What undergrad for pre-med?
That is an individual family decision.
The Tale of Two Daughters
One of my daughters attended our state flagship U. My other daughter attended a top 30-ish private university known for its pre-med program. They both were TAs/SIs for UL science/math classes. They were both paid tutors at their universities, They both worked in a research lab (Both were volunteers and paid assistants their labs) and had productive experiences there. Both ended up with research posters/presentations at the regional level or higher. Both won awards in their majors. Both made close relationships with professors who mentored them and wrote strong LORs to support their med and grad school applications. Both did off campus volunteering with both clinical and non-clinical organizations. They both had opportunities to explore other fields besides medicine. Both had leadership opportunities in their activities.
The one at the state U eschewed the pre-med advising office, used other resources for her application cycle. The one a the private U got a lot of not terribly useful advice from her pre-med advising office and used other resources for her application cycle.
Both had multiple acceptances to medical school.
MORAL: It’s the student not the school that makes for a successful pre-med.
My recommendation is this-- choose the school that offers the best combination of:
Fit because students who are happier do better academically. Also college is 4 years of their life they will never get back. There’s no reason to be miserable. I also suggest that the student should be in the upper 25% stats-wise of entering students because they will be competing those other top students for As in their pre-req classes.
Opportunity The opportunity to explore fields and jobs outside of medicine–and if it leads them away from medicine, they were never meant to be doctors in the first place. The opportunity to form relationships with their professors because those will be the people who write the LORS for internship, grad school or professional school. The opportunity to find meaningful activities on campus or nearby–not just to support a med school application, but to enrich their minds and their lives. The opportunity to meet and interact with a broad variety of people different from themselves --racially, religiously, politically, culturally, ethnically, economically etc – because college is a time to grow as person and because as a future physician they will be dealing with people for very different backgrounds than their own.
Cost because med school is already $100K/year at many places (including Drexel) and the cost is going up every year. Pre-med are advised to minimize undergrad debt as much as possible because med school is paid for by loans, loans and more loans. (Unless the Bank of Mom and Dad can finance it.)
Medicine pays well, but even a physician will have trouble paying off $500+K in loans. (Med school loans are all unsubsidized so interest starts accruing from the day the loans are disbursed. Young physicians in training don’t earn much money during residency–I think $45k/year is the average-- while working 80 hours/week. Many residents simply cannot afford to start paying off their loans during residency so the interest keeps building and capitalizing.)
Additionally, the salaries of dermatologists (and in fact for all physicians) are not keeping up with inflation and the salaries are actually going down for some specialties.
Both my daughters took a low cost option for undergrad–not necessarily the lowest price college. but one that didn’t require them or me to take out any loans to pay for it.