<p>My son got into UPitt with Full Scholarship and admission to the Honors Program. He was invited to apply to the Guaranteed Admissions Program to Medical School, had an interview at the UPitts School of Medicine, but got a regret letter. He also got into Biomed Programs at UCSD and UC Berkeley. He wants to pursue a MD/PhD program at a top Med school after doing Biomedical Engineering as an undergrad. After visiting all the schools he is leaning towards UCSD and UPitt and he has to make a final choice. He has no scholarships from the UC schools. </p>
<p>What are the pros and cons between UCSD and UPitt? </p>
<p>What percentage of UPitt undergrads head to and are accepted by medical schools?</p>
<p>IMHO -University of Pittsburgh with FULL TUITION and Honors College hands down! Only advantage to UCSD is location. Going into Med School practically debt free is a gift, and Pitt is soooo well known for pre-med. Lots of opportunities for internships, volunteer work, etc. because of all the nearby hospitals, etc. In San Diego, your son will likely need a car–Pittsburgh he will have free access to public transport and Pitt shuttles. Good luck on your decision!</p>
<p>Well you have a bunch of excellent choices and none of them are going to be wrong.</p>
<p>An MD/PhD program is a very lofty goal. MD/PhD candidates represent the creme de la creme of med school applicants. Besides top GPAs and MCATs, you have to also have impressive research credentials as well as outstanding experiences in medical volunteering. It depends on where you apply to MD/PhD programs, but I’ve seen a lot of candidates volunteering in programs that have clinics overseas, not that that is some sort of necessity. You absolutely want to strive for authorship(s) on peer-reviewed research publications. Going somewhere where you can get involved in substantial research projects that span several years of your undergraduate career is something that should be considered carefully, because those will greatly increase your chances of doing significant work that will result in publication. You absolutely have to show an interest in becoming a physician scientist that is demonstrated by both substantial research experience and medical volunteerism.</p>
<p>Luckily, you have three great choices, and both Pitt and UCSD are especially well known in the bio/health sciences. Currently Pitt is ranked #6 in NIH funding and UCSD is #7. ([url=<a href=“http://www.brimr.org/NIH_Awards/2011/Institution_2011.xls]source[/url”>http://www.brimr.org/NIH_Awards/2011/Institution_2011.xls]source[/url</a>], Berkeley is the best school overall of the three, but has the disadvantage of having no medical school or medical center, where Pitt and UCSD’s medical centers and research facilities are right on campus). Pitt, through its honors college, seems to be substantially better at grooming major scholarship/fellowship awards winners like Rhodes, Marshals, and Goldwaters than UCSD…those types of awards will obviously strengthen any application to an MD/PhD program.</p>
<p>What it boils down to in choosing between Pitt and UCSD is essentially setting and personal finances. They are very different settings. UCSD has a more traditional type of campus on a gorgeous location next to the Pacific. Pitt is very urban and compact, with a hodgepodge of gothic and modern buildings, but conveniently located to major museums, other universities, and on the edge of a large wooded park. Pitt has major Division 1 sports and thus more of a school pride/community feel compared with Division 2 UCSD. It likely will be easier to get around Pittsburgh than San Diego, and Pitt is definitely more integrated into the city. San Diego has better weather, but I think there are actually more things to do in Pittsburgh (culturally, etc), although going to the beach and surfing aren’t on that list. Financial considerations obvious play a role here. It is hard to turn down free tuition, and exposure to the East coast (although Pittsburgh is several hours inland but within reasonable driving times to NYC, Philly, DC, and Baltimore) could be rewarding, although I’m assuming it is farther from home so it depends how your student feels about that. </p>
<p>There isn’t a wrong choice. Try to visit Pitt and UCSD if you haven’t already and decide if any perceived preference for UCSD is worth the added annual cost.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. We visited both of these campuses within the past four weeks. Believe it or not, it was much hotter in Pittsburgh on May 21st (80 degrees) than San Diego on April 7th (70 degrees). My son had his UPITT School of Medicinie interview on May 21st and we got to tour their medical school and also walk around part of the main campus. We then drove to Cleveland to tour Case Western Reserve University the same day. There are wonderful wooded areas around western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio. Out main concern are the long winters. We are not used to snow except for the what we get in our local mountains in Los Angeles. We visit the snow by choice not because it surrounds us all winter long. I do not know how our son will cope with that. San Diego was beautiful. Part of their campus tour led us to the nearby La Jolla bluffs overlooking the beach about a ten minute walk from the main campus. The weather was much like it is at home and my son is used to that. Location versus tuition is the main issue here since both UCSD and UPitt offer great educational opportunities for PhD/MD as was pointed out so well in your reply. As a parent, free tuition is my preference ranking UPitt as my first choice. My son ranked UPitt second because of its weather and the campus itself. He said, “the campus has no grass anywhere, just concrete.” Whereas, UCSD has grass and other natural landscaping throughout their campus. It is a very beautiful University. I will try to convince him to choose UPitt. Thanks for your replies.</p>
<p>Pitt certainly doesn’t have the type of campus that UCSD has, but it does have “grass”. There are four major lawns on campus 1) The [Cathedral</a> of Learning](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Learning]Cathedral”>Cathedral of Learning - Wikipedia) Lawn (that serves as the default main quad) 2) [Schenley</a> Plaza<a href=“between%20the%20university’s%20Hillman%20Library,%20%5Burl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frick_Fine_Arts_Building]art%20building[/url],%20and%20the%20city’s%20main%20public%20library,%20the%20Carnegie”>/url</a> 3) [url=<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldiers_and_Sailors_National_Military_Museum_and_Memorial]Sailors”>Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum - Wikipedia]Sailors</a> and Soldiers Memorial Lawn](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenley_Plaza]Schenley”>Schenley Plaza - Wikipedia) and 4) the lawn adjacent to the [Petersen Events Center](<a href=“Petersen Events Center - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petersen_Events_Center</a>) on the upper campus.</p>
<p>The campus is also adjacent to one of the largest urban parks in the country, [Schenley</a> Park](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenley_Park]Schenley”>Schenley Park - Wikipedia), which has big fields like [Flagstaff</a> Hill](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagstaff_Hill,_Pennsylvania]Flagstaff”>Flagstaff Hill, Pennsylvania - Wikipedia), which is right across a short bridge from Pitt’s art building, and lots of wooded spaces. </p>
<p>But no, it is not a traditional campus and has a very urban feel (particularly with Forbes and Fifth Aves bisecting the middle of the campus) but is actually has much more greenspace than many other urban campuses like NYU.</p>
<p>And as for the long winters, we actually didn’t really have one this year- we barely had any snow, and the temperatures never dropped TOO low (compared to the -26F day I had once freshman year…or the snowpocalypse of sophomore year). And to be frank, I think it’s nice to live in a climate where you get to actually experience all four seasons :)</p>