Hey guys, I’ve seen you all give excellent advice to students on this forum about college decisions. I’m really struggling with this one, so help me out.
My goals in undergrad are to graduate early, stand out academically, and go to medical school!
Howard University:
PRO’s:
medical school right on campus, they give internships to undergraduate students at Howard readily if academic performance is not shabby
full ride scholarship
good location
medical school admission to Howard likely if I go to Howard undergrad and do well in MCAT, etc.
close to home
could possibly get into 6 year med program at Howard. However, I won’t know this until well after May 1st
CONS:
I’m not black and I worry about whether I’ll be able to fit in
I visited and did not like it too much, due to my qualms about fitting in, HOWEVER. Everyone was really nice to me and no one ogled me or anything for applying to an HBCU
George Mason uni:
PROS:
good research department
close to home
gave me a partial scholarship so cost will be about 7k a year, which is very doable
I really feel like I FIT at this school
I like the atmosphere/ environment, it’s comfortable and diverse
Cons:
not full ride
no medical school on campus, so getting internships could be harder
I forgot to mention, my view of George Mason may be biased because I visited with a good friend. We were having a really good time there together, which may be why I view Mason in such a positive light.
Honestly go with your gut. If you truly feel you will like it more at Mason then go. However I have never meet anyone who didn’t love going to Howard. The campus atmospher is like no other, extremely live and amazing. I personally turned down Princeton for Howard (mostly because I got a full ride but after visiting the campus I was set)
@Brajia
Do you think I’d be excluded at Howard? I’m worried about that. In your experience have non black students at Howard been able to find their own niches?
And I’m not sure about Mason, I mean I loved my visit but like I said, that could be more because I had a lot of fun with my friend while there. It would’ve been kind of boring if she hadn’t been there.
I think I saw a comment on here that Howard sends a lot of graduates to med school. There must be stats somewhere that show which schools produce more med students…I found this:
Hi! I can’t comment much on the difference between the two schools (don’t know a lot about George Mason), but I just wanted to mention that I’m white and am seriously considering going to Howard next year.
You won’t be excluded. It all depends about how you hold yourself. Based on my experience the Blacks there are very open minded and extremely ambitious. You will naturally find a group of people that you belong too. Even though Howard is mostly black, they do have White people and even some Asians. I have never met a Black person that excluded someone just because of their race. Sometimes they are even more accepting towards people of a different race. What I HIGHLY recommend you do is try to visit and talk to the people there. See how they treat and respond to you you might be surprised. Never attend any college unless you have a sense of the type of people there.
My son is accepted at GMU, not pre med, and is concerned that there is little social life on the weekends. It occurs to me that since you are in state if you attend Howard and don’t find a fit you can always transfer and not lose much financially. It would also be possible to ride the subway or bus out to visit your friends in Fairfax. I think there’s a pre med sub forum on this site where actual doctors comment. It was a little hard to find. Here:
@cookiestar Are you in the Howard University Class of 2020 group chat? That would give you the opportunity to talk with everyone and see if it’s a good fit!
