<p>For Pre Med track how we can compare these Academically , all are OOS. Financially UA is $5k Better. Trying to Decide in next 2 Weeks. </p>
<p>UM, Florida ( NeuroScience, Micro bio )
UA, Tuscaloosa AL ( Chem Eng )
MU, Oxford OH. ( Micro Biology )</p>
<p>OK. I have been on all three campuses in the last couple of years so I can give some input.</p>
<p>MU in Oxford is very rural and very safe in a small town. It is a beautiful school. They do not have their own medical school, but boast of a fairly high medical school acceptance rate. There is no large hospital there to get in the necessary volunteering so I guess transportation to Dayton or Cincinnati would be necessary at some point. D took a couple of courses there the summer between her junior and senior years of high school and was not particularly impressed with the quality of the students. </p>
<p>UA is another beautiful campus. The medical school is not in Tuscaloosa but is pretty far away in Birmingham. So is the airport. The medical school is excellent. The people are very friendly and they have an excellent honors program that gives individual attention. The dorms are by FAR the best of the three schools you mention. There is a large hospital abutting the campus so volunteering would be no problem. Overall the student body is not academically strong and they are attempting to import OOS students with free tuition to raise their ranking.</p>
<p>The U is very research oriented. It is easily the highest ranked of the three (US News). D’s roommate is a freshman premed and she has started a project this semester at the Miller Medical School. Miller takes care of their own as the 2012 freshman med school class matriculated better than 50 UM grads. I would think that it would be the better bet to get into a top medical school, but also might be the hardest to get the prerequisite high GPA. If the costs net out reasonably close and your student can do well, UMiami would IMHO be the best choice,</p>
<p>@READYTORETIRE</p>
<p>Thanks for your great Input about each school Med Program and Research and Shadowing Opportunities.
I have to add 1 more option and that is UPitt Honors they just UP the FA pkg from original offer not by much though.
Still we have to pay extra 5K for UPitt as compare to UM. I know UPitt has a great pre-med program and Hospital right across the street. UM is still looking good because of the Miller School of Medicine. We have some very interesting options now and will be tough to decide, but glad that we have these options available. </p>
<p>@dadfor2014 </p>
<p>Was at Pitt last year too. Pitt’s med school is excellent and very highly rated but hard to get into even for Pitt undergrads. I think that less than half of the BS/MD dual degree students from last years group advanced to the med school. The new honors dean has not been very popular and was a terrible speaker and representative for the school at last years admitted honors students day. We didn’t really care for the school’s city location on the side of a steep hill and the honors dorm seemed downright unlivable.</p>
<p>Anyway D looked at all 4 schools since they all offered her full tuition and for her the best choice was UMiami. </p>
<p>^^ Are you saying that less then half of Pitts Honor Students got into Med programs across USA. or all of their students including regular plus honors . But I agree that their Med school is very tough to get in. S is interested in Nuero Science as a Major and they do have a great Program for that but so as UM.</p>
<p>Right now your choices are UM or UA Honors, and both choices are good, with excellent admission rates to med school.</p>
<p>@dadfor2014 </p>
<p>What I am saying is less than half of the students who started in the Pitt GAP (Guaranteed Admit Program) fulfilled the requirements (3.75 GPA etc.) to advance to their 2012 freshman med school class. GAP is the Pittsburgh equivalent of Miami’s HPME. I had the raw numbers for all admits at one point and recall being shocked at how few Pitt undergrads were in the Pitt med class. By the way Pitt gets a huge amount of funding from the NIH so undergraduate research opportunities are plentiful.</p>
<p>^^ I agree what you just mention. I also remember seeing that 1 year 7 students from GAP program were under 3.7 so were unable to join Upitt Med school.</p>
<p>My other Concern with UPitt is Neuroscience, even though they are one of the Best but then they might have cut throat classes to weed out students in Nuero specific 300/400 level courses. I am sure they must be attracting the best students who actually want to do Nuero and move to Master and PHD programs instead of joining Med Schools… The worst thing in pre-med is GPA going lower then 3.6. </p>
<p>One think to consider about UM is that once you make into their medical school their match is pretty great. I got a change to see it this year ( they webcast it) and they keep 60% of their students to various specialties and the others match at Ives and other top universities. </p>
<p>Not sure this will be helpful, because you listed UA as Chem Eng…
For what its worth…my son would have gone to UM for premed in a heartbeat (Bio chem or Micro bio), but he got waitlisted last year. He just could not fall in love with his other choices so he went to UA with a great scholarship. He has been very happy with the school and social activities there and we thought very happy with the academics. Again as a biochem or micro bio major, he was even able to get an assignment for research as a freshman. Then he came home for spring break saying he wants to study Neuroscience and UA doesn’t really have neuro. From what he has told me I would strongly encourage you to observe a class at each school if possible. He is now looking into a possible transfer to U Pitt, UM, UF or Northeastern with little to no scholarship money. However he says the engineering at UA is great and many of his friends will be staying for the summer for internships nearby. </p>
<p>^neuroscience is just a set of classes from various other majors. See if honors students can “declare their own major” and he could keep his scholarship at UA while doing exactly what he likes :)</p>
<p>Exactly! Ditto what MYOS1634 has recommended. UA offers a “design your own major.” That is exactly what neuroscience is as a major. I love UMiami. I am a UM grad. However, my child has identified UA as a target school and I have to say it has much to offer. He can do the design your own major and use the courses that are listed as part of the neuroscience major at other schools, such as UM.</p>
<p>With that being said, I am aware of the fact that UA and UM are very different. If you child is just flat-out unhappy at UA, then you need to investigate other options. College is not a
“one-size, fits-all” type of thing. </p>
<p>Son has Finally decided he will be a CANE in Fall of 2014. He has some very good choices and each has pros and cons but somehow UM seems to fits his future goals more then the others. I think he was lucky to have so many great choices but has to pick one and he pick the “U”…</p>
<p>Thanks to all who helped him and myself on CC with great advice about each college. We will be paying the Deposit in few Days.</p>