Hi - My daughter has been accepted at UMD College Park (Biological Sciences) and FIRE (First-year Innovation and Research Experience) program. She has also been accepted at UMBC Honors program. We are not able to decide which one would be good for her Med-school admission. Any advice and insight would be greatly appreciated!
Schools don’t get their students into med school. And, med schools won’t care which one she went to.
Which one does she like best, would require the least debt, and where she’d likely get the highest GPA?
UMD is much better
^^
Much better for what?
Maryland- Park is a Significantly Larger School: (37,610 vs. 13,979 Total Students)
Maryland- Park is Much More Difficult to Get In: (47.9% vs. 59.6% Acceptance Rate)
Maryland- Park Offers Slightly Cheaper In-State Tuition: ($9,427 vs. $10,384)
UMBC Offers Considerably Cheaper Out-of-State Tuition: ($22,682 vs. $29,720)
UMBC Provides Slightly Better Freshmen Financial Aid: (74% vs. 73% of Eligible Freshmen Receive Aid)
Maryland- Park Students Graduate More in 6 Years: (82% vs. 61% Graduation Rate)
Students at Both Institutions have the Same Median Post-Graduation Salary: ($50,000)
Maryland- Park Has Slightly Smaller Class Sizes: (18:1 vs. 19:1 Student-Teacher Ratio)
UMBC Has Slightly Hotter Summer Weather: (82°F vs. 77°F)
Maryland- Park Has Slightly Colder Winter Weather: (37°F vs. 41°F)
http://colleges.startclass.com/compare/1839-1840/University-of-Maryland-Baltimore-County-vs-University-of-Maryland-College-Park
I recommend going to UMD. They are more prestigious, and usually kids only go to UMBC when they don’t get accepted to UMD-College park.The graduate rank is much higher for UMD, you can see how much prestigious it is. Your undergraduate university doesn’t matter for your med school application, it is mainly focused on your MCAT and GPA as an undergraduate.
“I recommend going to UMD. They are more prestigious, and usually kids only go to UMBC when they don’t get accepted to UMD-College park.”
I disagree. My D15 chose UMBC over UMD. The atmosphere in these two colleges is about as diametrically opposed as you can get. Since, as others have said, MCAT and GPA are the primary considerations for med school, I would recommend factoring in the atmosphere of the campus as well as merit offered. (UMBC usually comes in with higher merit, but your mileage may vary.)
Full disclosure: My D17, who has a much different personality than her older sister, applied to UMD but not UMBC.
Thanks for all of your input…we will get a tour of both schools and then decide which one would be the best fit for her. So far we are inclined towards UMD, until someone recently told us that for pre-med, UMBC is better. She also told me that UMBC has more research options and it is easier to get good GPA, so we started getting confused on which was the better option. We are not considering out of state schools (although she got in), since options in Maryland are available.Hope we make the right choice.
@NGAGMom , my daughter is in a similar dilemma except she got into spring admit at UMCP and regular priority admission at UMBC. we were surprised that she got 5K a year award from UMBC. We are in-state as well so the cost matters not much to us as her dad works at an university and she will get half tuition discount wherever she ends up. She is interested in Pre-med as well and we are not sure which school would better help her reach her dream. Love the UMCP campus and social opportunities and built in fun. We are not 100% sold on the Freshman Connection program as i know a few students who transferred after feeling like second class citizens (aka different orientation T-shirt colors?) My daughter has resigned to swallow her pride and understands after 3 months, she will be in the mix of all the “regular” students. I also don’t want her to feel inadequate as so many of her friends have gotten into Honors or Scholars at UMCP. I know these are great programs for those students but do the regular students get left out? I want to know that she will have a shot to succeed without these “gifted and talented” classes- will that ever end?? Will it hurt her med school chances if she doesn’t have an “honors” diploma or “honors” classes? UMBC is more than half the size of UMCP but very sterile in appearance. I have a friend who chose UMBC over spring admit UMCP because she thought here daughter would do better as a "big fish in a small pond"attitude.
Little else matters besides MCAT score and GPA. Go wherever is easier to get high GPA.