<pre><code> I'll keep it short and to the point. I'm going to study Biology with the intent to go into med-school or find a job in research. I liked Pitt, but it was just out of my price range.
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<p>I got a full ride to UPJ, and if I perform well in track and field, I'll actually get a couple thousand per year in refund checks. </p>
<p>If I choose Allegheny, I'll pay about $7500/year. </p>
<p>Everything tells me to choose UPJ for the price, but I don't know too much about the caliber of a UPJ education. From what I hear, Allegheny is a very rigorous school. Can anybody give me their opinion and/or testify to the academic merit of UPJ?</p>
<p>How is Pitt (Main Campus I assume) out of your price range but Allegheny affordable.
COA at Allegheny is $52k.
COA at Pitt Main is $31k.
COA at UPJ is $26k.
I’m Pitt alum (Main).
Many will go UPJ only to transfer to main after 2 years. That may be an option.
You will have to ask various admission of their statistics… med school, grad school, etc.
Frankly, I don’t think you can get into med school coming out of UPJ or Allegheny.
Your choice needs to be based upon your long term career goals.</p>
<p>Well, my SAT is 1940, which wasn’t quite high enough to get any merit scholarship money out of main campus. However, as a resident of Johnstown, student with FAFSA expected family contribution(EFC) of 00000, and 300+ hours of community service, UPJ gave me the full scholarship. As far as Allegheny goes, their previous estimate was 15k/year, but after I told them I couldn’t do that, they dropped it to $7500 just yesterday. </p>
<p>I will really consider transferring. </p>
<p>You have a better chance getting into Pitt Main coming out of UPJ than Allegheny in my opinion.</p>
<p>If you are trying to pick between Allegheny and UPJ, Allegheny would win academically. Allegheny College is a well respected liberal arts school known for being generous with financial aid. If you do a quick comparison on College boards of the two schools the middle 50% scores are much higher at Allegheny than UPJ. Ironically my doctor (in Rochester NY) went to Allegheny then to University of Rochester Medical School.</p>
<p>Allegheny:
SAT Test Scores *
Critical Reading: 530-640
Math: 540-650
Writing: 520-630
ACT Composite Scores *
23-29</p>
<p>UPJ:
SAT Test Scores *
Critical Reading: 460-550
Math: 470-570
Writing: 440-530
ACT Composite Scores *
19-24</p>
<p>Your choice really is
1° go to UPJ, get a 4.0 and take Honors classes, transfer to Pitt as soon as you can (but then you’d have to pay Pitt full price, so what you’d save by going to UPJ you’d have to set aside planning for the transfer)
2° go to Allegheny and stay all 4 years. GREAT college for premed for the cost they offer.
Personally, if it’s affordable, I’d pick Allegheny since it’s likely to be more rigorous and prepare you better for the MCAT and med school requirements since UPJ isn’t very rigorous (even with Honors).
However med schools mostly care about 1° GPA (the higher, the better - doesn’t matter where from) including a) general GPA but also b) science GPA 2° MCAT score. That gets you a foot in the door. Then next step will be based on your professional and research experience, general exposure to diverse populations, ability to think on your feet, etc.
So you can get to med school from either the UPJ-Pitt combination or the Allegheny College possibility.</p>