<p>My son will be graduating this spring with a degree in CS (after only 3 years–lots of AP credit). His experience has been good and he has found many intellectual peers. (He was in the top 1% of a class of about 500 in a competitive high school.) I would suggest that if a student is considering CU Boulder honors, go ahead and pay the housing deposit. The honors housing fills quickly.</p>
<p>go wherever he would feel better. i wouldn’t worry about grad school at this point. you can end up at med school, law school, etc, no matter what undergrad school you attend… provided that you do well and make the most of college, of course. No undergrad school is ever the “ticket” to getting into a grad school or a well paying job. CU is a good state school, but its still going to have tens of thousands of people there. if you are in an honors college, it may feel a little smaller, but then you have the issue of segregation of the smarties and non-smarties… i personally don’t feel that that is an appropriate way to have an effective learning environment or cohesive atmosphere at the overall university level. it’ll come down to personal preference.</p>
<p>i would argue that in the long run, having a top school (Ivy or a Close Ivy school like Stanford, WUSTL, Duke, etc) will serve you better than going to an honors program at a large state school. my experience at such a school has been great, even compared to friends who ended up at honors college at Univ of Illinois. even there, my friends simply have not received the same ability to do research, interact with faculty, have small class sizes, have a better advising system, or have better representation from companies recruiting on campus for jobs.</p>
<p>Have the kid apply to both places. Because of very large endowments even in today’s economy, top schools are quite generous with financial aid. Speaking from the UPenn perspective, but I know this is the case for Ivies and other Close Ivies as well, loans are essentially non existent, and have been for the past couple years. They might factor in a little to your financial aid package, but by and large, loans hardly represent any material amount of a typical financial aid package. Take a moment to look at individual school’s policies and programs on their websites.</p>
<p>What about the University of Denver ( DU )? Does anyone have any experience with the honors program there? Also how is the pre-med program at DU versus the pre-med program at CU?</p>
<p>Hi coloDad,</p>
<p>My husband is a CU Med school grad (undergrad CSU- degree in Accounting!). I’m going to suggest that you contact someone in admissions at the CU Med school in Denver. They will be able to tell you where their freshman med school class is coming from, how they view Colorado undergraduate programs, and compare students from those schools with students admitted from the Ivies/highly selective schools. </p>
<p>Some have refered to a Boettcher scholar in last year’s graduating class going through a similar decision process. He was admitted to Yale, went to Bulldog Days, and I believe is a freshman there now. My advice would be to let your child attend admitted student events, if possible. Yes, they put on a good show, but you will get another data point to help make the decision!</p>
<p>Congratulations on the Boettcher. A remarkable achievement. Hard to turn your back on, I’m sure. Too bad you can’t defer it for medical school!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That statement is illogical (and incorrect). A degree from Hopkins (or Harvard) med is a degree from Hopkins med. It doesn’t matter whether you went to Harvard undergrad or SUNY. It’s still a degree from Hopkins med and that’s how the medical field will see it. They do not ask where you went to undergrad, unless arguing about Saturday’s football game.</p>