Go to the website of your local hospitals and check out where the doctors are coming from. If it’s anything like the big hospital network in my metropolitan area, there will be few that are coming from expensive undergrads. (Not none, but few.)
I’ve never heard of people being denied shadowing opportunities because of where they attend college. And if you’re applying for a job in a medical/clinical setting, “name brands” don’t matter much either…it’s whether you have the necessary certifications.
Does that mean you should go to the cheapest school you can find? Not necessarily. You need to determine what is important to you in your college experience. Below are some potential factors:
Distance from home
Geography
Type of housing
Particular interests
Appearance of campus
Vibe of campus
Peer group
Size of classes
Range and depth of classes
Distribution requirements
Flexibility to change majors
Major requirements
Study abroad options
Climate
Prestige
Cost
Some things you may not care about at all, while other things might be low, medium, or high priority. If you could get your ideal college for $10k, super! But if maybe you get your ideal (or as close to ideal as any school can be) for $40k or $60k or $80k… Maybe Case Western at $80k isn’t worth it for you, but maybe it is worth it at $40k. That’s one of the reasons why people hunting for merit aid will apply to a larger number of colleges…they don’t know whether they’re going to get the right size merit package to make the college a sufficient value for them. But every family will value a particular school differently…this is very much an individual situation. And whatever you decide to pay extra for, you want to make sure that you’re paying for something you value.
This post from earlier today gave an example of a different student’s priorities: Parents of the HS Class of 2025 - #9032 by sbinaz and how the family uses this system for a student to help make choices between schools (and for this individual, cost was a factor of high importance).
With a 1490 PSAT, it’s possible you’ll be a NMSF depending on your score breakdown, what is your selection index? If you do qualify for NMSF would you consider one of the schools that give (nearly) a full ride even though they don’t meet your location parameter? You said no to Alabama but if your SI is 223+ I think it’s worth a visit to see Bama & look into McCollough premedical scholars.
Is that $400-$450k already in your 529?
Med school is often in the $500k range alone. Do you really want to pay for a fancy undergrad name on top of that, if you don’t have to?
My kid is likely taking a NMF full ride. To give you an idea on merit at some of the schools you mentioned, they got (per year):
Both my kids go/went to non selective schools. Both have ample research opportunities should they have wanted them and had no scheduling issues. In regards to research, a less competitive school may have more opportunities because less kids are interested. All these schools ha PhD professors - so the research will be there - but who is taking advantage ? It could be more competitive at a higher tier school.
You’re making a lot of assumptions.
If you’re trying to justify to yourself that choosing a more selective school is in your best interest, then as long as your family can afford it - go for it.
I don’t think I will get National Merit. My psat is 760 M 730V, for a selection index of 222. DC’s selection index is set at whatever is the highest state index, last year it was MA and NJ which were 223, so they would both need to drop for me to get it.
It’s a little frustrating because if I lived in 48/50 states with my current score or if I had gotten the same total with a different distribution in any state I would have it. That combined with not having any instate option makes me wish I lived a mile up the road in MD!
My wife has two friends who are involved in medical school admissions. They agree that the name of the undergrad school doesn’t carry much weight per se when evaluating applicants. However, there are two important factors in play:
The first is the selection effect. The Ivy+ and other top schools have screened for and selected very bright, highly driven students — students who tend to do very well academically and score highly in the MCAT. So, all other things being the same, they are already likely to be much more successful with medical school admissions.
Second, students at these schools also receive excellent advising, mentorship, unique research opportunities, and yes the brand name may open up more doors when they want to shadow doctors, gain clinical experience, etc. All these factors provide a big leg up.
So at least for this second set of reasons, where you go for undergrad can make a difference.
Most of it is. My parents have money in a 529, plus they have indicated an amount they expect to be able to pay each year. I added those together and subtracted a bit to be cautious.
You’re not missing it. AMCAS does not collect that data. Partly because it varies so widely from year to year and partly because med schools offer 1.2x to 3x as many acceptances as they have matriculants seats. (This is especially true at highly ranked/expensive private med schools. Even NYU and Harvard offer approx 3X as many acceptances as they have seats In order guarantee a full class in the fall.)
