My daughter was accepted to Scranton with a full-tuition scholarship. She’ll be on a pre-med track, and liked Scranton upon visiting. Can anyone weigh in on pre-med at Scranton and the preparedness for med school? It’s hard to pass up that money, but she’s battling with wanting more academic rigor.
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Where else is she waiting to hear from?
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Your child will find smart kids in those premed courses at every college.
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She has offers at Fordham, UD, Binghampton, Stonybrook so far but no comparable merit.
Waiting on Lehigh, Providence, Rutgers and some Ivies which don’t give merit.
Thats a wonderful scholarship and she likes the school. She is in the envious position of waiting to see what else she has to choose from too! Congrats!
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Scanton most definitely has the required course for medical school applicants.
I’ll let @WayOutWestMom discuss preparedness for medical school…because my opinion is much of that is on the student!
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An issue to consider is where would she like to be if she changes her mind about attending medical school. If still okay with Scranton, then take the full merit scholarship as grad school/professional school is expensive.
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Scranton has a number of other health profession tracks. If that is what is of interest to this student. Allied health professions.
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I am a Scranton alumni.
Scranton offers the necessary pre-med classes—just as almost every college in the country does.
It will be up to the student to prepare herself for med school. Colleges classes alone are not sufficient preparation for the MCAT (not even at Harvard) The student is responsible for putting in extra work on their own to be ready for the MCAT. The student is also responsible for finding their own clinical experiences, physician shadowing, and community service opportunities. (It’s been decades since I was at Scranton, but what I recall from my days there is that there is that Scranton, like all Jesuit schools has plentiful volunteer opportunities.)
Clinical exposure and physician shadowing don’t need to be done in Scranton. That can be done at home during the summers or during gap year after graduation. (Some 2/3rd of successful med school applicants have at least one gap year to improve their CV for med school.)
So, it’s an acceptable school for a pre-med, and the large scholarship is nice since it means little or no debt for undergrad. Med school costs are close to $100K/year so the less undergrad debt the better.
But one thing to keep in mind, a recent large-scale research study showed that only about 18% of freshmen premeds actually finish the required pre-reqs for med school. Even fewer go on to apply to med school. (And of those who apply, more than 60% get NO acceptances to med school. This means your daughter must have a Plan B career in mind that she will be happy doing.)
So the question here–aside from the price and ability to be a pre-med, is there anything else that attracts her to Scranton? Is there another major or program she would be able to pivot to if she decides that pre-med isn’t for her?
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Yes, we talk about the dedication needed to succeed often. She is a very self-motivated student so I know she’ll put her all into her education. She does have a backup plan of psychology/research, which Scranton can accommodate before graduate school
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My daughter was between Scranton and UDel for exercise science (pre DPT), after merit they were about the same I believe. For Scranton she was accepted into the auto admit into their DPT program, UDel doesn’t offer it. She chose UDel because she liked the campus better, she liked a larger school, and she was nervous about changing major with the direct admit. She made the right choice, although UDel has a very high ranked DPT program, and she was accepted, she was ready for a change, wanted urban (she just finished her last DPT class at BU). It did take her several visits to Delaware to make the final decision.
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UD is my daughter’s preferred school lol. We’re still waiting on merit from them. She got a very early acceptance to the Honors College so I’m hoping she’ll be invited to Distinguished Scholars weekend at UD.
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I should have asked specifically about advising, rather than preparedness.
Good luck! 100 students get invited. My daughter received the highest merit outside of that program. She was 8th in her class, only 1 B freshman year, 34 act, but her friend who was #2 and a 35 act was invited and received more. My daughter graduated from the honors college, her boyfriend had to drop due scheduling issues.
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My daughter is #1 or 2 in her class, 1510 SAT and 11 AP’s. Fingers crossed for the invite!
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That would be awesome for your daughter! They like their Val’s and sals!
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Does the full ride at Scranton cover room & board + fees or only tuition?
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The initial post said full tuition (not full ride) scholarship.
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Yes, which is why I asked for the clarification. Sorry, but “full ride” was just my short hand for her full scholarship. Poor choice of words.
I’m still looking for clarification on how much of the cost the scholarship. Room & Board + fees at Scranton is about $18K, so there’s still significant cost remaining if only tuition is covered.
Full tuition means room and board are not covered. It looks like a full tuition scholarship is the largest offered by UScranton. Scholarships & Grants | Financial Aid | The University of Scranton Of course the OP can clarify.
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