Input needed: UTulsa or Alabama (McCollough Scholars)? [NMF full-ride offers]

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Hi all! I need some input. We’ve hit a bit of an impasse in the college selection process.

My S25 basically has his list whittled down between two great options: Tulsa and Bama. I know this is a kind of weird pairing for a showdown, as UA is 10 times the size of Tulsa, but here we are.

To give you an idea of who S25 is: he’s planning on majoring in biochem with an eye on pre-med. He’s mostly an introvert, I’d say, but he has a great group of friends and they get together for things like game nights, grabbing food, and just hanging out. He’s a quick recall and band kid, and he recently joined his school’s volleyball team and likes to hike and work out. He’s interested in travel and study abroad opportunities—and not interested in Greek life.

Alabama: For a long time, we thought Alabama would be a great fit for him. We had a wonderful visit last year—the campus was beautiful, chem building was gorgeous, dorms looked great, everyone was super welcoming, etc. S25 couldn’t think of anything bad to say about it (except that he didn’t love that it was in Alabama…he originally had it in his mind that he would go north, not south, for college). But he still came home saying he probably wouldn’t go there—an anthem he repeated for the next several months.

Tulsa
Despite always wanting a big school, S25 decided to check out UTulsa during Tulsa Time weekend. He loved it. He came home raving about how he might like a small school after all—so much personal attention. He liked how manageable everything felt, made a small group of friends, thought the campus was beautiful, liked that they have on-campus apartments for sophomores and up, and liked how easy it is to get involved with research and make personal connections with profs.

On Monday, he said he was going to enroll at Tulsa. Cue the confetti! :slight_smile: But then, on Tuesday, we got a letter that he made it into the McCollough Pre-Medical Scholars program. And now, he’s second guessing everything.

He likes the fact that Alabama’s size means lots of resources, but that being part of a smaller cohort with an LLC component (housed in one of the Honors Dorms) will make the university feel smaller. He thinks the interdisciplinary pre-med minor sounds really cool and he likes the support and guidance he’ll get as part of the program, which currently has a 100% med school acceptance rate. One of his best friends committed to Alabama this week, and he’s excited that he would have someone to share the drive with on breaks. He likes going to sports games and thinks the football and basketball games would be a blast.

I’m having trouble steering him on this one. I can honestly see him thriving in either environment—they’ll just be totally different experiences.

Any insights you all could offer would be much appreciated! :slight_smile:

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First, you can’t go wrong with either choice. That’s why it’s so hard to make the decision.

Second, med school is really, really, really hard to get into. I mean really hard. I’d take all the help I can get and go with Bama/McCullough.

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I do feel so thankful that he has two great options! :slight_smile:

And I think that’s where his brain is at with things, too—the more support (and built in study partners!) the better. Thank you for weighing in!

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One possible point in favor of Tulsa is that he could do their dual-degree International Science and Language Program, and all five years would be fully funded. The extra year would give him more time for all of the extra pre-med stuff (shadowing, MCAT prep, etc.), and would give him the international experiences he wants, and language fluency that could serve him well in his clinical career.

Not saying Tulsa is necessarily the better choice; the McCullough Scholars program might have even greater benefits. But the dual-degree program might be a point in favor of Tulsa if it appeals to him.

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That’s something to consider! His admission counselor told him about that program, but I hadn’t made the connection about how it could work well with pre-med. Thank you!

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Sometimes two schools are right.

Bama gives an extra year of tuition if needed. Some might pursue the STEM to MBA option etc.

Yes, they are different. Tulsa maybe easier to get to - you can fly.

McCullough is interesting - he might want to ask to speak with a current participant. Is the program as good as it sounds on paper.

It sounds like heads you win, tails you win. But yea the experiences will be different - spirt wise, size wise. I’m sure research will be easily accessible at both.

Once he makes a decision, he should go.

I would note you said this which would lean me to Bama:

“except that he didn’t love that it was in Alabama…he originally had it in his mind that he would go north, not south, for college). “

You could pretty much make that same statement about Oklahoma, which is as similarly conservative.

Best of luck.

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Congratulations to your son! He has wonderful options and no doubt will succeed wherever he lands.

@elise123 is a current premed at Bama (NMF) and may be able to answer some questions and share her experience.

