@premed9956 “Am I overlooking certain aspects about UT, A&M, and Baylor that you guys could give me some insight on? What intimidates me about those big schools is that things such as research and leadership roles in school clubs may be more difficult to attain with more students to compete against.”
I think your initial assessment of UT, A&M and Baylor is spot on. It’s not to say that you can’t succeed there and certainly many students do go onto Med School from these schools, but I think a better path would be a smaller college where you can be a stand-out star. I know people who have gone to Austin College and really loved their time there. One school that has not been mentioned is Southwestern in Georgetown. We toured that school with DD19 (also pre-med) and they have a brand-new science facility. We toured with a pre-med student who said his family doctor sent both of her kids to Southwestern and encouraged him to go there. Trinity has it has gotten very competitive in admissions over the last few years, but they send over 70% of their students to graduate, law and med school. So the school really prepares you for post graduate work.