Please help my DD decide. She got into Harvard tonight, and was also awarded the Morehead Cain scholarship for UNC Chapel Hill. For those that know the two schools and the MC program, which would you choose and why? She’s a pre-med, possible neuroscience major. (No FA from Harvard anticipated) Thank you!
This is a tough decision. A few things jump to my mind up front.
First of all, a student does not need to go to Harvard just because it is Harvard. Highly ranked universities are not magic. For an undergraduate student Harvard is not going to teach you much, if anything, that you could not learn at a very good university such as UNC. Medical school admissions is based largely on GPA and MCAT score and clinical experience (and resulting references). Either of these very good universities can prepare a student very well for the MCAT and for medical school.
Secondly, medical school is expensive. Can you afford Harvard with no debt? Can you afford Harvard without debt, and still have some money left to at least help a bit with medical school expenses (and still continue to contribute to your retirement funds)?
Thirdly, what does your daughter want to do? Does she have any sense which university she would prefer to attend?
Finally, premed classes will be quite demanding at either of these very good universities.
I will admit to a bit of a bias here: I attended the highest ranked university that I got into for my bachelor’s degree. I did not think that it was a good fit for me (my second choice was also a very good university, as is UNC). Then I worked for a couple of years, and went to a highly ranked master’s degree program (at Stanford). At that point I was older, more mature, and was ready to work very hard without any break until they handed me a degree. In that highly ranked graduate program, one of my very best friends had graduated from … UNC Chapel Hill.
To me the biggest questions are: What can you afford? What does your daughter want to do?
From an academic perspective I think that you only have very good choices here, provided that your daughter wants to study hard in university (which would be true for any university with a very good premed program).
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@DadTwoGirls gives great advice.
IMO if you can (&. will) pay for Harvard & Med school with no debt, the answer comes down to which your daughter prefers.
Otherwise, Morehead-Cain gets the pole position. The ‘extras’ that come with that will give her every bit of the extra prestige associated with the Harvard name, her cohort will be dazzlingly accomplished students, neither school will in itself give her an advantage for grad school / med school- and free UG is a heck of a deal.
Either way, if she hasn’r already she should visit both: the differences between the lived experience are meaningful.
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My daughter was an OOS premed student at UNC (not MC). If you have any questions about the school, experiences, etc I would be happy to answer them.
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If your last name is Bezos, Buffett, Gates, or Musk, go where you want.
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If one wants to stress or wipeout or unnecessarily spend $, go to Harvard
Either way, you’ll need a good MCAT to get into med school - where you go may matter a bit - but it’s like do you want to go to an elite private or elite public.
Really a no brainer here - med school just got a lot cheaper!!!
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Medicine continues to change and someone who goes into college premed may not leave college premed. Highly accomplished young people like your daughter may change their mind as the “Fauci effect” wears off and they see the hardships involved in medical school, lack of adequate residency and overall non glamorous life of a doctor. If you can afford both, is there a benefit for her to go to one over the other if she does not decide to go to medical school?
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MC is a very prestigious program. She should look at all that comes with that to see how much that appeals to her. The benefit of being in the program is that she has already “won” the opportunity to participate in what the program offers.
Harvard is a prestigious school and offers a ton but your D will have to find those opportunities and possibly “win” them. The name will be immediately recognized by anyone.
The two schools, outside of that, are quite different. Does one feel more like her kind of place?
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Many kids go into college as premeds and after a semester or two, switch majors. This is a very likely outcome for a majority of high achieving students that may not want to grind for 12+ years to become a doctor.
My DD goes to UNC and I can tell you it is a fantastic school. But, if your DD changes major and chooses to become let’s say a psych major then Harvard will still give her the opportunity to interview for IB and management consulting positions. UNC won’t unless your DD can sort it out on her own. Is that worth $320K? That’s the hard decision you will have to make. If it was my decision, I’d send my kid to UNC for free.
There are advantages to Harvard, but to me, unless someone wants to go straight into a lucrative job in the greater Finance/Banking realm, a degree at UNC will be just as helpful down the road as the fancy AB or SB at Harvard.
