university medical scholar with half tuition scholarship vs HYP

<p>D was admitted as university medical scholar at Wash U with half tuition scholarship. She was also admitted by Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. She want to be a doctor in the future. Any advice for decision?</p>

<p>Wow, those are all fantastic options, as I’m sure you both know. My admittedly biased opinion is that WashU has an as good or better pre-med program than the three ivies, but clearly not by a large margin. I do think that the half tuition scholarship is a great factor in favor of Wash U, because education can become very expensive at top schools.</p>

<p>In conclusion, your daughter will get a great undergraduate education regardless of where she ends up. If at all possible, I would highly suggest visiting each campus in order to get the best “feel” for each school. If not possible, then I would recommend weighting non-academic factors such as location, facilities, opportunities, etc. If your daughter still cannot arrive at a conclusion, then the scholarship money is certainly a good incentive to choose WashU.</p>

<p>I agree with RyanMK. But since your daughter wants to go to med school, I think the half scholarship at WashU is the winner. You should know that WashU pre-med and Med are in the top 5 in the nation.</p>

<p>Honestly, WashU is the way to go if she’s university med scholar. </p>

<p>Seriously- my UMP friends got to tackle med school applications with far less stress than my non-UMP friends (even when gpa/mcat scores were the same).</p>

<p>@Happyasever - Where can I find that WashU pre-med is ranked in the top 5 or just plain pre-med rankings for schools ? TIA</p>

<p>Why it is far less stress? Examples.</p>

<p>@yetanotherid</p>

<p>AFAIK, there is no reputable ranking of pre-med programs, especially since the concept of “pre-med” is pretty fuzzy. Washu does have a strong life sciences program though, and their pre-med students typically have acceptance rates to medical schools above the national average.</p>

<p>@Elainelee</p>

<p>Assuming that we’re talking about the University Scholars Program in Medicine, then I think the answer is fairly obvious. If your daughter maintains the academic performance required to stay in the program, then she will have guaranteed acceptance to one of the top medical schools in the country. That knowledge clearly takes some of the stress off of applying to medical school.</p>

<p>

How aware of the application process are you? It’s grueling and ugly and having 1 guaranteed admit reduces stress like no other.</p>

<p>I know a 3.9, 37 MCAT who did not get into her state flagship med school.
The people who will tell you/your daughter that if she can get a 3.8/36 (the UMP requirements for guarantee) she will get in anywhere aren’t always right.</p>

<p>Furthermore, the UMP program provides a considerable amount of support for the few students in the program. Also, supposedly better advisors but I’m not artsci so I can’t vouch for that.</p>

<p>Edit:
In another of your posts, you mention that the 60k price tag of Harvard would be quite steep for your family and she doesn’t qualify for FA there. Don’t forget, med school will be another 4 years of $$$.</p>

<p>Quite frankly, I think that it would be foolish to pass up such a scholarship and program at WUSTL (which is top 15 undergrad and has a top 3 med school) solely for the name recognition of an Ivy.</p>

<p>If she’s looking for an “undergrad experience” outside of her home city of St. Louis, she can certainly get that here - plenty of StL residents choose WUSTL & live on campus and don’t go home every weekend (because they too get sucked into the WashU bubble).</p>