UF vs UCF vs USF? medical track

Hello, we live in Orlando, and are interested any info or advise you have on the above schools. My daughter is considering medical track and I am curious for undergrad if you have an opinion on these schools? Obviously, UCF seems appealing because she could live at home and save a lot of expense on dorms. Money saved could be used towards grad school.

She is currently a junior and is in a great AP program with a very good GPA. We have the FL prepaid 4 year, and she most likely will also qualify for Bright futures at some level.

Thanks in advance.

Mom :slight_smile:

Currently living in Florida (Tampa). Any of those schools will be fine for getting her undergrad degree with medical school as the target. Having stellar grades will be the deciding factor, along with the other things students do today and that can be done at any of the schools.

She should be looking at the bigger picture. She needs to be at the school where she most wants to be for the academics and other aspects of college life. She should have flexible thinking about her future. What if she changes her mind or chooses a different path?

That freshman experience of living on campus is fantastic (I was so glad I could swing UW-Madison in the dorms instead of commuting- chose medicine over chemistry grad school while in college). But not all students can afford this.

Any of these schools will be fine for getting the required classes and being prepared for medical school. No need to pay more and stress the family budget.

Whatever she does be sure she has an open mind to other fields, within medically related fields or sciences in general. At this point in her life she still lacks knowledge about many possibilities. There are many careers available to stellar students besides becoming a physician. It may be her path but she may discover other options for her career.

USF has an accelerated 7 year program for entry into their own medical school.

http://health.usf.edu/medicine/mdprogram/7-year.htm

UCF does not have an accelerated program, but they do offer a medical scholars program that offers direct acceptance to their own med school.

https://honors.ucf.edu/admissions/burnett-medical-scholars/

If your D can qualify for either one of these programs, they would offer some advantages over UF. If she does not qualify for either program, then I would go with the higher ranked school which is UF as it will give her more options in the long run.