If you plan on the med school route, you need to look at costs first and keeping undergrad costs as inexpensively as possible. Just because your parents are giving you a $50,000 budget doesn’t mean you need to spend all of that $50,000. And is that per year or is that total? Any school in any large city will work. It’s what you do at that school that will impress the admissions officers at the med schools.
I would suggest NOT majoring in biology and or public health because the job outlook for bio majors and PH is really weak. What if you don’t get into med school? A lot of students do not get into med school; it happens more often than not. There just isn’t the space, or, your GPA or MCAT score doesn’t meet the standard.
(Students tend to forget that there are some really academically “strong” undergraduate students competing for med school. Just because you’re a star in high school, does not mean that you will be the star at your university. The competition at a university is even worse when you find out that 500 others are competing with you for a med school spot.)
There are thousands of bio majors who have difficulty in finding jobs after being denied admission to Med schools.
Our daughter who just graduated from UCSF, had an expensive and competitive school experience. She completed her undergrad at UC Davis. In her Davis science program, there were 1000 other graduates, with a large number applying to med school. That was at one UC in a Spring season. Fortunately, because she took advantage of every opportunity available to her at her large undergrad, she was admitted to UCSF’s program.
At UCSF, we paid for her educational expenses, as well as her rent/expenses. Expenses continually occur and add up, like lab coats, stethoscopes, sturdy but comfortable $300-$500 shoes, etc. Also some medical programs don’t provide health insurance. She was fortunate that hers did and still covers her. That’s important because you will become ill, at some point. Good health insurance is no joking matter. It’s expensive if you’re not covered.
Her 5 initial roommates were at all levels of med school. They were all on loans, loans, and more loans.
Find a program in a large city that you would like to experience. Make sure it’s very affordable and take advantage of what the city has to offer you for your medical school experience. (Our eldest went to SUNY Buffalo, on a scholarship, intending to go to med school.) The SUNY school system has really good post undergrad med opportunities. Our daughter ended up in engineering, because she found out that she really liked math as well as, biotech and bio engineering classes. The SUNY schools are very underrated, but provide a really good education for New York residents. SUNY’s are not really in the tri-state area but the opportunities in those cities are pretty good.
Look for an inexpensive undergraduate experience because you will need money when you are volunteering. You won’t be able to really work, given how hard the materials are for studying in this field, and the group labs.