<p>I was so happy to receive my ea admission in December, as ND has been my top choice ever since I visited last spring. However, I'm starting to wonder if it's the right school for me. I've known that I want to go into medicine since before I started high school, and the past week I've spent shadowing doctors as part of my senior career project has only reaffirmed that belief. My goal is to major in one of the humanities, probably English or History, and fulfill all the requirements for med school as well. I know ND has excellent academics all around, but does it really make sense financially to go there when I can attend UNC Chapel Hill for about 1/3 of the price, especially since the undergrad institution doesn't really matter when applying to med school. My parents have agreed to pay for 8 semesters of my undergrad studies, but if I go to UNC, most likely with some scholarship money, they said that they could afford to help me out some with med school as well. Every non-ND person I've talked to has advised me to go to the cheaper option, and UNC has a great science program and access to internships/volunteer work that you can't find in South Bend, but I'm so in love with Notre Dame. Can anyone give me some advice on this topic?</p>
<p>ND is a wonderful place to be sure, but not right for everyone. UNC and the whole triangle area will certainly give you a lot more opportunities for the experiences you can use for pre-med. The hospitals there do huge amounts of research and are top notch. The cost savings is a bonus. If you like the NC area and would be happy there it MAY be the right choice for you. </p>
<p>You have a lot of great options here. UNC is a great school, and very cost-efficient. However, Notre Dame does an excellent job of getting people into good med schools. They have an 80% acceptance rate into med schools from their student body, almost twice the national average. There are still lots of research opportunities on campus, and the professors will work with you to achieve any goal you can dream of. Also, Notre Dame a great focus on the classics and humanities as a result of their academic requirements, something you may not get at UNC, although I know nothing of UNC’s academic requirements for undergrad. </p>
<p>I can’t tell you what the right decision for you is, but I was in a similar situation and I chose to go to Notre Dame (over University of Minnesota, which would have been free). As a result, I will graduate from medical school with about $200,000 in debt. That is a lot of money, but it’s also pretty typical for medical school grads nowadays and should be possible to pay off eventually on a physicians salary. I really am glad I went to Notre Dame. I think it prepared me well for medical school and was a fantastic experience. Also, as a warning, undergraduate institution does matter to an extent in terms of getting in to medical school, it just doesn’t matter so much once you’re out, because people will care more about your medical school (although I have found that the ND alumni network has been serving me well even into my current residency search!). But you need to figure out what will make you happiest and give you the opportunities you want (P.S. don’t discount ND’s volunteer/research/etc opportunities, there are plenty!)</p>
<p>If you have any other questions about ND/med school/etc, I’d be happy to answer them!</p>
<p>My son also got into ND and will be applying to med schools this year. He didn’t go, but I always wished he’d have chosen ND. I haven’t forgotten when we were helping him to move into his college dorm as a freshman, I had to ask someone for directions. The guy who stopped to help us was on campus because he was attending that school’s medical school (ranked 1 or 2) and wearing his ND t-shirt from undergrad. You have a hard choice. Both ND and UNC are great schools.</p>
<p>Be careful with medical school placement rates. Many times premed students are weeded out and diverted to other majors. This allows the placement rates to be falsely elevated. I can tell you that a placement rate of 80% doesn’t impress me at all! Those numbers have nothing to do with you. I am more impressed that you love the school and that is extremely important. </p>
<p>Minimize your loans. There is no guarantee that today’s money will be there for you tomorrow. The only guarantee you will have are the loans that you owe. I work a lot harder now than I did 10 years ago and I make a lot less.</p>
<p>I think the difference in money is definitely something to consider. However I disagree with frugaldoctor. ND does a phenomenal job at getting kids into med school. The weed out courses weed out kids who don’t have the passion for it, which you seem to have, so you should be fine. I was just at an accepted students program at ND (for the College of Science, I want to go to med school too) and I can tell you that ND will provide you with awesome opportunities and provide great support for an aspiring med student. Also, ND is working to expand on their research so there are plenty of opportunities in undergraduate research for you and you could easily start freshman year. The Harper Cancer Research Institute and very new and a great facility at ND. Is it worth the extra money? I am not sure. I would say that depends on how much you like UNC, but UNC is also a great school. </p>
<p>Just a note about ND’s med school acceptance rates and weed out classes:</p>
<p>Science classes in general “weed out” a good number of kids at any school. They are difficult and not everyone has the ability or drive to make it through. But there really is a lot of academic and peer support at ND and there aren’t really any classes intentionally designed to weed anyone out. That is actually something I would consider as a plus for ND. I don’t know anything about UNC’s program, but some of the bigger state schools or other graduate school-focused institutions do intentionally cull the science and engineering herd.</p>
<p>As a result, ND not only has a high acceptance rate to med school, but also has a high number of students who go to medical school each year (someone told me it’s somewhere around 20% of each graduating class, but I don’t have an actual source for that number). And since so many ND grads go on to medical school, Notre Dame does have a fantastic system in place to help with the application process, which is immensely helpful. And unlike at some schools, that office will help any ND student apply to med school if they want, even if their GPA or MCAT scores are not up to par. The pre-med office is so good that all the students applying to grad/pharmacy/vet/law/etc school are jealous. And I can tell you I wish I’d had something similar for my residency applications!</p>