Med school admissions is HIGHLY dependent on two factors: 1) GPA and 2) MCAT score. Science GPA matters the most. The difference in price looks negligible. $20K over the course of your entire career is a drop in the bucket. Go to where you think you can get the highest GPA.
The issue isn’t med school but the difference in outcomes from CMU v. UMichigan for the 75% who do not make it…
UMich is worth the $20k difference.
“Hello!! I have a more set idea of finances now. I’d have to take $5000 every year for loan, so I’d graduate with $20,000 debt and my parents will pay the rest. I am more decided on medicine now. Do you think Michigan would give me a better chance into medical school? I was looking at Central Michigan Medical schools 2017 profile and saw that 22 kids from UofM were accepted versus 7 central michigan students so this worries me.”
You don’t decide on medicine- medicine decides on you. The process is not a one time “I’m going to become a doctor”. It’s a marathon or a triathlon filled with hurdles and weed-outs. And then MAYBE you get in, maybe not; so your plan B is more important (in my opinion) which is Plan A, to go to med school and become a doctor.
So why not figure out what happens with your plan B- you graduate with a degree in what from which school. Then what?
There are kids who did “everything right” and still didn’t get in anywhere. Do you try again (boy that’s a LOT of money on applications, try the MCAT again) or do you figure out another life’s plan?
No HS kid is in a position to know if he or she is going to be a competitive med school applicant in four years. Or if he/she even will WANT med school after learning about biostatistics or materials science or big data/public health, or all these other cool disciplines which have important health care applications and touch points. A young woman I know who is now doing a Master’s in statistics thought she wanted to be a doctor- but now she wants a job in epidemiology. As she put it- “I can treat 15 patients a day. Or I can prevent disease transmissions or infections in tens of thousands of people every day using predictive analytics. That’s more powerful to me”.
So OP- before you start signing up for loans- take some time to contemplate your Plan B… what happens then?
For just the amount of federal loans, I’d pick UM. I agree that pre-med is fierce there (is most places), so you really, really have to be ready and stay on top of your grades. Get tutoring if you need it at the first sign of trouble. Try to form study groups, use office hours, and work a little ahead if you can so lectures are for review/fine points.
I agree that the Michigan degree is more prestigious if you don’t end up in med school later.
If you are absolutely headed for medical school read up on paths and acceptances etc for both unis and pick the one that gives you the best chance of achieving that. A sibling’s kid chose GVSU over UofM for that reason plus the lower cost and no muss no fuss into med school. At the end of the day a doctor is a doctor.
Check out the forums on Student Doctor Network (SDN). They have many premeds who are going thru the same thing right now. You might want to consider posting there and asking.
- The cheapest reasonable college so you/your parents can use the money for med school
- The college needs to prepare you for MCATs but still allow you to get a good GPA
- Access to volunteering opportunities (e.g., near a hospital)
- Success in graduates getting into med school
- Options if you don’t go to med school. Right now you think you will but probably less than 20% of freshman who think they will be premed will actually go to med school.
First off, family income is just an indicator for aid at Michigan. People making under $65K do get a free ride for tuition - but only if the family has assets in an average range for families of that income level. Your parent’s (and your) retirement assets don’t count. Stocks, home equity, and other monetary assets do. Don’t assume you’ll get any FA without running the calculator even if the guidelines say you will.
Given that your parents will contribute $60K and the rest is up to you …
You can take $30K in loans (roughly)
and make >30K over 3 summers of working and a part time student job.
A lot of it depends on what you are planning to study for undergrad. Is it a major that has good market value like a STEM field? If so paying back debt is easier. Is it a major where it does not matter that much where you go to school? There are also other options to pay for Michigan, like ROTC.
Then you will have to pay for med school if you get in. That’s around $300K if you don’t get a scholarship, or trade your med degree for a few years of service in the military. Law school is expensive too but with fewer finance options besides loans.
You will have to weigh whether Michigan is worth $120K for the slightly better med school admission chances and much better research environment.
I think the OP needs to do the research on the statement that UofM provides a “better chance” of med school admissions. I am not entirely convinced that is true. There are 7 medical schools in Michigan including Central and UofM plus MSU and 4 others. GPA, MCATs and interview are required by all.
