Hi everyone! I am having trouble deciding which college to go to and was hoping that someone would have some advice on what I should do. I got into Case Western (34k/year), Scripps (67k/year) and Northeastern (75k/year). I emailed them all for more financial aid and that was the best that they said they could all do. For majors I think that I would do biology/nutrition at Case Western,
biology at Scripps, and health sciences at Northeastern. For Northeastern I was admitted to the Oakland campus for the first year, and apparently there is no federal aid for that campus at your time there for some reason, or at least the person that I talked to on the phone told me that. I will be on the pre-med track and hope to go straight into medical school without taking a gap year. I am a domestic student from California. I think that Case Western would be the best choice for premed, however I visited the campus for the Diversity Overnight program in November and the weather was terrible. As I said, I am from California and 100 percent prefer warm and sunny weather to anything else. When I visited Scripps the weather was nice and I am only 20 minutes away from the campus so I am familiar with the area and it is pretty nice. The main concern I have about Case Western is that I have read a lot about how the student body is generally unhappy and people talk a lot about transferring and things like that. The students at Scripps seemed very happy and like they really enjoyed their school and actually loved it. I feel like my main concern about Case Western is the quality of student life and overall happiness and everything like that. It would also be a big change from California, however premed is important to me and I do want to go straight through into medical school with no gap years and have access to a lot of opportunities. Scripps also has smaller class sizes and I have heard that Case Western has big introduction classes which is a concern for me, as I much prefer smaller class sizes. Northeastern is fine, however I feel like for the price it is not worth it. Now I am torn mainly between Case Western and Scripps and recognize that Case Western would most likely be the best choice for premed, however I am concerned about the quality of life there and about how hard the classes would be. A good premed education is important to me, however I also want to be happy and have a fun time in college. I am looking for advice on which school I should pick because I’ve been thinking about it a lot and I cannot decide. Thank you!
What can your family afford to pay, keeping in mind that med school is incredibly expensive?
Premed will be hard wherever you go.
I would choose Case Western, but it doesn’t seem as though you like it. Do you have other acceptances?
You can take the required courses for medical school applicants at any of these. So…you need to consider other traits of the schools.
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If you do not like winter weather, CWRU can be eliminated. And really so can Northeastern unless you can spend all four years in Oakland. Boston has winter too.
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Can your family pay for Scripps? Without parent loans?
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Remember that medical school will cost $100,000 a year or more by the time you get there…if you do.
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Are these your only three acceptances? No CA public universities?
Why the rush? Plus your undergrad school name won’t guarantee this will happen.
The average start age for medical school students is 24 or so. Many take a glide year after undergrad. Many apply during their undergrad senior year.
How much will your parents contribute?
Be aware that medical school (if you are among the few that get admitted) commonly costs over $400k (probably around $340k for in-state UC), so consider whether saving money with a lower cost undergraduate school can reduce the debt after medical (or other professional) school at the end.
So you have demonstrated need ? And one is half the price of the other. Two years for one.
Can your parents afford four years of Scripps AND med school ?
Yes Scripps classes are smaller. They offer a limited amount (194) while Case over 1200 so no doubt a lot of your work will be in the consortium. But statistically Case classes are larger but you don’t know which impact you and the large classes will have breakouts.
Honestly, most what people post here about case is positive. It sounds like you might fear homesickness ?
Did you, by chance, apply UCR. Yes big classes but a guaranteed med school option. Scripps, for pre health, talks about their post bac program far more than regular. They note 98% placement from it - I can’t tell if committee based or not.
Perhaps save your $ at CWRU and then post bacc at Scripps?
In the end, the med schools will decide if you can go right away. Not you.
Of course many start like you - laser focused - and change. That will also likely create a graduate opportunity.
So budget is first, second and third. Loans are bad. If you don’t need them, then pick Scripps if that’s truly the comfort. And if grad school doesn’t require loans either.
Good luck.
