Deciding a school for pre-med - Case Western, UFlorida, UCONN

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My Son is trying to figure which college would best help him on his pre-med track, Considering Biology or Environmental science major in these colleges

Case Western - merit scholarship 30K
UFlorida - 4K
UConn - Instate + merit scholarship.
StonyBrook - 13k

He is looking for good campus life (visited all the schools and like it), supportive program that will help him get good GPA, research opportunities, pre-med advisory, clinical experience in hospitals near by. We don’t qualify for need based aid.

Appreciate any advice /pointers in helping him narrow down his decision.

What should he ask/look for when he is going to admitted students day at UFlorida in a couple days?

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Merit aid doesn’t matter.

Net costs - that’s what matters.

ie CWRU is $68,660 tuition plus $676 and $730 in fees and $11,246 and $8268 for room and board. So it’s $89,580 just for required fees (no books, etc) and you get $30K off - so effectively it’s $60K.

UF = $41,273 minus $4K - congrats. Merit is rare there. That’s $37,273.

UCONN = $36,112 minus the merit scholarship = …

Stony Brook = $54,028 minus $13K so $41,028

So unless you can afford 8 years of school - four years at $60K + 4 years @ $100K - remove CWRU. It’s smaller, it’s most urban and Cleveland is cool, but do you have $650K-$700K including med school to provide?

If you want HUGE and fun and sun, UF is a great deal. A bit tricky to get to although you can get a flight right to Gainesville. The airport is a bit away from school but not too far.

They say SB is a suitcase school - people leave weekends.

So I’d choose UCONN or UF - unless you can handle Case and your student really likes it.

Your son will get a good GPA if he earns it.

All schools have research opportunities - just ask.

Clinical experience can be had in summer - or check with the schools on line to see if kids get during the year and where.

UF - walk the campus, walk the surrounds, eat at Bolay (because it’s my favorite place in Gainesville - but find your place), and ask to speak to a pre med kid and ask about advising and experience. Big publics usually don’t have great advising - but there are exceptions - and advising doesn’t get you to med school - but ask about clinical opportunities.

Eat in the dining hall, stop kids and ask about residence life or really whatever interests you.

Honestly four fine schools - and if he doesn’t end up wanting medical, where would he want to be?

All four will provide a great education and outcome - with UF the “sunniest” and most raucous sports wise - if that’s a desire.

Best of luck

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All of these schools are perfectly fine for premed.

Are they affordable? If he chose UConn would you be able to help with med school costs? You don’t need to answer, these are just things to consider.

Many students actually shadow during school breaks.

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I agree with other answers that all four schools are very good for a premed student.

This leads to three things to think about:

Of these schools, which one will make it easiest for you to help your son pay for medical school? Even doctors do not have an easy time paying off their medical school debt.

Which school would be best for “plan B” if your son does not end up going to medical school? The very large majority of students who start university thinking “premed” end up doing something else.

Which one would be the best fit, and where would your son be happiest?

It sounds like you have visited all of these, which is good and might help with the decision. Personally I would tend to lean towards staying in-state if everything else is equal. On the one hand this might minimize travel. If something goes wrong then help will be nearby. If a student takes an extra year (eg, to get a master’s, or for a double major, or for a late change in career plans) then you will still be in-state.

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