@TheDidactic, you need to learn more and let go of fallacious assumptions. Cal and UVa (as well as Engineering/Ross at UMich or CS at UIUC) aren’t safeties for anyone but the very top students in the states those schools are located in. State schools generally aren’t great with fin aid (but UNC and UVa say they meet full-need and CA is pretty good at providing fin aid to poor CA students to the UC’s), and schools like Cal, UMich, and UVa carry plenty of prestige. Quality academics at Cal, UMich, UCLA, UVa, UNC, UW-Madison, and elsewhere as well.
Seriously, compare Cornell with Cal or UMich. Try to find an area where Cornell is unquestionably better.
The reason OP’s stats matter is that OP plans to be premed. People are advising him/her to pick VCU because it’ll be easier to get good grades, even though UNC may have more opportunities and resources (and prestige - but prestige doesn’t matter for med school). So, a question is: will OP be top 25% at UNC-CH too? It looks like it’d be the case. Therefore, OP has high odds of getting the good grades premed requires at either school.
Have you visited VCU? Its campus is not like a traditional campus at all. The city of Richmond runs right through it. It has a very different atmosphere than CH. A visit to both might help you decide which you like better.
I would be cautious about extrapolating college performance from test scores and HS performance, though. Getting better grades from VCU is still likely easier. Some med schools take that in to account. Many do not.
@TheDidactic I have wanted to go to UNC for a long time, and I applied to VCU for the guaranteed medical program, which I didn’t get into. I feel like a better fit at UNC just because of interest. At the end of the day, I want to have the best chances for medical school. Fit is great and all, but my future is king.
@MYOS1634 I have not spent a night at either college. I have only spent a night at NC State University.
I really just want to know if I would be able to get research and internship opportunities at UNC at least somewhat easily, and if VCU’s Honors College would help me much more with that more than UNC would.
You really need to visit VCU. It is nothing like UNC. It is a solid choice for pre-med. I don’t think you need to have any concerns from that direction. The best dr I have ever encountered graduated from MCV. He is a brilliant physician. But, VCU has a unique atmosphere and some people love it and some people don’t.
Why do students assume it’s difficult to get involved with undergraduate research at a university which brings in many magnitudes more in grants than the vast majority of schools? Just because a university doesn’t promise undergrad research doesn’t mean it’s nearly impossible for an average student to do. UNC had an entire office dedicated to undergraduate research. http://our.unc.edu/students/find-a-research-opportunity/
Yes, of course you can get involved in undergraduate research at UNC.
Honestly, OP, I know that you say your “future is king” but the problem is that we can’t really predict the future. We can guess that VCU might make it easier to get better grades, but that’s not necessarily true - as someone already said, I’m skeptical/cautious about extrapolating from high school performance into college (high school GPA does predict freshman GPA, but only freshman year) and also about assuming your performance based on the tier of the school. It’s not that I question whether the curriculum at VCU is easier than that of UNC (on average it probably is, because they have to aim at their students) but there are so many things that affect individual student performance. You could go to UNC, find your niche, enjoy the challenge and do really well. Or you could go to VCU, think it’s so easy that you don’t need to study hard, and not do well. See what I mean?
The answer is that you can get what you want - research opportunities and preparation for medical school - from either of these campuses, so the decision really does come down to fit from there. Would you rather be at the more urban middle-of-Richmond campus of VCU, or the much more suburban campus of UNC? VCU is also slightly larger than UNC. VCU is also more racially/ethnically diverse than UNC. UNC has a more traditional campus feel but also more traditional students - the average age of UNC students is 20 (what it is at most colleges) but at VCU it’s 22, and 21 for full-time students. At VCU most students live on campus their first year but then move off campus some time after that; at UNC, all freshman live on campus and a little more than half stay on afterwards (the rest probably move into apartment complexes that are so close to campus that they might as well be on - that’s usually what happens in small college towns.)
I think those stats for UNC seem really low, I don’t know anyone getting in UNC with less than 30 on the ACT. My daughter is having the same thoughts and wondering about being on the bottom at UNC (her ACT32, wgpa 4.8)
^@ITBgirl: your daughter is above the top 25% threshold. She won’t be on the bottom of the entering class at UNC, but likely in the top 15-20%.
For the record, at UNC -CH:
97% students have 3.75 and above (weighted), average is 4.5.
Top 25% is 710 and above in math, 700 CR, 690 W; 31 ACT.
While we can’t extrapolate college class standing and GPA, etc, there’s still a correlation between high school preparation and college success, and students who are in the top 25% of the entering class have no reason to do poorly at their college, unless they get distracted (or are bored from not enough academic challenge).
@myos1634 you are right, they do seem to have those stats, I guess we need to relax some about UNC, Daughter is just at a very competitive HS and is barely in the top 10%, I guess I am biased.
I think UNC is the right choice for you. You don’t need to go in at the top of the class to get into med school-- you need to finish at the top of your class. Buckle down and don’t get distracted, and a very high graduating GPA is very much in reach for you. It’s all about discipline, and if you have it, doors will open for research opportunities and more. Good luck!
