<p>How much does it really help to go to a name brand college over a cheaper, public or state one? Like lets say 2 students, Both with 4.0 GPA's, Same amount of extra curriculars, and community service, and stellar MCAT scores apply to the same med school. Let say that both applicants are like 100 % the same. Would the one who went to an Ivy league have more chances of getting in than the other applicant?</p>
<p>How much larger loans
What are the two schools</p>
<p>Really depends. Some top private schools give excellent need based aid and some state U’s are not that cheap even in-state.</p>
<p>Also, some state schools face budget crunches and use weede-out courses to allocate scarce resources. So it may be harder to make a good GPA at some schools that are generally less competitive.</p>
<p>Bottom line: it is best to apply RD to a range of different types of college, so you can compare FA packages and academic tradeoffs.</p>
<p>Of course it does. 4.0 at Harvard > 4.0 at average state school.</p>
<p>I think you’re assuming too much. You don’t know if you’ll get a 4.0 at both schools. Go to the one you like and think you will succeed at.</p>
<p>Pre-meds with 4.0 and stellar MCAT scores have good chance of admission to medical school. And they may actually have a choice of more than one (most pre-meds are lucky to get into just one), so they can choose a less expensive one for lower medical school debt if that is their priority (which may be if they are interested in lower paying medical specialties).</p>
<p>Lower undergraduate debt means lower total debt after completing expensive medical school.</p>
<p>This is a reoccurring question on CC. The answer is to keep your debt low. My surgeon colleague who went Northwestern UG and MS to this day wishes he went to his state’s flagship instead for both. The only thing that is guaranteed is the debt you owe. Your income and future is not!</p>
<p>The costs of professional schools are such that most people who attend graduate with enormous debt. Anything you can do so that your u/g education doesn’t make the financial situation worse is probably more important than where you get that education, presuming you do indeed get excellent grades in a rigorous course of study. Talk to your parents now about how much help they plan to give you, about whether they would help later with med school costs if you accept the u/g merit. They might prefer to help now than later; maybe they have retirement plans, for instance. If you can make your parents a part of this decision, they’ll appreciate your maturity. You’ll have made important allies for your adult life. </p>
<p>One more thing: four years from now you might have come to realize that med, dental, vet, or law school leads to a career in which you have much less interest than you thought you did. You might know very little about being a physician right now, and in fact you probably still have some things to learn about yourself and about life in the next four years. You could become ill during your undergraduate years in ways that seriously affect your plans for a 4.0; this happens all the time to students. You can plan all you want, but leave room for the unexpected, whichever path you choose. Good luck.</p>