Harvard [$42k], Stanford [$46k], UT Austin [40 Acres full ride], or Baylor BS/MD [$26k]

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Hey everyone! I’m lucky to have been accepted into all of these schools. I want to pursue a career in medicine, and I’m upper middle class, so I won’t be going into any debt, and my parents will be able to pay for my cost of attendance at any school I go to. That being said, I have a couple of options. I’m also looking to go to a T20 medical school and become a surgeon. Possibly down the line, I’m eager to do biotech/startups as well. I want to choose the best option overall…

Harvard - 42k per year. I would study neuroscience and computer science at arguably the #1 pre-med school in the nation (~95% placement into top medical schools) Of course, Harvard comes with its own set of obvious benefits. I’ll also have access to the top research in the country, teaching hospitals in Boston, and the Boston hub of everything biological sciences.

Stanford - 46k per year. I would also be studying neuroscience and computer science. Stanford has a pretty high placement into top medical schools as well (~80%) and well, it’s Stanford. The campus is gorgeous, and it’s in the heart of Palo Alto, which introduces its own set of opportunities, both for student life, fun, and also academic and extracurricular activities. Research is plentiful as well, and Stanford may open doors for me into VC’s/biotech startups as well as the overall entrepreneurial culture there.

UT Austin - Forty Acres full ride merit scholarship program. Through a close-knit community of students and faculty, unique research and service projects, and other academic enrichment opportunities, I’ll have the opportunity to build the experiences and skills to compete with the best students in the world. My yearly scholarship will cover my full cost of attendance PLUS an additional one-time allocation of $20,000 to support research, study abroad and other academic pursuits. There’s no doubt that through this program, I’ll have the financial, academic, and personalized mentorship resources needed to place in a top graduate/professional school, and be competitive for post-graduate scholarships. With my cohort, I will also get numerous travel/cultural/enrichment opportunities and retreats for fellowship, fun, and intellectual exploration. I’ll have a personal mentor who will guide me in creating my path through college and an alumni network that will be with me every step along the way, even beyond college. In the past, students in this program have went on to receive full-rides to medical schools. At UT, I’m majoring in Neuroscience and been accepted into Dean’s Scholars honors program (natural sciences research) and the Plan II honors program (multidisciplinary, I can pursue almost any course of study I want in the liberal arts). I can take certificates in any other field of study.

Baylor - 26k per year and Baylor2Baylor Medical Track Program (BS/MD). This program offers guaranteed (conditional) acceptance to Baylor College of Medicine, a top 22 med school. I’ll be a Science Research Fellows major/program, the most selective of only 10 high school students each year selected at Baylor, top undergraduate researchers in the nation. Some benefits are: Individualized help for graduate and medical school admissions as well as top scholarships (Goldwater, Marshall, Fulbright)

  • 1-1 Mentoring with professors and past or current fellows for guidance on classes, career goals, and ways to further your education

  • Priority Registration for Classes

  • The ability to choose which science courses you take / Reduced core curriculum

  • Being part of a close-knit group of top scholars that support each other

This flexible major prepares students to immerse themselves in research on their favorite science field early on in their studies while giving them the freedom to explore other fields of study. SRF students are expected to join a research lab at the start of their sophomore year. It’s supposedly the first of its kind in the nation. This major also drops many of the core classes to allow you to focus on working in a lab at a post-graduate level throughout college. I can get minors in neuroscience, and leadership in medicine. In my fourth year, I’ll also have time to get an MBA in healthcare. Many of the major and minor requirements are cut out, which reduces a huge amount of college workload. Due to my acceptance into the BSMD and the Honors College, I’ll also have automatic placement into multiple enriching research internships, hospital internships, and working with senior executives in healthcare.

I know this was a long post, and I’m sure I couldn’t go wrong with any of these but any advice would be much appreciated!

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Can I just say…WOW.

ETA - wait a minute…didn’t you post this already. I think I made the same comment then. Ha!

I see you added Baylor, which is a 4th awesome choice, but still maybe merge the posts. And honestly not sure what more info you are looking for. You have so many great choices. They are all affordable and all have unique advantages. Which one do you like best? They are all great options. This might be a go-with-your-gut situation.

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If your family is upper middle class, how are you getting financial aid?

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I don’t want to burst any bubbles, but here goes. Of all the “premed” hopefuls coming out of high school, very few of them actually decide to go to medical school. College is a maturation process where students find their passions. Don’t choose a school based on “premed prestige.” That’s a fast track to 4 years of misery. Instead, choose an affordable school that gives you flexibility, and go to college with an open mind. Medicine is not a field you can afford to get wrong. You need to explore ALL your options before making a plunge like that.

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That’s right. So choose the place where you would be happy to be an undergrad for the next four years. Put medical school aside for now.

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Will the cost of undergraduate affect how much they will contribute for you medical school costs if you do get admitted and attend?

