I am transferring out of a California Community college to either Washington State University or University of Colorado Boulder. I am trying to go to med school and I eventually want to become an orthopedic surgeon with a specialty in sports medicine. Should I go to WSU as a basic medical science major, or go to a more “prestigious” school (CU Boulder) and major in neuroscience? Thoughts?
The “prestige” of your undergrad has no bearing on your future specialty.
It appears that you will be an OOS student at both WSU and CU. Neither school is particularly good for OOS FA or for transfer FA. Which is less expensive?
There is little FA for med school other than loans so you should try to minimize undergrad debt.
BTW, you should not be picking a specialty before you even get accepted into med school. Orthopedics is one of the 4 or 5 most competitive specialties in medicine and only about 70% of qualified applicants are able to match. Matching into ortho requires top med school grades, honors in your clinical rotation (esp in surgery), outstanding LORs from your surgery preceptors, top 5% scores on the USMLE exams and orthopedic research conducted during med school.
Assuming that you are a California resident, why are you not transferring to one of the UC’s?