I was recently accepted into Cornell, Tufts, and George Washington and I am debating the merits of attending each school for a pre-med career. As far as Tufts goes, I have visited and I loved the school, but I’m not sure if it is too small of a school for me or if I would be losing out on academics to Cornell. I haven’t visited Cornell but I have heard it is beautiful and I love the outdoors so that would be a big plus. However, I have also heard rumors of cut-throat academics, cheating, and poor social life outside of fraternities and those would potentially scare me away, although it does have the attractiveness of an Ivy-league school. One reason I am considering George Washington is because they offered me a $100,000 scholarship and with med school looming in the future that would definitely help me lessen the dent to my finances, as well as their on-campus hospital… Am I over-thinking this process? I plan to re-visit each school in the coming month but I would love any advice anyone has to offer about the process in general or each school. I know that college is what you make of it but I would love to set myself up for success
Cornell is less accessible than the other two in terms of traveling and getting around and out. There are some cool waterfalls nearby, and there is Ithaca Commons making up its relatively small downtown, but other than that it is off to itself.
Tufts is within Boston Metro, which is fun to travel around with the T. I like Boston as a city. Ithaca is nice as a place to stroll around for a couple days in my opinion, but it will get boring quickly.
George Washington is also in a nice part of DC with a good subway system (Washington WMATA is better organized than Boston MBTA in my opinion… but MBTA is much older, so back in the early days that may have been the best they could do).
Cornell is good to be a little isolated. Boston or DC for the city feel.
If you’re considering med school, save your money. Unless you hate GWU after visiting, take the merit money.
My older daughter graduates from Tufts this May. It has been an incredible experience for her–I cannot imagine that any other school could have offered her more academically. All three schools will offer you something similar if you take advantage of their resources.
You really have no bad choices. Congratulations!
Run the numbers: http://www.finaid.org/calculators/awardletteradvanced.phtml
Then choose the cheapest. You need that money for med school.
My D is in her second year at Tufts and, as a bio major, has already had incredible experiences with supportive professors and advisors who’ve given her so much confidence. She became a Writing Fellow this year after the encouragement of a TA last year (D is now aiding undergrad AND grad students in Community Health), and will be a Summer Scholar thanks to the support of an advisor/ professor. I don’t know whether she’d have gotten the same level of support at Cornell, a school she also considered? All in all, I think the location (Somerville/ Davis Square/ Cambridge/ Boston are SO superior to Ithaca, sorry!); friendly, diverse and welcoming student body (with plenty of social opportunities outside of frats, which don’t dominate the culture); and lack of cutthroat-ness make it appealing. And I’ve never heard D make mention of the school feeling too small (she chose Tufts over other LACs for that very reason).
BUT… that GWU merit money (and glorious DC, too). In addition to running the numbers, you might want to look at med school admit rates for each school? I know Tufts is very high, on a par with or perhaps higher than Cornell. GWU, I don’t know.
Also, the relative departmental strengths:
http://college.usatoday.com/2014/09/13/top-%C2%AD%C2%AD%C2%AD10-colleges-for-a-major-in-biology/