Medical school can be over $100k per year, although Texas residents will find Texas public and Baylor College of Medicine somewhat lower cost.

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If MCAT is required for BS/MD, I would eliminate it. If all are truly affordable I probably will go to Harvard and then see how life will sort it out. It sounds that you have a lot of interests and you are an excellent student. Good luck!

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The Baylor2Baylor program requires maintaining a 3.5 college GPA and earning a “501-507” MCAT score (with at least 125 in each section), according to https://admissions.web.baylor.edu/costs-aid/scholarship-programs/baylor2baylor-medical-program .

According to https://www.aamc.org/media/6091/download , 3.5 / 501 applicants had an 18.8% chance of medical school admission to medical school, and 3.5 / 507 applicants had a 33.7% chance of admission.

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I was a student advisor for bio undergrads and many many chose other paths than their intended pre-med for a whole variety of reasons. So much will happen in the next 4 years. You sound incredibly smart and driven and likely to end up having many choices available to you in four years just as you do now. For this reason, I wouldn’t take the Baylor path.

UT sounds like a great opportunity and I wouldn’t pass it up for Stanford or Harvard unless there is something about the undergrad experience at Stanford or Harvard that particularly excites you. One advantage to Stanford over Harvard (other than the weather) is that the med school and hospital are part of the main campus - a short walk/bike/scooter ride away. At Harvard, the medical school and teaching hospitals are a shuttle bus (20-30 mins through awful traffic) away. Volunteering and hospital-based research will be much easier at Stanford.

Good luck! I really don’t think you can go wrong.

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The University of Texas appears to be your best option due to the full ride scholarship and extensive mentoring that you will receive.

My first impression was to suggest Baylor’s BS/MD program, but after reading through the program benefits and requirements, I think that U Texas is the better option.

Stanford & Harvard would be at the top if you were undecided regarding your future career.

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UT Austin 40 Acres is tough to beat, but wherever you go, you will succeed!

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You have four exceptional opportunities here. Of course you can only accept one of them.

My first reaction is that you do not need to attend Harvard just because it is Harvard, and similarly you do not need to attend Stanford just because it is Stanford. There is nothing magic about these universities. They are great universities. However, your other two choices are also great choices and great universities. Any of these universities can get you where you want to go.

The percentage of premed students who get accepted to medical school can be gamed in various ways, and is a very misleading statistic. I would just ignore it. There are two obvious ways to game this particular statistic. One is just that the consistent high caliber of students who start off at Harvard and Stanford in the first place skew the statistics for these schools. Any one exceptional student (which you must be to have these opportunities) is going to still be a strong student wherever they attend university. There will be many equally exceptional students at UT Austin and Baylor, but they will not be quite as ubiquitous. Another way that universities can game this particular statistic is that they probably do not count every student who starts freshman year thinking “premed”. Very likely a student has to meet some criteria before they are counted in this statistic, and whatever the criteria are appears to overlap very well with what it takes to get into medical school.

It sounds like you are very serious about premed and medical school. Assuming that this is true, with regard to finances you should be planning for eight years. The last four (ie, medical school) could very well cost $125,000 per year by the time that you get there (probably a bit less if you stay in-state, and Texas does have some great in-state medical schools). You would be way, way better off if your parents are in a position to help you significantly with the cost of medical school. You do not want to have $500,000 in debt hanging over your head at the time that they hand you your MD and call your “doctor”.

I do wonder how you are getting need based financial aid from Harvard and Stanford. This does suggest that helping you with the potential $500,000 cost of medical school might be a burden for your parents, for the simple reason that if they had this much money sitting around waiting to help you with medical school you would not have gotten that much aid from Harvard and Stanford. I suppose that this much money might however be sitting in a grandparent’s bank account or there might be some other explanation.

Remember that your premed classes will be very challenging at any of these schools. Premed classes will be tough. There will be a lot of homework. The other students in your class will be very strong. Sometimes the quiet kids who look like they are just average will turn out to be the ones who walk out of the tough exams with a smile. It seems clear that you can handle this, but do not expect it to be easy and plan to work hard.

And mostly, pick the school that feels right to you, and where you will be happy.

One daughter was a biology major and exactly this happened to her. At one point she briefly thought of being premed. However, she discovered that she loves lab work and is good at it. She does not want to deal with patients. She does want to do research and has already done quite a bit of research. She starts her PhD in a few months. Plans can and often do change.

I think that this is exactly right.

There is no bad choice here. There is no “okay” choice. There are only four very good choices. Take the one that feels right for you.

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I would cross out Baylor because you have many interests and clearly the drive to make them happen.
Imho your 2 best choices are Harvard (slightly lower cost than Stanford and you can get similar opportunities from both - unless weather matters a lot, ie., SAD) and UT 40Acres.
If i were you, I would pick Harvard (or Stanford) because as a Texan you are blessed with a state that has many med schools which must take 90% residents (you don’t lose that status if you go away for college, though if you settle in another state and work for a few years this will no longer apply) and as a result are very likely to return to TX for med school if you end up going.
40Acres however would be very hard to turn down. Ultimately you cannot make a wrong choice. Go with your gut.

