<p>Actually, the published data shows the complete opposite.
Last year, 94% of MIT undergraduate applicants were admitted to med school. Pretty much everybody who takes the MCAT gets admitted and most get admitted to the top med schools. </p>
<p>There are not a a lot of premeds at MIT simply because medical school is not especially popular destination for graduates, but those who apply do extremely well. </p>
<p>There is very little drop between the number of students interested as freshmen and those actually taking the MCATs. If anything the opposite is more common: students with no initial interest in medicine who decide later to apply, especially engineers. It is actually quite easy for MIT students to apply to med school as most premed prerequisites are covered by the general institute requirements. Students are generally ready to take the MCATs by the end of sophomore year. There is also no such thing as weed-out classes for premeds at MIT as would be typical at most other colleges. </p>
<p>There may be various reasons why students may not want to attend MIT but being a premed should not be one of them.</p>
<p>^^then why do MIT grads have a higher-than-national-average gpa for med acceptance? If anything, given the rigors of MIT, their accepted gpa should be lower than the national average which includes every Podunk Uni, and kids with two years at a juco. Those are the HARD facts, The rest of your post is just speculation.</p>
<p>GPA for accepted med school applicants at MIT is 3.5, hardly above average. Considering the majority of MIT applicants get admitted to top med schools including substantial numbers at HMS, the GPA from MIT candidates is typically lower than the GPA of candidates from other colleges admitted to the same med schools. If you are good enough to get accepted to MIT, getting into med school is frankly no big deal! With a minimum of effort, you will get in.</p>
<p>Thanks for input! MIT is very expensive, and I will have to worried about medical school tuitions.I am still hesitating to make final move. More input is appreciated.</p>
<p>This is the biggest no brainer question on College Confidential…seriously.</p>
<p>Vandy…</p>
<p>Why is this still a question?</p>
<p>If the parents can set aside the MIT money for med school, then this kid will graduate from med school debt free or near debt free. Can you imagine! Amazing! What a gift.</p>
<p>Well, it seems like an easy choice to me as well, unless the OP is from a very wealthy family (and I mean wealthy, not just high-income). But, I hesitate to be so blunt since my kid attends VU and I try (sometimes) not to sound like a biased cheerleader.</p>
<p>So, here is another anecdote that might serve as food for thought for the OP. My husband is a prof. at our state public flagship university, not a high-ranked Famous Public, just another decent flagship. Last week he told me one of his students (in an upper level elective that has nothing to do with medicine) has been admitted to Yale Med School for next year. This is a very smart student who probably attended Public U on some automatic merit scholarships, or perhaps had been awarded one of the competitive awards. In either case, she paid far less to go to university than she could have. Now she has the money saved to go to Yale for med school. Did she have the same experience that she might have if she had attended a well-funded private university? Probably not–but she made it to her post-grad. goal and she can even afford it. The OP is being offered a chance to do undergrad. at a well-funded private university, which puts him in an even better position.</p>
<p>I didn’t attend Princeton, I didn’t attend MIT. I know people who attended both, though, for undergrad as well as for doctorates. Sure, those schools are famous for a reason, but I’m being really honest when I say I don’t think the differences are worth the price differential you are looking at. (Assuming you are full-pay for Princeton and MIT.)</p>
<p>I am going to make final decision, but peer pressure getting more significant, should I change my path to finance or Law? In that case, how should I choose my college?</p>
<p>The OP must be a prestige-obsessed Asian international. This takes the cake for the worst college decision I’ve ever seen made if the OP really was intent on being premend and not pre-finance.$200,000 plus a lot of special benefits at Vandy down the drain…</p>
<p>^ What was the point of adding the Asian international part? Such a sweeping generalization. For example, I am an Asian (South Asian) International (Canadian) and I am choosing Emory over U Chicago (most CCers would consider the latter more prestigious).</p>