My D received full tuition scholarship at a no name small school which she loves. However she intends to go to medical school and I am wondering how much this would hurt her chances. She has a 4.0 and graduated at the top of her class so she has been accepted at many other colleges too.
While not of zero importance, where one attends undergrad is of much less importance than GPA, MCAT, ECs, LORs and the applicant’s own communication & interpersonal skills.
Pick the undergrad that offers your D the best combination of fit, opportunity and cost.
Fit because happy students do better academically. (And there’s data to back that up.)
Opportunity for an exposure to variety of majors & careers because most freshmen pre-meds change their mind about med school. Opportunity on or near campus for leadership, community service, physician shadowing, clinical volunteering and laboratory research–all ECs needed to develop a strong CV for a med school application.
Cost because medical school is hideously expensive and there is little aid except for loans, loans & more loans and pre-meds should try to minimize their undergrad debt as much as possible.
Can you name the school? There’s a difference between attending St Rose and attending Hobart, or attending William Penn in Oskaloosa v. attending Luther.
Generally, it doesn’t matter… But only to a certain extent. That’s why having the name of the college would help.
Yeah, how “no name” are we really talking? The fact that she genuinely likes the school and this wouldn’t be a solely financial move definitely helps.
I saw some USAO graduates went to med school. USAO is one of the schools in the “OOS low cost, less than 20K for Tuition, room and board” categories and it is a “no name” school. So I guess if you do well in UG, you can be a doctor. The thing is to what extent is “Doing Well”? Perhaps first in the class is one of them.
BTW a 4.0 HS student will be reshuffled in college and may or may not get good grades. Do not bank on it.
Since I had a similar question in another thread a few weeks ago, I hope you don’t mind me jumping in this one to get more advice. Given the list of schools below and a rough estimate as to their out-of-pocket cost for me, I’m looking for any input anyone may have as to what they think would be the best choice for my D. All are doable financially, but I’ll list them as “cheap” (1-10k/year), “average” (10k-18k/year) and “expensive” (19k-30k/year). I’m not considering any school where I’d have to pay more than 30k/year hence why I topped out at that.
Cheap/Free
Kean University STEM, either biomedicine or 5 year BS/MD Biotechnology, honors program
Stockton (bio), honors program
Rowan (bio), honors program
Florida Gulf Coast (bio), honors program
Drexel (bio) - (free, dont know about honors yet)
Average
Rutgers (bio, either in SAS school or SEBS, dont know about honors college yet)
Expensive
University of Miami (Microbiology and Immunology)
Lehigh (bio)
Lastly - she’s waiting for 3 Ivy’s (Princeton, Penn, Harvard) - based on NPC I am thinking they will fall in the ~20k/year range (low expensive). For sake of argument lets pretend she is accepted.
My parental dilemma are things like “is Lehigh Bio worth 25k/year vs Rowan which is 5k”, or “Should I pay 20k/year for Princeton or is Drexel for free just as good”. You don’t see much about Kean and their Research-First program on CC, but we were blown away by it and the kids. It’s small, selective, and the kids we talked to from it were all going to top-notch PhD programs or medical schools, but I have no idea how it compares…
Personally, I’d love free/cheap for undergrad and help her out with med school (or grad school if she ends up in that direction), but I also want her to have a great well-rounded undergrad experience and I’m willing to pay for it if it makes sense.
Anyway, I appreciate any input if anyone has the time. While it will ultimately be D’s decision, I want to make sure she’s takes everything into account.
Thanks everyone!
Has she been accepted by all except the three ivies? Has she visited all schools and like them?
Is she committed to medicine? If so, I think the Kean/Drexel bs/md is her best bet. That is only my opinion.
Leigh does not add too much value to medical school chances. You can get the same education at Drexel free.
Regarding the ivies, when she get accepted, we will comment on it based on the package. Money matters.
I’m confused. I can’t find that the Kean BS/MD exists. Maybe you mean the 5 year BS/MS program?
Some things to consider–if your D does decide to pursue a PhD in a STEM field, grad positions are almost always funded. Your D will be get tuition remission + a living expenses stipend (typically around $22-25K/year). So you don’t need to worry about paying for grad school.
Paying for med school is a whole other story. But 75% of freshmen pre-meds change their mind about med school and never apply, so picking the cheapest/free option for undergrad in order to save for med school isn’t necessarily a wise decision.
Drexel & Lehigh have very different atmospheres. Drexel has a rather gritty, diffuse urban campus and nearly all students participate in co-op; Lehigh has a more traditional campus and offers a more traditional 4 year academic experience.
This is your D’s future. The decisions about which college to attend is really hers. You should have the “finances” talk with her. Give her a budget of how much you’re willing to spend on college. Then she gets to choose. If she chooses a free or low cost option, then she gets any leftover funds to apply toward something else, like a semester/year of study abroad or help funding professional school.
Yes Princeton, Harvard, or Penn at medium cost would be worth it, regardless of what she does (also because if like most freshmen she changes her mind wrt med school she’ll be in a good position to launch whatever she decides to do).
Barring that, Rowan honors, Rutgers honors, Drexel would be good choices.
Note that you don’t need to major in biology to get into med school and there’s currently an oversupply of biology majors, so look at ease on major change.
^^There’s also a HUGE oversupply of biology PhDs and as been for the last 3 decades. The academic job outlook for bio/neuroscience/biotech PhDs is middling to poor, with only 15% of new biomed PhDs landing a permanent academic position within 6 years of graduation.
Medical schools are interested in grades and MCAT scores. If she keeps the same momentum in college, she’ll get in.
@WayOutWestMom yes sorry that was a typo on my part, Kean BS/MS, not MD.
As for major, she just loves biology like crazy and that would be her major regardless. However she also loves English and Writing (actually scored a lot higher on SAT English than math), so at most of the schools she was leaning towards a BA instead of BS so she can get in more english/writing-related courses. But at the moment she has no interest in anything but a science as her major.
Even though the atmospheres are quite different, she loved all the schools listed. We were surprised she loved Drexel - she had yet to visit any colleges and in her mind she didn’t think she’d like urban/city schools, but she loved it. Turns out what she like the least were really small schools. We did a Seton Hall tour and she just didn’t like how small it felt. I thought she’d think Rutgers was way to big and spread out, but she loved it too.
I’m definitely letting her make the decision, I’m just looking for myself to be able to make some cases if necessary for or against… Like “I can pay 30k/year for Lehigh, but then if you go to med school I can’t really do much for you there, but Rowan is almost as good, you love the campus, they have an equestrian club too, and then i’ll be able to help you pay for med/grad school”… but if she came back and still wanted Lehigh I’d be ok with it since she’d had all the information, pro and con.
Thanks everyone for the advice on this and other threads, it’s so helpful!