Deciding between UMD (in state [$35k]) vs CWRU (merit [$50k, Madrid start]) vs NEU [$80k, London start] for biology/pre med major

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For better community input, please provide the below details about your college offers:

Net price per year at each college, after applying scholarships and financial aid grants.
UMD (35K) vs CWRU (50K) vs NEU (80K)
NEU will be in London first semester and CWRU will be in Madrid first semester.
Looking at likely medical school but option to pivot if needed.
Student leaning towards UMD as traditional college experience but do not want to dismiss if other two options would be better academically or professionally.

Maximum parent contribution per year.

Major/division admitted to at each college, if applicable to the college. Also, any special programs like honors programs or combined degree programs (e.g. BA/BS->MD).

If you applied to regular fall term start, specify if you were admitted to start at a different campus, in study abroad, in an online/distance or extension program, or other than in the fall term.

Desired major and post graduation goals (including if pre-med, pre-law, etc.).

If not a frosh admit finishing high school, indicate status (e.g. sophomore level transfer, junior level transfer, frosh after gap year(s)).

International or domestic student (and state of residency if domestic).

Student preferences beyond the above (including weather, class sizes, campus culture, college demographics, fraternities/sororities, distance from home, etc.).

Preliminary assessment of each college based on the above.

Why did you apply to each college you are considering?

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Based on the info that is provided, I would choose UMD.

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Maryland also seems like an easy choice to me. Maryland is a very well-regarded public, the type where if you do well, you will have all sorts of opportunities (including med school, again assuming you do really well and also on the MCAT). In this case, it also provides more opportunity to save for med school (or other professional schools or grad programs, or a first house, or taking a lower-paying/higher-experience-value first job, or so on).

I also think for premeds in particular, it is a little dicey choosing to do a semester away at the start. Those first couple years or so of prereqs are pretty intense, and I would think carefully about whether moving campuses in the middle of all that is really the best bet for maximizing your results.

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I don’t see any info other than price and major and start abroad.

If med school doesn’t happen, bio is typically a low paid major. So save the $$.

CWRU bio pay

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UMD is good option if your student is not 100% sold on premed.
Med schools do not take classes from abroad. So for premed consideration your best option is UMD. It also saves you money for potential grad or medical school. So no brainer in your case.

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My first reaction is that you are comparing three very good universities.

I do not think that your chances of getting to medical school will be different in any meaningful way based on which of these three very good schools you attend. Similarly if you do pivot to a different career goal I think that you can do this at any of these three universities.

Starting abroad might not be ideal for someone who is going to be taking premed classes starting first semester freshman year. I do wonder about both continuity in course content and selection, and the extent to which classes taken abroad will be considered by medical schools in the USA, and perhaps even the extent to which there might be distractions living in a foreign country for a semester.

The large majority of students who start university with the intention of being premed will end up doing something else. However, you do not want finances to force you to do something else, and many of the possible forms of something else will also involve some form of graduate study. Saving money for medical school or for some other form of graduate school seems like a very good idea to me.

And UMD is a very good university.

The one other thing that might be worth mentioning is that premed classes are in many cases very academically challenging, and are likely to be full of very strong students at any of these three schools, or at any university ranked in at least the top 150 in the USA. Your hard work and excellent results from high school is important to help you be well prepared to do well in these tough classes. You should plan to show up at university ready to work hard and keep way ahead in every class.

And best wishes.

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UMD is an excellent choice. If this is what the student wants, why discuss further? The student is going to college, and their opinion matters a lot.

The other schools cost way more, and IMHO aren’t better than UMD overall.

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I agree with the above advice. UMD is the better choice. If you decide medical school, you have less debt. If you decide against medical school, you have less debt.

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Maryland has a high percent of students living off campus - almost 75% after freshman year. The daughter of friends of ours joined a living/learning community, which she loved and which guaranteed her on campus housing.

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A few comments:
–Admittedly I am not a fan of first semester abroad programs-- they can work but can add a layer of difficulty adjusting to campus life.
–UMD is the least expensive option which may be a consideration especially with the possibility of med school in the future.
–UMD is a very strong school academically.

So unless the student really does not like UMD for some reason, that would be my pick.

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There are plenty of kids in my area who go to UMD. This stat, while likely true, is also misleading. All those kids I know stay on “off-campus” apartments on the street immediately adjacent to the campus. In many cases they have a shorter walk to their classes than they did from they freshman dorm.

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