She wants to go to medical school. Great! Medical school costs a tonnnnnnnnn of money, hundreds of thousands of bucks. If UNC would save a lot of money, think of how much easier it will be to pay for med school.
If she thinks she might want to go into Big Finance – if that is her “out” if she decides against med school – then, and only then, do I think you should consider Harvard. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Penn Wharton, Duke, Dartmouth, and some other elite private U’s are heavy feeders of that industry.
I know it’s hard to say no to Harvard, but unless you have so much disposable income that a couple hundred grand doesn’t matter to you, UNC makes more sense for almost anything she wants to study or pursue.
And if she doesn’t go to med school, well, you will have saved all that money, and you can decide then (if you decide to…) how to reward her. New car, new house (or huge down payment), annuity, law or business school or other grad school – whatever.
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Take the money and prestige of the Morehead-Cain and run. It’s a better deal and the prestige is equal or better.
Harvard certainly has a great reputation. But the name alone won’t open every single door. There is an example of a Harvard Medical School MD-PhD who failed to match this year. It goes to show that your daughter needs to work her butt off to get into med school and match successfully.
They are very different schools. If you can afford full fare without too much trouble, pick based on fit.
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If you read the twitter thread this is not exactly the typical Harvard student. He probably had a very limited match list and decided not to scramble so he probably never really wanted to be a resident.
Certainly a valid point. But he went thru the match nonetheless. My point was that even Harvard grads can go unmatched. The strength of the Harvard name won’t carry everyone.
Morehead is really big deal. As others have said, fit matters a lot. Also geography post graduation (and med school if that plays out). If you want to stay in the South or Mid-Atlantic, UNC has a great alumni network and strong name recognition, and being a Morehead makes it even more so. But with med school admissions and residencies, you really can’t count on geographic preference.
You really can’t go wrong here…explore all the benefits of the Morehead and consider whether the perks of that outweigh the “prestige” of Harvard. I’d think they are relatively equal. Things like the Morehead (and Jefferson Scholars at UVA, or Woodriff Fellows at Emory) are meant to attract students who would otherwise attend schools like Harvard.
Good problem to have!
You also don’t know how many Harvard kids never made it that far…that the school didn’t support their aspirations. From what I understand from reading others on here, that happens.
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A Harvard acceptance is amazing, but so is the Morehead Cain scholarship to UNC. I would accept the award and not look back. It will be very nice to have that money to put toward medical school, which is very costly.
Premed/science at UNC is very, very strong- research, publishing, internships, volunteering etc- it’s all there to take advantage of. Being a MC scholar will add even more.
What if this student decides not to attend medical school? I don’t see that as a problem- UNC has a lot to offer and there are plenty of opportunities to build a phenomenal resume.
Unless money is really no object (how many of us can say that?) I would choose the Morehead Cain scholarship. Congrats!
MC at UNC would be my choice.
Medical school will be likely funded with loans, loans and more loans. Save your money.
Also the MC group is quite selective. And UNC is a fabulous university.
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Many years ago I had to choose between Princeton and the Morehead (Morehead Cain now). I chose UNC. Of course I’ll never know what might have been, but the Morehead gave me a small amazing community of 240 students (60 in my year), among whom I found life-long best friends. The Foundation works hard to create that community. I also benefited from the incredible summer programs— Outward Bound, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in NYC, and 3 months in Southeast Asia for an independent study project I designed, among others. I even saved enough money from the scholarship to travel around the world for a year after graduation. The honors program at UNC gave me 15-person seminars instead of large lectures. I had truly amazing professors throughout my 4 years. I will say that I live in CA now, and for the most part no one has ever heard of the Morehead, so I don’t have the instant “prestige” Princeton might have given me. So what else might have been? I have no idea. But I’m grateful for the Morehead.
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I would love to hear about your daughter’s experience as an OOS pre-med student at UNC. My daughter is choosing between UNC, UCLA & USC and having a hard time deciding. Thank you!
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