s a really big deal, and that’s his goal. Nevertheless, it looks to me that with your admission to UCF’s med school you have the classic choice of playing it safe and going with a more sure albeit lesser result - an undergrad and medical degree from UCF - rather than going for the overall higher achievement of an undergraduate degree from UF and a subsequent medical degree from a school that may outshine UCF, whether it is UF or another school. In my opinion, a young person like you should challenge themselves and go for more.

3

Go to UF. Since you readily admit, you don’t know much about medicine and it’s not some lifelong dream or passion, chances are you could change your mind.

UF is a much more widely recognized school that will give you more career opportunities if you decide to change your major and career interest.

What does UCF get you if you decide you hate pre-med and move to business? A 3rd tier University with more limited career options. You could be really screwing yourself badly if you decide you don’t want to go to med school.

4

To answer your first question, yes, you can change your major as long as you are entering as a freshman. It is really up to you if you’d like to go to UCF or UF. If you’re confident in maintaining the 3.75 gpa and earning an 512 MCAT score, it really doesn’t matter which school you go to. I say this because if you do earn these high stats, you’ll have a good chance of getting accepted into both of these medical schools. If you think of it like this, then the med honors program doesn’t extremely matter.

5

Thanks @oldandwise for sharing your son’s decision and helpful info. Is your son also a BMS?
UCF at the UG level is inferior to UF, but I thought UG institution was irrelevant to med schools.
Guaranteed seat at UCF med school does not mean that one has to go there for med school.
It just provides a safety net. If you can, you can go Harvard Med from there. It does not limit your options.

6

All U.S. Med schools are very good. It would be fantastic to get into any. What’s nice about the Florida public med schools (like UCF and UF), is the in-state tuition rates. UF in-state tuition rate is $18K a year, while OOS is $32K a year. However, when you’re trying to get into med school, you’ll take whatever offer you can. :slight_smile:

The main advantage to UF is that it’s a life sciences research powerhouse. In 2016, UF spent $561 Million on Life Sciences R&D, while UCF spent $27 Million. A LOT more research takes place at UF, which means lots of undergraduate research opportunities. It also opens up many other career options, other than medical school.

https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/profiles/site?method=rankingBySource&ds=herd

7

@xxyyzz00, like you, my son is was invited to honors at both UCF and UF, and he is NMF. While you might hear that GPA and MCAT are all med schools look at, there is more to it. The top med schools do consider the quality of the undergrad school, if not only for the additional screening that went into the student’s acceptance to the school. A good GPA from UF will be more attractive to an admissions officer than the same GPA from UCF. And you can be sure that intern and residency selection committees will ask where you went for undergrad, and the UF acceptance and degree will work in your favor more than the same from UCF. I am confident that you have the smarts to get into a medical school, but some schools are more attractive than others, even if a degree from any of them gives you the title of doctor.

8

@oldandwise – you didn’t answer @xxyyzz00’s question about BMS, so I’ll assume that isn’t part of the equation for your son. While you seem to feel that UF would be better than UCF, you are discounting the value of the guarantee UCF is offering. In short, while you correctly state that there is more to medical school admissions than GPA and MCAT scores, that’s not the case with the BMS guarantee, which is totally based on GPA and MCAT score. Also, while you correctly state that a given GPA from UF would be more attractive to a medical school than the same one from UCF, you discount the fact that a given GPA should be much easier to achieve at UCF than UF, given how much “better” UF and its students are as compared to UCF. Would you think a 3.6 from UF would be more attractive to a medical school than a 3.9 from UCF?

If not, then how do you know any kid (@xxyyzz00, my kid, or yours) would do as well in a more competitive environment as compared to the alternative (i.e., is top 25% at UF more attractive than top 10% at UCF)? That has to go into the calculation when making a decision like this before you have any indication how someone will perform in a given competitive environment.

I agree that, all else equal, an “A” from UF is more respected than an “A” from UCF, but, is UF so good that a “B” from it is better than an “A” from UCF? If not, how smart is it for @xxyyzz00 to give up an offer of a guaranteed American medical school admission in order to roll the dice at a school with a better reputation that, under the right circumstances, would open more doors down the road?

9

Thanks @NJDad00 for the clarification. Since your son is in the same situation, you understand the all the issues that need to be taken into consideration. @SteyrFWB 's comment on the NMF 2018 thread makes me closer to UCF. She is intimately knowledgeable about both UF and UCF as well as medicine.

10

@xxyyzz00 – yeah, it’s not an easy choice and I know you don’t want to make a mistake. @oldandwise seems pretty knowledgeable, so I’m interested in seeing the response to my query. It would be a no brainer if the state did not open Benaquisto up to us, since the cost of UF to us from out of state would make UCF an easy choice, but, as it is, we are struggling with the choice between the relative prestige of UF versus all of the support and perks UCF is offering. The ultimate answer is probably that either choice will work out well, and you just have to figure out which one “speaks” more to you.

11

Do well in UCF and apply to UF med, that would be best of both world.

UCF BMS last year, 5 students went to UM . Don’t know the stat for this year, yet. You CAN apply out.

Go to UCF, there is up side , with little down side.

Go to UF, there is little up side and potential significant down side.

Medicine is a very, very long road. Too many people went astray.

12

I would select “support and perks” over prestige any day!
As somebody with no opinion on either school, UCF seems the better choice from what’s been posted.

My older student selected an unremarkable state school with a full-ride scholarship for undergrad. Because he’s a remarkable student, he excelled and stood out. He was accepted to every top-ranked grad school he applied to!
Good luck!

