Hey everyone! I need your help deciding between three awesome universities for biochemistry: Texas A&M, UTD, and Baylor. Cost isn’t a concern for me, so I’m focusing on my priorities. Here they are:
Internships: I’m really interested in finding internships that are useful for pre-med students. Any insights on the opportunities at these universities?
Community Engagement: I want to feel welcomed and be part of a diverse and vibrant university culture. Any thoughts on the vibes, diversity, and traditions at these schools?
Support from School/Alumni: It’s important for me to have support from the school and alumni. How involved are they in helping students succeed?
Campus: I want to enjoy my time on campus. Any highlights or unique features of these universities’ campuses?
Med School Admissions/Graduate School Acceptance Success Rate: I want to know how likely it is for students to get into top med schools or prestigious graduate programs. Any stats or success stories?
Now let’s dive into the pros and cons of each school:
Texas A&M:
Pros:
Strong emphasis on research and hands-on experience.
Great network of alumni who are supportive and helpful.
Offers a wide range of internships, including opportunities for pre-med students.
Beautiful campus with a vibrant college town atmosphere.
Cons:
Large class sizes may mean less individual attention.
Some may find the campus culture to be more traditional and conservative.
UTD:
Pros:
Cutting-edge research facilities and opportunities for undergraduate research.
Diverse and inclusive campus community.
Strong emphasis on technology and innovation.
Located in a bustling metropolitan area with plenty of internship opportunities.
Cons:
Campus may feel more commuter-oriented.
Limited traditional college campus experience compared to other schools.
Baylor:
Pros:
Strong sense of community and school spirit.
Supportive alumni network with connections in various fields.
Excellent pre-med program with dedicated resources.
Beautiful campus with a mix of historic and modern buildings.
Cons:
Limited diversity compared to larger universities.
Smaller campus size may mean fewer extracurricular options.
I can’t wait to hear your thoughts and experiences on these schools! Thanks in advance for your help!
The med school acceptance percentages colleges quoted are meaningless as they ignore the real weed-out phase, from starting college to the med school application phase.
The stats (actual numbers) are terrible at all colleges including the ivy league:
Reason: 32K high schools, 20K freshman M.D. slots. (Some colleges include D.O. programs in their med school acceptance stats)
They’re also not great at the 3 schools you’re considering, and your chances at a top med school are extremely slim. Your ability to score in the top 2% of the MCAT will play a large factor.
I secured 2017 Baylor med admission stats (actual numbers) from Baylor med. Nine of 200+ 1st yr Baylor med students were from Baylor undergrad. There’s no pipeline as Baylor Univ. stopped its affiliation with Baylor med. many years ago.
I also have 2017 Stats from UTD. Approx. 130 undergrads enrolled in an MD med school from a class of 3,177. UTD’s premed office states 80% of entering freshman or 2,542 declared themselves as premed when starting UTD that year.
A&M on the plus side has its own medical school where it can take some of their own. BUT, it has more national merit finalists than number accepted to med school. Also, the entering freshman class is expected to be between 12K - 13K students this fall. How does one secure research and leadership positions and have something for all the categories on the med school application while securing a 3.8 to 3.9+ overall GPA if competing with so many other students.
I have kids at both UTSW med and UTSA med. Although the path has many hurdles, if you’re careful in your course/teacher selection, carry a balanced and well planned courseload, take non-science courses where you’re almost assured an A, leaving a buffer for an occasional B in your science courses, (1 per year to 1 per semester), devote 6 months to the MCAT where you score > 80th percentile (95th percentile for UTSW, UTSA or Baylor med), you should be able to get into a Texas M.D. program.
I know the above sounds quite depressing but note that 75% of those who start as premed at ivy league colleges never end up in med school. Many/some due to grades, others due to other reasons.
Don’t let the meaningless acceptance percentages fool you. They’re not like a lottery ticket where everyone has an equal chance. It will depend on you and your ability and how you navigate through the premed hurdles. My kids made a strategic decision to attend the 4th best public school in Texas. Sure, only 3% of those who started as premed ended up in med school. But they had a high chance of being in that 3%. My one at UTSA med knew if she’d enrolled at UC-Berkeley she would not become a doctor. (Too competitive for her) If they’d attended an ivy league college, they would not have been in the 25% who made it. BTW, of that 25%, detailed stats from 1 ivy league school revealed that 1/2 of this 25% attended med schools below the top 50. One-third of the 25% attended a top 20 med school. The whole thing is tough but people do get through.
So, your decision will be an individual one. Based on the pros and cons you see at each of the 3 schools, which one do you think you can make it through. As the books, campus visits, chemistry class attendance weren’t helping my 12th grader decide. she’s comparing the difficulty of 2nd semester chem exams to see if she can do well on them based upon their grading system.
Note: The top tier med schools are mainly private. In addition to having the privilege of paying $90K/yr COA (congress stopped subsidized grad loans almost 10 yrs ago), their freshman class sizes are small. Stanford is 90 students, Johns Hopkins 110, averaging about 2 per state. My kids figured they couldn’t bank on being in the top 2 or so, so they also skipped taking Cell Bio and Genetics (strategic decision to maintain GPA). This knocked out Baylor med which highly recommends these 2 courses. You’ll want to plan at this level of thinking to make it through the gauntlet. They also created a detailed 4-yr course schedule (you may want to do this for the 3 schools) and were aggressive on selecting professors.
On a plus side, you don’t have any high pre-med applicant schools (per AAMC stats) on your list, e.g. UT-Austin, UCLA, UC-Berkeley, Univ. Florida, UMich. These have around 1,000 applicants each. Premed competition is keen as the market absorption for all these premeds just isn’t there. https://www.aamc.org/media/9636/download
Also, some/several med schools take a bunch (40 - 50) of their own. Hence, there’s a benefit of having an affiliated med school. Plus having shadowing and research opportunities. Texas Tech and UMiami are on my kids list for college.
As they can’t take their own, ones without a med school have as few as 40-something accepted to any MD/DO program:
If you choose a large public school, you can get to know professors through smaller honors classes.
Here’s the criteria used by my ones in med school: (comment #1871)
I say the above as my D is in the same predicament. We don’t know if she can secure the grades at Harvard (peer pressure from her friends is telling her to go there), or a place like WashU (lots of premeds like at Johns Hopkins, UTD, and a bunch of other undergrads), or a place with lower competition like the 4th best state school which has an affiliated med school, where she feels she has a great chance of being in the 3% which makes it. All I know is that everyone must decide by May 1st.
In brief, Texas A&M appears to have among the nation’s most fervent alumni networks (The 15 Colleges with the Best Alumni Networks); Baylor seems to be highly regarded for the study of biochemistry specifically; The advantages of UTD are noted in your own comments.
You wrote a beautiful opening post. Best of luck with your decision.
