Hi! I am a transfer applicant from Seton Hall Unviersity and am choosing between Binghamton University and University of Pittsburgh. I would be a biology major at both. I am from New York so I would get in state tuition at BU, but I actually get free tuition there so I would only be paying for room and board. However, UPitt has the cool football games, an elite med school that may get me an in to get into if I go for undergrad, and I got a great financial aid package that makes it as cheap as if I paid tuition at BU. I am sort of leaning towards BU because I think I want a campus and they have a great track record of getting students into med school as well. What are your thoughts???
@gkk1100 Go with Binghamton. For the following reasons: 1) cost— you want to save as much as you can for med school. 2) outcome: Binghamton has a strong premed program and if you do well there academically and score high enough on your MCATs you will have strong chance at getting into medical school. Also IMO you have a better chance of doing better at Bing than at Pitt. Pitt is noted for grading tough in the premed courses so you don’t want to pay more money for a school that will try to weed you out. 3) remember that for medical school applicants, medical schools want to see you did extracurriculars that demonstrate your interest in a career in medicine—like internships, volunteer, shadowing in hospitals. While Pitt has UPMC on campus , making it easier to just walk there and engage in these activities during the school year, Binghamton has several area hospitals that you can try to volunteer at. But you’d need car or bus to get there. Also if you go to either of these schools you can do that volunteering or shadowing when you are home during the summers. Best of luck!