I am a 3.4 high school GPA student and want to pursue the undergraduate pre-med track. I have received acceptance from Drexel as well as Penn State University (PSU). Which of these universities will provide me a better chance of admission into a good med school (I am considering quality of faculty, research/co-op opportunities, quality of labs, access to corporations for internships and student community, and also the fact that Iam not the top 20% of the class, so may need an environment that is more nurturing?) Need to decide within a week.
What major would you do at each?
Is Drexel affordable without parental loans?
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Right now I would put medical school to the side.
What major would you choose at these 2 schools, and what is the cost difference?
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Why do you need to decide by April 7?
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@eagerparent4 are you the parent (as your screen name implies) or the student (as your post implies?
student
Biology.
I want to do a qualitative assessment first…keeping finances aside
housing starts getting filled quickly after results pour in!
Check and see. At many places you can do a housing deposit without committing to attend the college. One of our kids did a couple of housing deposits. In our case they were fully refundable until a certain date.
Thanks…will do
I would focus on where I want to be - forget medical school.
Drexel - city school, you will get a job of some sort through the co op program which enhances a resume.
Penn State is the prototypical large flagship - lots of sports, spirit, and not in an urban area.
Very different schools - which would you prefer? You’re going to need to do all the med school things either place - and that’s not going to be easy - so go where you’d want to be - and where you can afford.
If med school does happen, it’s an 8 year expense - so costs do matter.
Best of luck
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I’m assuming you’re in-state for PA. Go to Penn State. Drexel is far more expensive, and co-op isn’t usually appropriate for premeds.
Have a serious discussion with your parents about money. While you can borrow from the feds for all of med school, right now that’s a 400K expense, so you probably want to spend as little on college as possible.
I don’t think that either of these schools would be “nurturing” in the premed classes. If you want that, go to your local 4 yr state college.
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Biology has extremely low ROI so plan to add a statistics or data science minor, and you simply can’t avoid costs when evaluating both.
Or, beside bio/stats, you could switch to the College of Liberal Arts for the Biological Anthropology major and join the Paterno Fellows cohort (the honors seminar will be harder but also more supportive and engaging, which results in good grades.)
University Park has better research opportunities but you’d have to prove yourself your 1st year.
Drexel will help you find co-ops but it’s likely the Bio+stats that helps, not just Bio (there aren’t enough jobs for all the Bio grads in the 1st place so for college students who haven’t taken any advanced class yet… check with Drexel for specific positions their bio majors got in the past 2 years.)
Neither will be nurturing but if you got into University Park yes a 3.4 GPA student is highly likely to be weeded out 1st semester - if you got into Altoona, Harrisburg, or Behrend you stand a chance. Drexel is typically expensive and doesn’t meet need whereas minimizing debt (keeping ir under 27k for 4 years if possible) is a must for med school.
That’s why net cost
(scholarships fees room board)- (grants, scholarships) =$…
Is so important.
Do you qualify for Pell? For PHEAA?
That being said, most students who plan to apply to med school never do, as they either find a more interesting career, pivot to a post BA program for BSN or another health profession, or are weeded out, and of those who do make it, 60% don’t get into a single med school.
So, remove med school from the equation: among all your acceptances that you can afford without parental loans, which universities do you prefer ?
(If you can’t afford any without parental loans, time to send an application to Juniata, because their specialty is getting serious B+ students to Health professions, keeping your fingers crossed they’ll accept to review it that late in the game and still have FA.).
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Few 4-year colleges provide much of this. Sure they have office hours, counselors, and the like that you can seek out. But by and large they expect their students to be able to perform at college level and those that want A’s in the class to perform at a high level. Perhaps a community college would be a better fit. Not that they are particularly nurturing either but they are used to students not quite ready for college and that just a bit more time and instruction to get up to speed; you’ll find many remedial classes (usually absent at 4-years) as well as smaller classes and perhaps a less competitive environment.
But let’s suppose a 4-year is where you’re going. As you know students need to excel to get into med school. For most students that don’t do as well in college as they’d like it comes down to two things: they don’t know what to do or they don’t want to spend the time doing it.
Instruction in how to learn is seldom given to most HS students, they’re expected to figure that out for themselves. Sometimes they do, sometimes not. There are a number of websites and books that explain how to study better such as " Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy" and it’s worth making sure you’re doing the best known things.
As for time, you’ll be taking 2-3 math/science classes a semester and each will require 10+ hours of class and study per week to do well. Add in 5-10 hours more for each class that has a lab section. And if you fall behind on mastering the material it becomes exponentially more difficult to catch up. So I suggest a gut check to ask if this is what you really want. When other kids around you are going to parties Thu nite or heading somewhere fun on Saturday, those studying things like engineering an premed are in the library. Or they aren’t in those majors for long.
This student has a 3.4 GPA and has been admitted to selective universities : they ARE ready for college and do not need remedial classes nor a CC as a bridge … not to mention CC classes wouldn’t “count” for med school (and the PA system isn’t set up for CC->flagship…)
Some 4-year colleges are more nurturing than others - I think I listed Juniata, which is very good at making B+ students ready for health professions&grad schools. There are others, which certainly wouldn’t be PSU UP but Altoona, Behrend, Harrisburg, or even Abington would be easier for the first premed classes. In PA, Elizabethtown or Muhlenberg are supportive for premeds.
@eagerparent4 : premeds have to remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
A good premed schedule for 1st semester would be: 1st year English, General chem+Lab, Calculus1, either Sociology1 or Psychology1, plus the cushion of the 1st year “methods seminar” where basically if you do what they tell you you get an A, the only easy A in a premed’s life (and despite this some kids scoff at it because it is easy, not understanding it’s a gift to cushion their GPA.)
2nd semester, GenChem2+Lab, Gen Bio1+lab, Statistics or Biostats, Sociology1 or Psychology1, and either Spanish, another gen ed, or nothing else.
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