See first post - parents will pay $60k for an elite school and the student clearly prefers Bama but parents presumably would pay UTK. The student believes if they get elite, loans will have to make up the rest and doesn’t want that.
“For me, the biggest reason for UTK is my parents: they would rather me go to UTK than Bama due to ranking,”
Hopefully the parents will direct some of the save to med school !!
The OP’s first post did not actually say what the parents would pay for UTK. It is not unprecedented in these forums to find students whose parents push prestige but expect the student to take on much more debt than the federal direct loans to pay for the parents’ desired prestige (indeed, the parents’ $60k contribution for elite schools is likely far from enough to avoid large debt).
If I went to UTK, I believe they would cover the cost. I got the 9k volunteer scholarship, but I’m sure I’ll probably get other ones(Orange & White, Provost, etc., basis is friends getting offered essentially a full ride from UTK.) I just want to compare the offers face-to-face.
Thank you all for giving your input on this!
@WayOutWestMom can comment further, but I believe it’s not easier to get into medical school from Tennessee vs Alabama. Medical schools really don’t use the name of your undergrad institution in the admissions process (disclaimer that med schools like Harvard do take more of their own undergrads) but we aren’t talking about Harvard here).
The best medical school is the one you get accepted to. And it doesn’t have to be a top ranked medical school. Regardless of where a medical student goes, when they graduate, they are “doctor”. And this includes DO schools.
The best undergrad is one where you will be happy (happy kids get better grades), get the best possible grades, and sometimes have good health care advising (this varies in quality amongst colleges). And you want to try to keep costs as low as possible because medical school will likely cost you $100,000 a year.
Not exactly sure this is entirely true. Med school do look at where you went to undergrad, but mostly to make sure that your undergrad is a 4 year institution and that it has been properly accredited. They also look to be able to place your application is context. (Prof said best chem student in 10 years–10 years at a large state university is different than a 10 years at a small regional campus that produces mostly business and agriculture grads.) They may also consider if that college/univesity has sent students to their school before and how well those previous students have done.
Med school adcomms really don’t consider a undergrad’s USNews ranking at all. It’s irrelevant.
But @thumper1 is right. A graduate from UTK is not going to get the nod over a student from Bama just because of that’s where they graduated from. The “everything else” of the application is 1000x more important.
If you look at the profiles of matriculating students at various med schools, you’ll see students coming from a wide range of undergrads.
W/R/T picking an undergrad–choose the one that makes most sense to you. The one you like better, has the best fit, offers you the widest ranges of options (in case you decide against med school–and most people do), and/or makes your parent the happiest.
Whatever choice you make won’t be what keeps you out of med school.
The one advantage I see of attending an in-state public university is that school has typically sent its grads to the state med schools and are very informed about its requirements and expectations. An advisor at the state U probably has a better grasp of what it takes to get accepted into the state med school than someone at OOS college. The med school adcomm will also be more familiar with the various professors at the local state U so their LORs may carry more weight. (But only at in-state med schools.)
This is what I meant!
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