My Scripps kid had multiple friends who weren’t happy at first and sent out transfer applications. Only one of them actually decided to leave, but transferring was a frequent topic of conversation in her friend group. (She also had at least one friend who transferred in.)
Scripps can be a great place for premed - the advising is excellent, as they have that in place not only for their undergrads but also for their postbacc premed program. As you say, there’s a lot of direct interaction with faculty, in smaller classes.
I think Case has a lot of these same attributes too, though. Plus, there’s really good access to clinical shadowing opportunities at Case, whereas there’s not much nearby in terms of major medical facilities, in Claremont.
The classes being hard is just a function of the content, and will be true everywhere. Organic chem is just hard.
I would rule out Northeastern; it doesn’t seem to improve on the other two, for what you want, and it has its own downsides, with the year in Oakland and the extra-high cost.
Between Scripps and Case, I don’t think either is clearly better than the other in terms of the premed education. The intangibles at Scripps seem to appeal to you more, but then again the cost is very nearly double. And I suspect there is more fun to be had at Case than you think. Have you looked into Greek life at Case? Their sororities seem very down-to-earth, a little “nerdy” and not at all stereotypical sorority life, but quite fun. Perhaps worth checking out before deciding to spend an extra $130K+ for Scripps over CWRU, based mainly on perceived quality of life.
You don’t need a post bacc if you take all the required courses for medical school applicants during your bachelors degree time.
@WayOutWestMom can you please explain why someone would need a post bacc!
While I understand, this is what Scripps pushes in its pre med education.
They are clearly known for helping to make that link with med school which kids may not find elsewhere.
It’s a well defined program - not just take classes - as @aquapt alluded to.
Yea it’s for changers but it could be useful for others too. Or for those who soften the academic blow over the four years.
This is what they are marketing, over ore med, it seems.
Our postbac students have earned an impressive 98% acceptance rate into medical school, dental school, and veterinary school. Scripps students have a strong track record of gaining admission to prestigious schools nationwide and continuing on to successfully pursue careers in allopathic medicine, osteopathic medicine, veterinary medicine, and dentistry. About one fourth of the post baccalaureate students at Scripps choose to take advantage of our linkage programs.
Scripps doesn’t push its postbacc program for its own undergrads. The only reason that would happen would be if a student studied something else entirely, and had a late realization that they wanted to go to med school. There’s no reason that the OP should need a postbacc program, although she might end up considering a “glide year,” as many students do, in order to gain clinical experience and devote more time to MCAT prep.
I referred to the Scripps postbacc program only because it exists in addition to the undergrad program for premed students, and the institution clearly has its premed advising ducks in a row, to serve both student populations.
The med school acceptance rate from the postbacc program is great, but IMO that’s because Scripps gets to review each applicant’s undergrad record before accepting them to this program. As with a committee letter system, they get to choose students who are well-positioned for success with their med school applications, as long as they backfill the necessary coursework.
Adding one more comment: Getting into specifics about the postbacc program at Scripps, or anywhere else, is a distraction on this thread. It is not true that Scripps emphasizes this program over regular premed preparation for undergrads. The marketing exists because it’s a lucrative, full pay program that supports the college’s bottom line. It costs $85K/year, and there is no institutional aid for posbacc students, only federal loans and private loans.
Scripps post bacc is for career changers only. It’s not for GPA improvement. The post bacc program is for students who have not taken pre-med pre-reqs and Scripps’ post bacc will not accept anyone who has taken more than 1 or 2 pre req classes.
So Scripps for a post bacc doesn’t make sense for this student. Also cost. It’s over $85,000 for just tuition for the 1 year program. Add in room & board and you’re well over a $100K
Why take the longer, more expensive route when it possible to be a successful pre med at Case? (Or Scripps?)
Case and Scripps both will provide excellent pre-med education. You seem to prefer Scripps (I’d take SoCal weather over Cleveland any day too) but you and your family need to be comfortable paying the cost difference. This is a discussion you need to have with your parents.
Good luck wherever you decide to do. The pre-med path is not an easy one.
