And more good news. You can do all of that as a D.O. too. Really, you can!
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Being an EMS worker and being a doctor are VERY different types of work. Loving EMS does not mean you will love the life and work of a practicing physician.
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A post was split to a new thread: Help me decide
Hello,
Unfortunately I cannot legally practice on patients as a physician right now, so I cannot give you a definitive answer of how I view it.
I hope you can understand that I’m quite firm on my career goals, which were made up by my experiences so far in life. I’ve worked in the hospital, outside of the hospital, administered CPR as a licensed EMT in my state, etc. I also have gained the experiences to tell you what I definitely DON’T want to do.
I came to this thread to seek advice for which college would best suit my career goals; I did not come to this thread to be questioned for my aspirations nor my research on these schools. I understand and appreciate the sentiment that pre-med is hard, med school is hard, and residency is hard. I know that. I know that many in pre-med drop out because of the difficulty, and that I very well could too.
I don’t need you to tell me that, I wrote this thread to ask you which of these colleges would be best suited for my goals, and if pre-med or the phd was not for me, then which colleges could support that plan b.
Again, I appreciate what everyone has said thus far, I just wanted to recenter the conversation on that topic; it is getting quite frustrating having to clarify and justify my goals to people on the internet.
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What sort of people are best suited for the MD/PhD route? Thank you for clarifying the opportunity cost con of the path, I hadn’t put as much emphasis on that as I should’ve
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You can reach your goal via any of these colleges. That are all excellent schools. I would suggest the lowest price option.
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I understand where you’re coming from. Remember, the advice you’re getting is coming from some very highly skilled, educated and experienced people. It’s not always going to be the advice you’re necessarily asking for, but it’s going to be good and sound. My advice to you would be to keep an open mind about career goals. The worst position you want to be in is miserable in a career you thought you wanted, but failed to explore other options…where your true passions would have been realized. I’ve been in that position. It sucks, and medicine is not something you can afford to get wrong. You really need to explore everything before taking a plunge like that. And you REALLY want to keep the costs down for your bachelors degree. Your older self will thank you later 
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Did you tell us your plan B?
Probably to get a PhD and work towards becoming a PI in neuroscience or something biocomp
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I want to thank you for this. EMT’s pretty much saved my life once (and delivered me to the hospital that completed the task).
Regarding the MD-PhD path, this is a long path. I had a primary care doctor for quite a while (about 30 years) who had originally planned on getting both an MD and a PhD. Eventually he stepped back to just get the MD due to the time commitment. This is however a relatively common example of a student’s direction and intentions just being tweaked a little bit. It is very normal that we each change or adjust what we intend to do as we get further through our education and further through our career.
You can teach and/or do research with an MD. You cannot practice medicine with a PhD (unless I am missing something, and not including psychology counseling which you can do with a psychology PhD).
One daughter has a part time job while she studies for a DVM. 5-10k is right (and for her 5k is closer). She is doing it for the clinical experience, and not for the money. She for example has seen patients in the clinic (mostly large animals in her case) that had medical problems that later showed up on exams in her classes. The amount that she gets paid for the work is not the point. The experience that she gains is the point.
It takes quite a bit of time and determination to become an MD. Of course you will gain more experience as you do through university. However, at this point you do seem to have the determination that is needed (I saw the same determination in my daughter, only directed in a slightly different direction, and she is making good progress towards her DVM).
And yes, you can reach your goals starting at any of these three universities, or starting at any one of quite a few other universities. One issue will be how much debt you have when you reach your goal, but you can reach your goal from any of these very good universities.
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And even a much less expensive one
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Earlier it was asked how students declare a major at UNC.
You apply during your sophomore year. Some majors are competitive and not everybody gets in. Other majors are not competitive entries.
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There are assured admissions too for some majors which are in demand
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This is true in certain ways. But I’m not sure why this student is getting this level of pushback. If nobody in the country was interested in prestigious schools, College Confidential wouldn’t exist. And if paying the least amount possible was the top priority for everybody, Harvard would be really easy to get into.
Family has $220k saved up for college. Kid has lights out stats. Hard worker. A plan. It’s not that weird for such a person to go to CMU.
Spend two years at community college to save money then go to the cheapest college after that is great advice for lots of people.
But it’s not the best advice for everybody.
Some kids go to Yale and pay full freight. Then go to med school. It happens all the time. It’s fine.
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Many kids go to Yale and med school, and are full pay bcos they come from wealthy families. In other words, they don’t have a college budget whatsoever.
Moreover, any prestige in health care arises from the terminal degree, in this case, MD school. No med school admission committee is gonna make a distinction in undergrads from any of these schools which are all top R1’s. (As is Pitt.).
btw: If Yale was a consideration, I’d say go there.
Between the three choices I would pick CMU. You can go the MD path from there but if you don’t, there are so many other opportunities available. The resources are phenomenal if you apply yourself. Just understand that med school would be all loans.
I still think you’re underselling Pitt and PSU. You would do well there (Pitt grad here from long ago). I understand about Temple. Both sons walked away. It would also free up funds for med school. Good luck.
OP if your parents have $220,000 saved for college, how will the remaining costs be paid? Both UNC and CMU will cost more than what was saved. UNC tuition will go up every year.
I am not convinced that you, as a student, will earn enough to cover the difference. It is very hard to earn that kind of money as a college student. Will your parents continue to contribute (I apologize if this was answered)?
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My parents and I will contribute the remainder - for UNC it would be 5 (or 6-7) if tuition is icnreasing like you say it is, or 13 for cmu.
How about Med funds?
When my daughter was there the tuition increases were about $2000 per year for OOS students.
I think it will be “easier” to earn the extra money to attend UNC over CMU.
$7000 will be hard - especially your first year. It might get easier your junior year. $13,000 will be really, really hard….IMO.