URGENT Pre-Med Dilemma

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>I'm between two schools right now & I only have three weeks to decide where I'm going to be spending my next four years.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB). Their medical school ranking has been climbing. I visited multiple times and was offered a spot in the neuroscience program. The selective major offers INCREDIBLE research opportunities. Also, the counselors are amazing and help with every step. Classes are relatively small & I have been accepted into the University Honors Program. I loved to atmosphere and vibe of the city, To top it off, my scholarship pays for pretty much everything. </p></li>
<li><p>University of South Alabama (USA). The school was only in my perspective for their early acceptance program to medical school. I never considered it & thinking I wouldn't even get in. I never thought about attending there because I had visited and nothing about it appealed to me. I even skipped my honors interview for a tennis match. However, yesterday, I received an acceptance letter into the early acceptance program, meaning if I keep up my GPA and receive a decent MCAT score, I'm already accepted into their medical school. I also have my tuition paid for there. Problem is, there aren't many research opportunities there & the school is so small & not very diverse (smaller & less ethnically diverse than my high school now) & that defeats my motive in meeting new people. Also, they don't have a neuroscience major, so I'd be majoring in psychology instead. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>***Option 1: Attend USA & have the comfort knowing I have already been accepted into medical school. Then, after my UG & I decide not to attend medical school there, I could apply elsewhere. </p>

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<p>***Option 2: Attend UAB where I can meet all types of people and have internships and research opportunities with renowned professors. It would color my college resume and open so many doors.</p>

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<p>After reading this thread:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/19444-best-premed-programs.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/19444-best-premed-programs.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Reading about the difficulties I'm getting into medical school really shocked me. I knew it was difficult, but I didn't think it was that difficult. I've been accepted and wait listed at UCLA, UWSTL, and Vandy but I don't think I'll be attending due to lack of financial aid.</p>

<p>***Would it be wise to attend UAB over my guarantee program at USA? </p>

<p>***Also, I heard even if you get accepted into medical school, they give you career options based on your class rank. For example, if you are top 10, you get the highest paying medical careers, but if you're lower in class rankings, you get general physician. Is that true? Do you not get to choose your own medical pathway once you get accepted?</p>

2

<p>First of all congratulations! I lived in Alabama for 8 years and got my MS from University of Alabama. Roll Tide! I am familiar with the schools you are considering.</p>

<p>The prestige of the medical school should not factor into your decision regarding the undergraduate program. </p>

<p>The combined programs like USA’s early acceptance program, have a lot of critics these days. USA’s program, though not as good as Rice/Baylor etc., is pretty reasonable in their requirements for matriculation. If you don’t have 3.5/3.4 GPA and 29 in MCAT, your medical school admission is very unlikely anyways. If you do better, you obviously have the choice of applying else where. Visit the Student Doctor forums to get a feel for what you have to go through to get to medical schools.</p>

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<p>^^But please! Take just about anything you read on SDN with a large grain of salt.</p>

<p>SDN is full of a lot of hype and hysteria with a few nuggets of good advice intermingled. Be sure to sift carefully.</p>

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<p>I was hoping that all that hysteria is exactly what the OP needed to get nudged into going with his USA admission :)</p>

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<p>What are your test scores and GPA? </p>

<p>If you attend UAB, and get a high GPA and test scores, then likely you’ll get at least a couple of med school acceptances. </p>

<p>USA has a very good med school, but you may find yourself “over qualified” in many of the undergrad classes.</p>

6

<p>mom2collegekids, you raise an interesting point. </p>

<p>What’s the conventional wisdom around here regarding this? Is it better to be at a place you are “over qualified” and get a great GPA? Or is it better to face stiff competition at one of those grade deflated colleges? Obviously, MCAT will be the great leveler here …</p>

<p>My son is at a top 15 private school which is notorious for it’s grade deflation. Many pre-med classes there are curved to C and most limit the number of A grades to 20% in the class (much worse than Princeton’s 35% As) and they are very proud of that LOL.</p>

<p>BTW, I will be a dad with 2 college kids next year:)</p>

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<p>Thank y’all so much for the feedback!</p>

<p>I have a 32 on the ACT & a 4.6 weighted GPA. Coming out of junior year, I was ranked 26 out of 736. </p>

<p>That’s what I was worried about. Should I take the USA offer and not worry about medical school or go to UAB and fight to get into medical school but learn more? UAB has so much more to offer, especially for research and internships.</p>

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<p>@beautiful
You will thank yourself 5 to 10 years time from now for having made the right decision in choosing the lowly USA combined medical program.
Good Luck.
PS: I know about both schools.</p>

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<p>^ Well said.</p>

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<p>your screen name “tiger” makes me wonder…</p>

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<p>I, a UA alumnus, am proud to say that I like tigers and all other big cats :slight_smile: In fact, a new set of tigers joined SEC last year - the Mizzou Tigers. I feel for them. They didn’t do too well, in their first year.</p>

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<p>Take the school that you feel like has more to offer. Don’t sacrifice these precious four years of your life because of online histrionics.</p>

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<p>@pcb and @ Kal</p>

<p>My name has tiger in it, but I am all “crimson”… :)</p>

<p>May be it means to “tame” the tiger… ;)</p>

<p>Rolllllllll Tide…</p>

<p>Still, USA is a better choice for beautiful.</p>

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<p>Roll Tide, indeed.</p>

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<p>*What’s the conventional wisdom around here regarding this? Is it better to be at a place you are “over qualified” and get a great GPA? Or is it better to face stiff competition at one of those grade deflated colleges? Obviously, MCAT will be the great leveler here …</p>

<p>My son is at a top 15 private school which is notorious for it’s grade deflation. Many pre-med classes there are curved to C and most limit the number of A grades to 20% in the class (much worse than Princeton’s 35% As) and they are very proud of that LOL.*</p>

<p>Many schools limit the A’s in the weeder classes…even state schools do that.</p>

<p>I think my son has decided to attend UAB SOM next fall (still waiting to see what the other 2 offer), but when deciding his undergrad he went with where he thought he’d be happiest. He went to Bama for undergrad because he wanted that full college experience (and he got it! While he was an undergrad, he got to see his school win 3 football championships and got to attend 2 of them…memories he’ll never forget.) He also had some very good research experiences. He had the option of doing UAB’s BS/MD but chose not to because he wanted that full college experience (UAB undergrad may have gotten better in this area in more recent years.) That said, son’s good friend did take the UAB BS/MD route and spent many weekends at Bama for football games and other “campus life” fun.</p>

<p>If the OP is an Alabama resident and does well in undergrad and MCAT, then she’d likely get accepted to USA SOM anyway. USA follows a rubric that is GPA (3) + MCAT (3) + interview (4). As long as you meet the threshold numbers (at the moment) you’re accepted if you’re instate. My son’s acceptance letter went out the day after his interview because his total met the threshold. </p>

<p>Of course the guaranteed MD admittance is very attractive, and if the OP lives in another state, I’d say, “absolutely take it.” If the student is certain that she could get a high GPA at UAB and get at least a 30 MCAT, then the student will likely get into USA SOM anyway.</p>

<p>it’s a tough call. On one hand the student needs to be happy during those 4 undergrad years, but the assured acceptance is attractive.</p>