I have narrowed down my choices from the colleges I have been accepted by to the University of Rochester, the University of Pittsburgh, and SUNY University of Stony Brook and am in a pickle in making a final decision. I got excellent scholarships and financial aid from all of them, so cost is negligent.
I am majoring in biology and am hoping to go to a “top” medical school. Herein lies the problem. How much does the prestige of your undergrad school matter when getting into a top medical school? Should I choose a school purely for its academics?
Did you research those schools in premed? There is no such difficulty in making your final decision.
Visit them all and see if they have the programs and opportunities you are looking for.
Can’t speak for Stony Brook but my dd also was interested in Rochester. I think environment is very different - Rochester is close to the small city in a walled off campus and Pitt is smack dab in middle of a major city, interspersed with city, another univ. Pitt is much larger
and much more sports oriented. It also has a bunch of hospitals for volunteering, labs to do research… Rochester has one hospital and some research, not the size but strong research none the less. It’s just a smaller more confined feel. Depends on where you feel ypu’d thrive.
Here’s what I’ve observed of med school admissions committees…if you are apply to an Ivy, then having an Ivy school background (or MIT/Stanford, etc) may matter. Otherwise, or school of origin doesn’t really matter. What matters is your MCATs, GPA, classes, volunteer/service, research experience, interview.
Rochester, Stony Brook, Pitt…there is no prestige difference between any of those schools. Go to the school where you think provides the best combination of where you’d be happiest and excel and have access to the most convenient and best opportunities for medical service volunteering and research.
Rochester is a touch below IVY league while Pitt and Stony Brook are well respected state universities. is the most selective out of the three and that probably translates into higher “prestige” than the other two, but I think a determined student will have opportunities at all three schools to get into a fine medical school.
NIH funding 2015
Pitt $430mm, 6th largest in US behind JHu, UCSF, UW, UPenn, UMich
Rochester $138mm, 32nd largest in US
How about funding per student? Pitt student body is more the 4x larger than Rochester.
Both pale next to Hopkins in that regard. But it is still a lot of funding none the less.
Rochester is $12.5k/student and Pitt $16.3k. Pitt main is around 26500 students where Rochester is 11000. Not 4x larger, more like 2.5x
Sorry I must have looked at the undergraduate population.
Stony Brook is quite good for pre-med. Your MCAT score and GPA will matter more than “prestige” when applying to med schools. It also helps that students have access to both Stony Brook Hospital and Brookhaven National Labratory during their undergrad time at Stony Brook. The research opportunities are definitely available there and are highly regarded (especially at BNL!). My brother is a biochem major on the pre-med track at Stony, with many friends who have transferred from top LACs (i.e Vassar), and they all say pre-med at Stony is definitely rigorous and provides good preparation for med school.
I don’t know much about the other two schools, but Stony Brook is highly underrated and has been rising in “reputation” consistently year after year. However I can’t speak for the other two schools so definitely look through their websites/programs and research specific things you would want to do at these schools so that you can decide what would work best for you. Good luck! 