My son is deciding between Rutgers Upitt Franklin and Marshall Drexel ( honors) , Stony brook, BU and U Rochester for neuroscience/ premed. Concern about the size of Stony brook or Rutgers. Although the generic advice is save $$ and use it towards med, but worried about not getting enough opportunities at large public school to get into med , Any suggestions or advice will be helpful.
Your student can take the required courses for medical school applicants at all of these colleges.
What do you mean by this? The colleges usually do not “create” opportunities for things like shadowing, volunteering, and working. Or prep for the MCAT. This is on the student to do. All of these colleges will have places where some of these things can be done. And some students do things like shadowing during their school breaks, or even during a glide year after graduating from undergrad.
@WayOutWestMom what did I miss?
You do need to have a financial plan for 8 years. Federally funded student loans are now limited to $200,000 including any federally funded loans taken during undergrad. And the limit during med school is $50,000 a year. Med schools will likely cost $100,000 a year or more by the time your student attends. So…be mindful of the money part.
If Pitt is affordable without loans, I would vote for that. Lots going on in Pittsburgh.
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-Which options are comfortably affordable (no hardship, no or minimal loans)?
-Will there be money left for med school?
–What does the student prefer?
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I love Pitt, but I also think it is necessary to think of costs, and I don’t know your home state or finances.
Students can absolutely find opportunities at large state schools. It is also common to shadow etc at home during breaks.
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One of my daughter went to a large state flagship and one of my daughters attended one of the small private Us on your list of acceptances…
Guess what?
They both went to med school, and both had multiple acceptances to med school. Both easily found all the opportunities they needed to make a successful med school application.
The biggest difference between the 2 schools was the approx $40K/year difference in the price. (Not that I paid full sticker price for the private university. Private school kid went on major merit that brought her costs down to something closer to the public school kid’s costs.)
Opportunities are there for those who look for them.
Even at the small private U, students have to be proactive and seek out the opportunities they want.
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Given you can only borrow federally $200k including undergrad, first you need to set a guideline for what you can afford - 4 x undergrad + $400k.
Whichever ones fit, start with them.
F&M is small. Does the student want that ? Drexel is urban and has co ops ? What kind of co ops are pre med getting ? Rutgers and SB are flagship types but right or wrong, many say SB clears out on weekends. If that’s a concern investigate that.
Finally, if med school doesn’t happen (we see kids give it up first semester), does the school have other programs the student can easily transfer into if desired ?
It’s budget first because unless you want to be saddled for most of your working life by high interest loans, you want to have something reasonable.
If you can all with no $ concerns, then pick what he wants.
You might consider an LLC or other programs - you can look at each for one. I linked Rutgers.
Good luck
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Drexel has the option of doing co-ops, but it is not required.
BU, Pitt, Rutgers are urban also.
I do agree…a forward look at finances is a very important thing to do. The schools mentioned have a wide range of costs…and we have no idea what the net costs for this student are.
Unfortunately, right now, federally funded student loans for med school just won’t fund all of the costs.
ETA…the student also doesn’t need to major in neuroscience.
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I missed the end schools as they weren’t hyperlinked but Drexel is more urban than Pitt - but yes they have a lot to think through.
The co op set up at Drexel may provide a nice pre med opportunity. If affordable, OP can check into it.
Didn’t see the entire list. OP has various schools of different size and environments. Too many - whether it’s budget, size, etc - whatever it is, they need to start narrowing.
Maybe put BU against F&M….which wins.
Then eliminate the one that doesn’t win and bring in the next.
Sometimes looking at two at a time can help vs many at once.
But budget should come first to ensure you can fund 8 years with max $200k loans. Even if you can borrow more, it gets to be too much.
As others are saying, I would not worry about experience opportunities. The sort that are necessary for med school applications are not really scarce and you can do them anywhere.
Having a rock solid financial plan that gets all the way through medical school, ideally with as little debt as possible although some is fine, should in fact be a top priority.
After that, I would put a lot if weight on choosing a college where the student is likely to thrive academically AND non-academically, as the latter can affect the former and grades are very much a big deal.
Finally, most people who start off thinking premed end up doing something else, possibly health related, possibly totally different, for one reason or another. So it is good to think in terms of where the kid will be happy even if med school doesn’t end up the goal.
If you give us cost information and some sense of what this kid wants in an overall college experience, we can provide some specific thoughts. Ultimately, though, this is pretty personal.
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Pitt is right in the middle of Pittsburgh, in Oakland, which is Pittsburgh’s “civic center” and main eds and meds district, and actually pretty similar to Philadelphia’s University City in that sense.
I guess some people might think Philly generally is more “urban” than Pittsburgh, but that certainly isn’t a suburban (or rural) location.
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The University of Rochester offers an excellent neuroscience program and placed 42nd nationally by medical school matriculation in this analysis:
Rutgers is big, and there is a bus system covering the campuses. This may or may not matter to your son. There are a lot of opportunities, but it is up to the student to take advantage (true for all schools). Students I know at Rutgers are very happy.
I don’t know the final cost for the private schools on your list, but if your son did not receive considerable merit or FA, I would remove them. This has nothing to do with the schools, which are excellent. It has to do with the cost of medical school.
Stony Brook is an excellent university as well, but has a reputation for being a commuter school. I don’t know if this is still true or whether it would bother your student. I have a relative there now who enjoys the school and doesn’t feel it is a commuter school at all. This is something for your son to research and decide for himself.
This brings me back to Pitt, my personal favorite from your list. Pittsburgh is great with a lot to offer, and the universities (Pitt and CMU) have a large presence all over the city. It is a young, vibrant city with many opportunities to take advantage of.
Of course all of this hinges on costs, which I would strongly consider. I would also factor in where your son could see himself thrive.
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I should add that Franklin and Marshall placed not far behind, at 47th.