Ok. Thanks.
They really seemed to zero in on it vs pre med. thx for the explanation.
The first thing that comes up for premed students is budget. What is your budget for a full 8 years of university? Not only should you avoid debt for your bachelor’s degree if you can, if possible it would be even better to leave some money in the bank or college fund to help pay for medical school.
This of course brings up the issue, can you afford to pay full cost at NEU or Scripps and still have money left over to at least help some with medical school?
Regarding winter weather, Boston is not likely to be meaningfully better than Cleveland. I am wildly guessing that Boston might be slightly less cold in the winter, but it also might be just as wet or even wetter. We occasionally have these things called “Nor’easters” where a low pressure sets up with its center over the gulf stream, picks up water from the gulf stream, and dumps the water on the residents of Boston. However we get used to it. I think that you will get used to the weather in any of these locations and it will not be a problem.
I do not think that your chances of admissions to medical school will vary at all depending upon which of these universities you attend. They are all very good. They will all be very academically demanding for a premed students.
Premed classes will be full of strong students and will have tough exams at any of these schools. I do not think that the difficulty of classes will vary in any significant way between three very good universities.
One daughter referred to organic chemistry as “the most difficult B- that I ever had in my life”. This is going to be typical at a very wide range of universities. Fortunately she had enough A’s in other classes to make up for it. Then she started her DVM program and said that the average class was about equally tough compared to organic chemistry. I do not think that any good MD program would be any easier. Students need to learn to step up their game. Determination may be as important as academic ability and caring for the patients.
It is relatively common for students to take one or more gap years after getting their bachelor’s degree before starting their MD program (or DO or DVM). One possible reason is to get more relevant medical experience. Another possible reason is to study for the MCAT. Another possible reason is to make sure that you want to do it. Also I am pretty sure that you apply to MD programs about a full year before you start, so you would need to get applications in by about the start of your senior year of university to avoid a gap. However I do not think that this will impact your choice between these three very good universities.
I wondered about this also.
Hi! I’m not sure exactly what my family can pay, but I know that my parents make around 150k a year and I have 3 siblings. I don’t explicitly not like Case Western, I just haven’t heard a lot of good things about the student life and things like that, but I’m willing to sacrifice that for a good education and good opportunities if it comes to that. I also got into Creighton (35k/year) and Baylor (45k/year), however those were more of my safety schools and are still pretty expensive.
Hi! I was thinking about the weather but I do feel like it’s a little bit silly to eliminate schools just based on weather because I am really invested in premed and I’m willing to thug it out for a fees years in a bad environment if it means I can go right to med school. My family can’t pay for scripps without loans and I talked to them about that and they said that there’s nothing else they can do to help me. I also got accepted to Baylor (45k/year) and Creighton (35k/year), but that is it. Unfortunately I wanted to go to good schools and I didn’t apply to any cheap California public schools and I am the first kid so my parents didn’t know to advise me to do anything different.
Hi! I am very committed to going to med school and I do not really want to waste a year exploring other options or doing something like that because I know I want to go to medical school. The only way that I would do that is if I got rejected from everywhere the first time that I applied to medical school, but I do definitely realize that that’s a very possible scenario.
Why rush into med school? There is a LOT to do in order to be a competitive applicant and most students do not apply and go straight from undergrad. They take the time to strengthen their application, take the mcats etc.
I am not really sure how much my parents will contribute or how that works because I’m the first child and none of us have gone to college yet, but I know that my parents will definitely help me with the cost. I go to private school right now that is about 15k/ year if that helps.
My siblings struggle with some health issues and I have been around hospitals and medical setting a lot throughout my childhood and am very set on becoming a doctor, so I would like to save time and go right to medical school. I know that there is a lot to do before becoming competitive so I am hoping to get that all done in undergrad which is why I think that all of the opportunities at Case Western would be good for that, but I do know that even if I do all of that it is still possible that I will have to take a gap year in between undergrad and medical school.