I think it’s you, posted on some other threads about how you and your son don’t like UIUC? I think UCM and UCR may suffer, not exactly the same issues but reasons people don’t want to be there. We drove past Merced on a road trip and C26 looked around and said “no way am I even thinking about going here in the middle of nothing”. UCR has a reputation as a commuter school. The OP may have other reasons but bottom line has to spend 4 years there and nothing wrong with wanting to maximize that experience, of course assuming the budget allows it.
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You misunderstand how work-study operates if you are banking on it for anything besides personal expenses, maybe travel back and forth on major holidays, part of the book budget.
There are not enough hours in the week for a student to make a meaningful dent in the budget shortfall via work-study. And you don’t WANT the student working more than that-- sleep, meals, exercise- all of these are important in addition to classes, studying, etc.
I have seen kids get lulled into the work-study plan and it does not end well. It’s fine to tell your kid- “you want pizza with your friends instead of the meal plan? Great, you pay for it”. But bridging the gap between what you can afford and what tuition/dorming costs- no. That is not at all realistic. Plus work-study is pay as you go- kid gets a paycheck after every pay period (just like grownups do). They don’t dole out a work-study check in August when you need it to pay your bill!
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As you have indicated that all of these schools are a little above your preferred budget, I’d eliminate CU Boulder as it is the most expensive. Both UMass and Pitt are very solid schools and I think your daughter would do well at either one. In terms of location they are quite different - Pitt is urban while UMass Amherst is rural - although it has a nice college town and through the 5 college consortium your child could take classes at Amherst/Smith/ Mount Holyoke if they would like (Amherst is the most convenient as it is only about 1 mile away from UMass). I’ll also second the comment about the food at UMass - it is really excellent and they meet all kinds of dietary needs without sacrificing taste and quality.
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Pitt is a good school if you’re interested in healthcare. Hospitals and research on-campus. It is heavily reliant NIH/CDC funding but so are many other schools.
That said, unless you get into the Honors program or some other special program I would have a tough time justifying full OOS tuition. It’s a large, public university. Not a lot of individual attention. You’ll need to self-advocate from day one.
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Let me offer some facts.
@thumper1 is correct. CA is the single largest exporter of MD matriculants in the country.
Per AMCAS FACTS Table A5, only 17% of CA med school applicants matriculate in-state. 25% of CA applicants matriculate at an OOS med schools and the rest received no acceptances.
CA, with the exception of UCR and the San Joachim Valley Prime+ program, does not offer in-state admission preference to med school applicants. This means that simply being a resident of CA confers zero advantages for in-state med school admissions. However, there is some preference given for students who have attended in-state schools that host a med school. (UC-Davis, in particular likes to accept its own undergrads.) And if you look at the incoming MS1 classes at other UC med schools, you’ll see they have a high enrollment from the UCs. At many CA public med schools, service with CA population groups is a consideration in admission decisions. CA private medical schools are either extremely competitive (Stanford, USC) or are mission focused (Loma Linda, Kaiser, Drew)
I don’t recommend Cal Northstate to anyone for a variety of reason but the biggest are its very serious accreditation problems and its ineligibility for federal student loans.
Thus “coming back” to CA for med school is a less likely possibility.
(Also please note that once a CA student moves OOS post college to establish residency elsewhere, they are no longer included as CA residents for reporting purposes.)
Coming back to CA for a MD/PhD is longest of long shots.
Per AMCAS FACTS Table B-8, fewer than 70 CA residents matriculated into a California MD/PhD program. UCSF accepted 12; UCLA accepted 12; Stanford accepted 11; UCSD accepted 13. UC Davis-6; UC-Irvine -7; USC/Keck- 5. Loma Linda -1.
Not only is coming back to CA for a MD/PhD complicated by the very limited number of positions offered, it’s also complicated by the fact that your daughter will need to find a PhD program with mentor who matches her research interests–which is THE key factor in gaining a PhD (and MD/PhD) acceptance.
For any MD/PhD program, the student must be accepted independently by both the graduate department in her research area AND the medical school–with the PhD program being the major determiner of admission.
Also I am not sanguine about the future of the MSTP program (this is NIH program that funds MD/PhDs). UMass Chan SOM and JHU have both rescinded all acceptances they tendered this cycle to bioscience PhD applicants due to funding issues.
One more point…“coming back” to CA for medical residency is again unlikely since CA residency programs favor local med grad who have rotated through their hospitals (or through hospitals they are familiar with). Also fully 1/3 of ALL US med graduates indicate that California is their first choice location to do residency. The competition for spots is extremely high.
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I would pick Pitt. It has a very strong Neuroscience.
I’ll just echo some thoughts.
I agree if you are already above a really comfortable budget, the extra stretch for CU is probably not a good idea unless your kid really, really want to be in Colorado (and even then, at some point you have to draw a line on what is affordable, and it is not like Colorado is going away in four years).
Pitt and UMass Amhest are then both perfectly good choices, both for pre-med and also if your kid ends up deciding to do something different, perhaps very different.
So if it were me, I would suggest setting is really the key factor. Amherst is a classic college town with lots of other nearby college students. But it is otherwise fairly far from a really big metro (so I am not including Springfield or Hartford, say). However, it is like 2 hours or so from Boston, and that is potentially day trippable, certainly close enough for weekend trips.
Then one of the reasons some people like Pitt is the part of Pittsburgh it is in (known sometimes as the East End) can sort of feel like an overgrown college town itself, and there are lots of other colleges in that area (including CMU, and you can take some classes there incidentally, or in fact other area colleges). But the rest of Pittsburgh and its related amenities are all right there too.
I really don’t feel like there is a right or wrong answer here. In my experience, some kids struggle with the idea of being more than a couple hours away from a city like Boston, and that’s perfectly fine. Others love the idea of being right in a fun, historic city, and Pittsburgh is enough of a city for them.
For a little perspective, the Boston Metro is a little over twice the size of the Pittsburgh Metro. The Pittsburgh Metro is then a little over twice the size of the Hartford Metro.
Does that make Pittsburgh too small? Too big? In the sweet spot? Totally subjective, of course. But I would see that as the most obvious consideration.
Incidentally, that does spill over a bit into convenience of experience opportunities and such, but I would view that as more of a minor factor. Plenty of people at UMass, or indeed other Amherst area colleges, figure out how to get the experiences they need for med school. So being in the heart of a ton of walkable hospitals and such is nice for Pitt pre-meds, but not at all required for pre-med success.
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