As titled, deciding between these 3 schools for pre-med aspring student. Back up plan is pharmaceutical and major is biochemistry but may switch to neuro/cognitive science.
Toured Boulder only and it’s too late to plan for admitted days to the other two so trying to gather as much information as I can regarding academics, support, pre-health advising etc. before taking short trips to check out the campuses.
We are OOS for all 3 and cost will be the highest at Boulder and no housing guarantee after 1st year but we really liked their Health Resident Academic Program and their biochem faculty seemed pretty awesome.
I know grades and MCAT are the most important factors so academic support will be a priority along with undergraduate research/internship/volunteer network as well.
When you say backup plan is pharmaceutical…what do you mean, exactly?
I have not seen IU or Boulder, but we have visited Pitt 3 times and it is one of my favorite schools. The area is great, lots of opportunities, strong in prehealth etc.
Given the possibility of medical/grad school, I would take costs into consideration.
Pitt is great for anything health-related. In addition, you can show evidence you’re academically ready to twke the class you can email&take smaller Honors classes.
Finally, @aquapt has found Academic communities, which you can join (1st come 1st served)
Of which 'Who are you?", “The beautiful mind”, “Neurons&Chemicals”, “Science in a gendered world”, or “Medical Humanities” would all be helpful to you, and there are Living Learning Communities including Health Sciences, Education&Leadership, and Service to Others
IU would be more of a college town, with classic college life, quads, sports, etc. If you got into the Honors College, it’s well thought-out, with lots of perks. If not, the LLCs in Health Science or Science would lokely be of interest.
If it’s worth the $ in terms of quality of education and overall outcome upon graduation, we are willing but if it’s iffy then +40k over 4 years we can save for our younger one.
I mean - you have three flagship type schools - Pitt a bit smaller campus and population, IU more isolated but in a pure college town and Boulder as almost a Denver extension - with more nature - but also very high area housing and some students move to others towns for subsequent years so housing will cost more (hence they move - but then you need transport).
Pre-health you can go anywhere - as you’re looking at alternative majors (neuro), you might look at curriculums - as the breadth or focus may be different.
But I’m not sure there’s a better school - although many talk about PItt’s direct access to shadowing and other things - not sure how it would be at the others but you can research.
But all three are solid names but have different environments.
Keep in mind that if you decide against medical school (most do), you will likely be returning for an additional degree. Have you researched other healthcare careers (PT, PA etc)? In my experience you will also need an advanced degree at some point if you plan to work in research for a pharmaceutical company.
You can reach your goals at any of these schools. I mentioned that Pitt is one of my favorites. I would take a look at neuroscience at all 3 and see what they offer, given you may change your major.
So for pre-health in general I do not think it matters which you chose.
But if you developed your interest in Neuroscience, this might be a reason to favor Pitt. They have a very strong, very deep, very well-regarded Neuroscience department. Just some representative rankings if you are interested:
These sorts of rankings are more grad/research-related though, so I also like to check the NCES College Navigator data to see how many undergrads actually choose a primary major. The theory is students will be more likely to choose specific majors if those majors are really working well for undergrads. Of course you have to take into account how many people would even be considering a major. Here I will use the total number of people in Bio-type majors (“Biological and Biomedical Sciences” is a broad classification group reported in NCES, making this a convenient choice).
OK, so at Pitt, 169 of 629 Bio-type majors chose Neuroscience, about 27%. At Indiana it was 118/675 (17.5%), and Colorado was 111/825 (13.5%). None of these are bad, but the fact Neuroscience specifically ended up such a popular choice among Bio-types at Pitt is just confirmation this is a relatively strong undergrad program which is doing a good job attracting and retaining students.
Again, though, you don’t need to be a Neuroscience major, or indeed Bio major of any sort, for pre-health. But it seems to me with a possible interest in Neuroscience, this is a factor to keep in mind.