Surprisingly (or perhaps not) yield rates are highest at inexpensive, mission-driven, public med schools (University of Arkansas, University of Kansas, University of New Mexico, University of Oklahoma).
If an applicant has multiple admission offers, the choice of where to matriculate is a very personal decision. Some applicants value staying closer to home and support systems. Some applicants value a lower cost for med school (which means either a lower COA school or generous FA). Some value the prestige of “name” schools. Some value special programs or unique opportunities offered by particular schools.
If you are guessing, with no data, and I am guessing with practically no data, wouldn’t the logical thing be to gather data on a variety of schools so that I have a clearer picture? Rather than just assuming that the cheapest option is the best?
Tuition is free, but living expenses, mandatory health insurance, books, study materials and transportation costs to reach clinical sites run in the $40+K/year range
But you asked originally how I came to my conclusion and I noted it was my hypothesis and then shared data from another degree that I think run in parallel because that one readily shows data.
And you say more selective schools ‘may’ have more opportunities for research. That’s also a hypothesis.
I’m not sure this data is there.
I’m all for data gathering if it was and I think you are smart to dig deep, especially if you have options. But also I believe you need to visit campuses - to get a feel because you want to be happy. So you need to walk, talk, eat, etc because if you’re in a place that depresses you, no matter how stressful, that won’t be good. I’d think that’s more important than the brand name or pedigree. All these schools offer the same classes and they’ll be with high rigor.
So when you’re on campus, ask to speak with a student ambassador who does research so you can pepper with questions - how did they find it, how much was available - at both my kid’s schools they get emails.
Or if you see a professor’s research website and it’s of interest, ask for a meeting with them while there to discuss student opportunities.
Best of luck in your evaluation and search.
One other note - several posters on here have said since most pre med end up doing something else that they should take it entirely out of the equation when picking a school because life happens and things change. So that seems astute to me. In that case, there may be more an argument for choosing a higher pedigree school, depending of course on what that alternative career might be.
One other thing you might do - pick a specialty and look at residents. Where did they come from? I was at Vanderbilt so I was curious and looked at the residents in radiology since it was why I went there. The residents in that specialty (first two years of residency) went to the following as undergrads with one school having two as noted. You could look that way too. This is a top teaching hospital btw so perhaps this is a way to validate or invalidate some arguments by doing similar for areas of your interest.
Auburn
CWRU
Florida A&M
Florida State
Fordham
Lipscomb
Luther
Murray State
Northern Illinois
Pitt
Princeton
Tulane
Tuskegee
U North Carolina
U Puerto Rico
U Tennessee
Vandy (2)
You’re far from alone in that experience. Cancellations of NIH, NSF and other federal grants have shuttered many summer experience programs for high schoolers and undergrads.
All NIH SIP positions for undergrads have been eliminated. Many NSF sponsored REU programs have shut down.
At the university level, many universities have restricted the number of grad students accepted, and some students have had their admissions rescinded in order to preserve funding for students already working on their PhDs.
Elite universities are being targeted (Penn, Columbia both have lost hundreds of millions of $$ in funding over the past 2 weeks, Stanford, UCLA, UCB, Yale, Harvard are also being targeted) , but so are less prominent ones.
Realistically, if you want research experience, maybe you should look toward Europe or Canada.
I’ll give you my opinion. I think you have a well balanced list of schools on your application list.
I will further add, medical school admissions cannot be predicted based on whether you did research…or not.
Further, there are some medical schools that do give preference to undergrads from their undergrad schools. They are not located in states where the Ivy League schools, for example, are located.
Wait Im really similar. Your GPA is really good. Good luck on SAT. I also don’t know what major. I also had a 1490 PSAT. I think Pitt is a solid option esp since you can probably get merit scholarship. Your ECs are pretty good esp with the volunteering and EMT training. What I am planning on doing is shotgun applying. So basically I have a few safety/high chance and then a bunch of reaches just to see where I could land or what could possibly happen.