We are also lucky enough to have UTulsa’s @PresCarsonTulsa contributing to CC. Here is one of his posts.

[Class of 2025 National Merit Discussion - #109 by PresCarsonTulsa]

Best of luck! I look forward to following your son’s journey.

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Thank you so much for the kind words and for tagging some people in the know! I will keep you all posted on what he decides.

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Here is my opinion…put premed out of the mix for now.

Your son needs to choose a college where he will be happy to be all four years. Happy students do better than unhappy ones.

So…hard as it might be…he needs to concentrate on where he will feel the best for four years of undergraduate school. He can apply to medical school from either of these colleges.

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Thank you so much! Hopefully we can set up a chat with a current McCollough participant—I do think that might help. I’ve also reached out to his admissions counselor at Tulsa to see if he can offer any helpful insights, beyond what’s on the website, about pre-med support (and outcomes). We shall see! :slight_smile:

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This is a helpful perspective—thank you! If he didn’t get into McCollough, he’d be going to Tulsa. He felt like he fit there, and without a smaller program like McCollough to make friends and get guidance, he thought Alabama might be a little overwhelming.

I also know that a hefty percentage of kids who start on the pre-med track end up pursuing something else—so I do worry about him choosing Alabama mostly on the basis of McCollough.

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This is important, in my opinion. He will be there for four years (at least).

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In addition to talking to students, he can set calls with the pre-health advising offices to understand the support and resources available for shadowing, volunteering, med school apps, etc. My D is a senior (premed track) at a different school and that was part of her decision process. The advising has been an essential contributor to her positive experience.

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This is great advice. I will encourage him to set these calls up!

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This is a case where two reasonable people could make two different choices.

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This is a good point. The average age of beginning med school students these days is 24. That’s 2 years older than the normal age of students graduating from college. Med schools seem to prefer students who’ve done something else after college, something not necessarily related to college. So, it’s not just the shadowing.

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I think one of the hardest parts of this stage is the reality that the VAST majority of premed students don’t go to med school. I think the last stat I saw was less than 20% And I would give the exact same caveat to an excellent student, which your son has clearly demonstrated - so this has nothing to do with the difficulty of premed classes or difficulty in admission. Med school is on the radar of every single excellent student and those strong in math and science with a helping personality are most likely to think med school is the obvious path. I know, I have one. It took until beginning of junior year for my daughter to acknowledge that there were other paths that she might actually like better. She ended up adding a computer science major and is currently working as a computational biologist doing cancer research.

If Bama only works if he’s in the premed cohort, I would pause a bit - just based on the above and really think through what the experience looks at if he decides to pivot from premed.

Best of luck with his decisions.

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This is really helpful. Thank you! I loved hearing your daughter’s story, too. S25’s a kid who also really loves computers and research—I could see him going down a similar path as her. Actually, I could see him going down lots of paths, some medicine-adjacent, some not. He’s currently really into the idea of medicine, but I don’t think he has a full awareness of all the amazing possibilities out there.

At UTulsa, he’ll chat with a success coach once a month. And they have a great CS program and really accessible research opportunities, so I feel like it might be easier for him to explore his options. (That said, I don’t know much about how Alabama compares in that regard.)

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I agree! I have to keep reminding myself that there isn’t one ‘right’ decisions here. They are just different, and he’ll likely grow in positive ways at both places.

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Where did you find this part? I see you can petition for a 5th year (not sure if it includes room and board). Not saying you’re wrong - was just looking for a definitive that it’s included and if a 5th year, that it’s not just tuition (that’s what they note you can petition for).

Seems like a very good program.

At first I thought the student preferred Bama based on initial comments. But I agree with others, if they were going to Tulsa otherwise, it’s likely the right pick.

However, if the student were to pivot to CS, while I know OP said they have a great CS program at Tulsa, I would review the curriculum at both. Bama has a larger program and a cyber program if of interest. I don’t know but would suspect they’d have a wider variety of course areas overall.

I would not worry about research. If you want to do research, you can do research anywhere. My son’s gf did research five years (did a masters) at Bama in the Engineering school. So few kids do research overall that all these schools have ample opportunity (assuming the govt doesn’t wreck the funding).

Good luck.

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