I have read here on other threads that some universities will subtly decide who they will support with med school application (as in a review committee of some sort). I would endeavor to find out, formally or informally, how the school chooses to support a would-be med school candidate as one approaches application time and if that includes gatekeeping access to certain experiences, review of apps, recommendations, etc.
I recall former poster (sniff) curmudgeon’s D choosing to follow the scholarship $$, having an incredible experience, and getting into a top med school (at the university she had turned down for UG because of $$). Her small UG college showered her with love and opportunities and she was a superstar there.
For 20k I would absolutely choose Michigan. Hands down.
For a grand total of $20 K I would go to Michigan if I liked it better. If I had known I would have money now I would not have scrimped so much for college and medical school. You can likely pay off smaller loans but can never redo the college experience.
Different schools get different valuations by medical schools. Being a superstar, or at least a top tier student, at a “lesser” school is better than being more average at the top school. Figure out which school has the better courses in likely majors (premed is merely an intention) for you. Go to college intending on getting a degree with a future you will like outside of being a physician. You don’t want plan B to be compromised.
Ask yourself if you would get top grades at Michigan for that gpa needed. Talk to your HS guidance counselor. S/he will have seen so many students over the years S/he may know how students with your HS stats end up performing.
I don’t think that the experience of curmudgeon’s daughter is relevant here. She went to an excellent undergraduate college (Rhodes), which she selected over Yale, as I recall. The COA at Yale would likely have been about 10 times the total debt that the OP is contemplating, and that was about a decade ago!
Also, I don’t think the advice that a doctor is a doctor is necessarily relevant. If the OP wants to become a general practitioner, then it is true. If the OP is interested in a specialty like neurosurgery or (as it turns out) dermatology, then differences in the opportunities likely offered by the University of Michigan vs. Central will almost certainly matter. Physician’s income from salaries/practices varies by roughly a factor of 20 currently.
The OP will have to work hard as an undergraduate, to have a GPA to get into medical school. But I think that the courses and environment at Michigan will help a lot with the MCAT score. I also think that the faculty at the University of Michigan are likely to be able to write the kind of recommendation that helps to get a student into a top medical school, if that is of interest to the OP.
So I would say that assuming that no Plan B is needed, the University of Michigan is by far the better choice. If Plan B did turn out to be needed, the University of Michigan would be even better as a choice.
The undergrad school does not matter for getting into residencies, the medical school does. Most physicians are not interested in being researchers and from what this student states I doubt that is on the radar. btw- I do know of physicians who do the same job in the same location who went to Harvard, many different US schools and foreign. That doctor was no better or worse than the others in his specialty. A doctor is a doctor when most of us practice medicine.
Those with a passion for research would choose Michigan but this student does not seem to be that person. OP- decide your passion. Decide your plan B. Figure out if they can happen with Central Michigan.
For 20k, I’d probably pick Michigan.
Full disclosure: I picked State over Michigan 10 years ago and have no regrets. I now have multiple degrees from Michigan and still believe I absolutely made the right choice. When it came down to it, I just felt more at home on State’s campus and I’d encourage you to visit both.
Most premeds will probably get weeded out of the process. One of the other advantages to UMich is that LSA has 40 programs ranked in the Top 10, twenty-one (21) of them ranked in the Top 5, in the event the student switches majors:
And that doesn’t include the math program, which is ranked #12. ?
wis75, I don’t doubt that it is the medical school that matters for getting into residencies (and the medical school record). But the undergrad school and the experiences there may matter for which medical school the student gets into. I have seen this play out to some extent with students in my classes. There is also some carry-forward from the undergraduate degree later in life.
romanigypsyeyes, if the OP were asking about the University of Michigan vs. a full ride at Michigan State, I would have to think very much longer about what to advise, and the University of Michigan might not win for an undergraduate pre-med. The University of Michigan is higher-ranked, but UM/MSU are more like each other than either is like Central.
Most good physicians, even those who teach, do not want the extremely elite schools. If this student sounded like getting a PhD instead of MD was the thought at this point in their life it would be different.
Save your money, OP.