<p>My son is trying to decide between the Health Sciences Honors Program in UT's College of Natural Sciences and Cornell University (College of Arts and Sciences). The cost difference is a no brainer (even with the grant money from Cornell, UT is about half the cost) and he understands that, but he is having trouble getting over the "prestige" factor of an Ivy League school. I am interested in hearing opinions from people who have obtained undergraduate degrees from UT, especially in an Honors track, and went on to graduate schools at "more acclaimed" academic institutions (don't knock me for my phraseology - I am a UT grad myself).</p>
<p>If Cornell’s cost is much more than UT’s, then HSH at UT is the better option. If you look at UT’s CNS ‘premed’ site, you will see this page:
[url=<a href=“http://cns.utexas.edu/careers/health-professions/programs/pre-medical]Pre-Medical[/url”>http://cns.utexas.edu/careers/health-professions/programs/pre-medical]Pre-Medical[/url</a>]</p>
<p>You will notice that in every cycle, applicants get into the likes of Harvard, JHU, and the like for medical school. More importantly, look at the figures for UT-Southwestern, Baylor, UT-Houston, and UT-MB @ Galveston…great meds and the low costs are amazing, so I would not find it surprising if UT grads turned down some top 10 meds for the likes of those Texas meds I mentioned.</p>
<p>The following page gives you Cornell’s pre-med info. It has very good track record.</p>
<p>[Accepted/Applied</a> Charts for Health Careers](<a href=“Career Services | Student & Campus Life | Cornell University”>Career Services | Student & Campus Life | Cornell University)</p>
<p>BTW, my daughter is also accepted by both Cornell’s COE and UT’s Engineering Honor and she decided to attend UT as an in-state student.</p>
<p>You can apply to all eight Texas med schools with a single application, and that’s what most UT pre-med students do. They may or may not add additional schools to that, but that seems to be the baseline.</p>
<p>I’d go to cornell</p>
<p>Taking on large amounts of undergraduate debt is totally not worth it.</p>
<p>In my opinion, HSH is more than sufficient in terms of providing opportunities for students to excel.
Although HSH is a new program, it’ll set your son up for research starting right from his freshman year and pretty much guide him through his college career with a bunch of other perks. At Cornell, he’d have to take the initiative himself, which isn’t always easy with such a large student body.</p>
<p>Cornell is also a lot more difficult in terms of academics. The more time you have to dedicate to academics, the less time you have to take part in extracurricular activities, get involved in research, or breathe and have fun. If he’s intent on attending grad school, all of these things are important (even the last one, I don’t think it’d be fun to be a burnout)</p>
<p>so I don’t see what more he can ask for from UT, especially since he got into HSH (There’s actually a huge difference between being an honors kid in CNS and being a non-honors kid: the non-honors kid is essentially thrown out into the water with hardly any guidance. I imagine it might be similar at a large school like Cornell)</p>
<p>Of course, there could be aspects about Cornell he likes and there could be a chance he could succeed more at Cornell. It’s important to think the decision over. Has he ever visited either school? </p>
<p>I know exactly how he might feel though. I was pretty much a prestige-whore who was intent on going to a school in the T10 USNews&Reports but I realized at the last moment that it simply wasn’t in my best interest.
Hope your son can also pick the right school! Best of luck.</p>
<p>If this were my son, I’d say if he wants to go to Cornell, the cost difference is totally on him, and he chooses, not me. </p>
<p>I’d openly support the idea of UT for undergrad, and let’s see how sucessful he is. If he is really, really good, he won’t have to pay for grad school. </p>
<p>If he is going to med school, that is debt enough!!</p>
<p>Best wishes.</p>
<p>I am a Cornell parent and I love the place. And we were full pay and I would not have sent my kid elsewhere. </p>
<p>However, it sounds to me that a UT Honors program would be an excellent choice and substantially lower cost. Trophy hunting sometimes seems like a bad thing, but in the long run, the Cornell acceptance is a validation(don’t toss that amazing acceptance packet!) and UT Honors will help your son get where he wants to go – without a real compromise IMHO.</p>