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Austin. You’re guaranteed a full ride plus big time extras, whereas your fin aid at Harvard and Stanford could drop, or even disappear completely, if the full picture of an upper middle class family being given essentially >40K/yr fin aid comes to light.

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Often, it is recommended that the college is chosen without respect to the desire to enter medical school, since the vast majority of med aspirants do not make it into med school or change their minds and follow another path.

And we mean no disrespect. The fact simply is, maybe about 20% of kids who start out as Pre-Med actually end up becoming doctors. The attrition rate, whether based on academics or willful change in direction, is fairly high.(wild guess – experts, please correct me if I’m way off)

So – choose the school according to fit and finances… same as most everyone else.

In this case, you have four fine choices, though I’m not sure I would pay $26k for Baylor when the U of Texas is free. But that’s for you to decide.

You could end up in med school from any of the four if that becomes your true calling and you have the chops. Or, these schools could launch you into any number of other careers and academic pursuits.

Assuming all of these are affordable, I would choose the one I like the most. Period, full stop. And if I still couldn’t decide, I would bank the cash and head to Austin. (Unless I switched gears to CS and wanted to do startup or FAANGy things – Stanford – or wanted a career on Wall Street/IB/consulting – Harvard.)

ETA: Sorry, @ucbalumnus – I meant to respond to the OP.

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Have you run Harvard’s net price calculator lately? They don’t use primary home equity in their aid calculations, so you can earn quite a bit and still receive a lot of aid. I just ran several scenarios and this is what it shows:

$150k income / $50k assets = $18,500 net price

$200k income / $50k assets = $40,500 net price

$250k income / $50k assets = $63,500 net price

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Probably less, since fewer than that percentage of frosh with premed intentions complete the premed courses. Of those, only a subset apply to medical school. And then only about 40% of applicants get any admission.

However, top end students like the OP are more likely than the overall averages to pass each of these thresholds.

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Harvard. And not just because it’s Harvard. It’s a great, fun place to go to school. If you change your mind about medical school, you’ll have other wonderful options there. If you stay with med school, you’ll be set. Congrats and good luck!

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Three very different schools (ruling out Baylor). Have you visited all three? I’d go with your gut as to where you think you will be most happy and able to do well (desired major, GPA and research/clinical). Full ride is big, but your COA for Harvard and Stanford are pretty good deals. Assume you are a Texas resident. Living outside of Texas for 4 years may give you broader horizons, although some people are just comfortable staying in their home state. No bad choices here.

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Shortlisted to Harvard, Stanford, and UT Austin Forty Acres. I want to add these things: Down the line, I want to expand into the business side of medicine, managing hospitals or having a big post in the medical field, on top of investing, real estate, biotech/startups and things like that. I want to choose the best option overall.

Harvard - 42k per year.

  • I would study neuroscience and computer science.
  • Arguably #1 pre-med school in the nation (~95% placement into top medical schools)
  • Harvard comes with its own set of obvious benefits, the prestige it brings and the high-profile connections, internship opportunities.
  • Access to the top research in the country, teaching hospitals in Boston, and the Boston hub of everything biological sciences.

Stanford - 46k per year.

  • I would also be studying neuroscience and computer science.
  • Stanford has a pretty high placement into top medical schools as well (~80%).
  • The campus is gorgeous, and it’s in the heart of Palo Alto, which introduces its own set of opportunities, both for student life, fun, and also academic and extracurricular activities.
  • Research is plentiful as well.
  • Stanford may open doors for me into VC’s/biotech startups as well as the overall entrepreneurial culture there.

UT Austin - Forty Acres full ride merit scholarship program.

  • Through a close-knit community of students and faculty, unique research and service projects, and other academic enrichment opportunities, I’ll have the opportunity to build the experiences and skills to compete with the best students in the world.
  • My yearly scholarship will cover my full cost of attendance PLUS an additional one-time allocation of $20,000 to support research, study abroad and other academic pursuits.
  • No doubt that through this program, I’ll have the financial, academic, and personalized mentorship resources needed to place in a top graduate/professional school, and be competitive for post-graduate scholarships.
  • I will also get numerous travel/cultural/enrichment opportunities and retreats for fellowship, fun, and intellectual exploration.
  • I’ll have a personal mentor who will guide me in creating my path through college and an alumni network that will be with me every step along the way, even beyond college.
  • In the past, students in this program have went on to receive full-tuition to medical schools.
  • Majoring in Neuroscience and been accepted into Dean’s Scholars honors program (natural sciences research) and the Plan II honors program (multidisciplinary, I can pursue almost any course of study I want in the liberal arts).
  • I can take certificates in any other field of study, including business of healthcare and ethics of medicine.

I know this was a long post but any advice would be much appreciated.

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