1 Like
13

Junior Honors at UF, don’t bank on it !

It is open to UF and nonUF students !!
More than 1000 applicants each year now.

Don’t be foolish enough to go to UF just for that.

I was admitted through Junior Honors 36 years ago. I felt lucky back then, i don’t feel lucky now a day .

I looked at their most recent roster. There must be some inside job there. There are a few students whose parents were my Junior Honors classmates. They stayed at UF and are full professors. Parents must have helped kids do some high power research and made a few friendly visit to admission office.

I would not go to UF thinking you can get in to that program. At that early stage of college, every one of the 1000 applicants have perfect CV. What pull do you have?

14

@xxyyzz00, you are in the top 1% of students based on your being a NMF. Therefore, you’ll do well wherever you go, and you will get accepted into a top medical school. You have through the Benacquisto a free education at both schools. But UF is the best college in Florida and one of the top ten public schools in the country. UCF is a nice place, but you can do better. The fact that you have been admitted to UCF’s medical school subject to GPA and MCAT only has significance if you have insecurities about getting into a higher ranked program. My advice is to avoid the strategy of less confident students of going to a lower ranked school in hopes of getting a higher GPA. You’ve already proven yourself at the national level as a NMF; you’ll do great at UF. I agree that you shouldn’t pick UF with the expectation that you’ll make their medical honors program; while my son intends to apply, he actually has hopes to attend medical school at one of the several higher-ranked schools that accepted him for undergrad. He’s attending UF because it is a good school, but, more importantly at this level of college, it’s free to him. As it is to you. And nobody needs to tell me the often-repeated truth that you can get into a top ranked graduate program from a large southern public college. I did it. I went from Tennreess to Harvard. I’m confident that you will excel regardless of where you go. I’m equally confident that later in life you will appreciate having picked UF over UCF.

15

I really beg to differ.

Oldandwise and I both made it to Harvard. So both of us are telling you can go higher down the road.

Despite the old adage that all roads lead to Rome, I really don’t think it is important which country road you started from. But as you get close to Rome, you better get into Appian Way (your chosen specialty and residency, otherwise you might have a hard time getting into Rome.

In the same argument, let’s say, you want to work for hottest company Google, does going to Caltrch and MIT gives you a better shot than UF or Tennessee? Of course! But we are talking about Caltech and MIT ! Not UF or Tennessee.

Now if you got into the selective Google high schooler insider program, completely bypass college, which gives you an inside track and surer way to get into Google, would you not take it? Or will you insist on UF or Tennessee?

You applied to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford this application cycle. You know what the competition is like out there. You know UF is NOT HYPS.

In fact, UF administration over the past twenty years had put very doubtful emphasis on pursuing NMS . There are many published reports that conclude NMS do not perform better than top 1/3 of students at UF, GPA wise.

Now, that is a lot of top 1/3 students at UF !!!

Cream will always rise to the top. Most of the time, they are not NMS.

I would think of NMS offering at UF and UCF, strictly on financial terms.

UF gives you a better edge applying to med school vs UCF BMS? It is almost like telling you that going to UF/ Tennessee, will give you better chance of working at Google than its high school insider program?

I really beg to differ.

In your medical school interview ( if you decide to apply out after BMS) or later in your residency interview, "where did you go for college? "

Smile and say “I went to an honor combined BS/MD program”

That will suffice.

1 Like
16

@xxyyzz00 - You already have all of the information needed to make your decision. Don’t overthink it. There is no right or wrong answer. Pick one and make the most of it!

17

@oldandwise and @SteyrFWB : I am very grateful to you both. I think this discussion would be of immense value to future NMSs in the years to come.

18

@xxyyzz00, by all metrics UF is the better school. Its students are smarter; its reputation is better; its starting pay is higher. If you go to UF, you will always be proud to announce where you went to college, and people will know of your school. You are asking for advice because you have a nagging suspicion that a decision to attend a lesser school based on a promise of a possible admission to their little-known medical school may be a poor choice. It would be. It is always acceptable to attend your state’s flagship public university instead of one of the Top 20 schools for undergrad, especially if you then follow up with grad school at a name school. But you will regret going to a school several steps down from UF and then failing to attend a well known grad school. You can do better, and it’s completely within your grasp. And ignore the advice of someone who says being a NMF is insignificant.

19

@oldandwise : Thanks for the suggestions and explanations. I keep searching for as much information as possible, and am going to make my decision soon.

I agree with you that UF is a better school with better students and reputation. Although these are important, they are secondary/tangential parameters. The main objective is to become a doctor. Here is a question that I was pondering over:

Choice 1: Go to UCF, chance of becoming a doctor - 80%
Choice 2: Go to UF, chance of becoming a doctor - 40%

If we assign the following numbers, we get the same benefit from both schools:
Value of becoming a doctor at UCF: 100
Value of becoming a doctor after UF UG: 110 (assuming you can go better ranked med school)
Value of another major at UCF: 30
Value of another major at UF: 70

Choice 1: 80% * 100 + 20% * 30 = 86
Choice 2: 40% * 110 + 60% * 70 = 86

So, the question is…what are my numbers?

20

No one “knows” the numbers, since much of this is subjective. :slight_smile:

You can’t even trust the numbers published by the schools, when it comes to pre-med “success”.

It’s going to come down to how risk adverse you are…UCF’s auto admit path vs UF’s more standard path.

I know there’s been a lot of talk about grades, but here’s the data on grades at UF:

https://ir.aa.ufl.edu/uffacts/degrees-grades/