Pre-med at MIT or USC

College Search & Lists
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I got into MIT through Early Action, and I am really keen on doing a bio/bioengineering major as I’m planning on med school after undergrad. However, I’ve started to hear some horror stories about being a pre-med at MIT (mainly that it’s really hard to maintain a good GPA).

I also recently got notified that I qualified as a finalist for the Trustee Scholarship at USC. I’m wondering if it’s even worth it to fly down to USC to do the interview and try for the scholarship…

Do you guys think MIT is clearly a better choice than USC for pre-med? Although I’ve heard that maintaining a good GPA at MIT is hard, I feel like if I don’t overwhelm myself (basically only take 4 classes a semester) and watch my GPA really closely, getting a decent GPA at MIT is doable. I’ve heard that MIT has a lot of good UROPs in bio, but I’m wondering if there is even enough time to do UROPs (cuz classwork/studying takes up too much time). At the same time, I feel like if I interview for the USC scholarship and get it, I will definitely become a doctor. but I’m not so sure about my chances at med school after MIT…

What do you guys think?

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USC Trustee Scholarship could mean you save as much as $250k can be put towards med school later. Trustee Scholarship also comes with huge perks (including, I believe, increased access to UROPs). The difference in ROI between a doctor with a USC undergrad degree and a doctor with an MIT undergrad degree is going to be roughly zero.

Interview for the scholarship, and if you get it + like USC when you visit, give it serious consideration.

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The difference in ROI between a doctor with a USC undergrad degree and a doctor with an MIT undergrad degree is going to be roughly zero.


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Not roughly…it IS zero. No one gets paid more as a physician based on their undergrad. And med schools won’t care if the student went to USC, MIT, or a state flagship.

I agree that there is a GPA issue with MIT and med schools will NOT give you a pass for that. However, please don’t think getting a top GPA at USC will be easy. No matter where you go…USC, MIT, your state flagship or some regional LAC…premed prereq classes are weeder classes…so stay on top of all of your classes.

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Congratulations on the early acceptance. USC/Viterbi is an excellent school with strengths beyond that of most public flagship schools. However, there are very few schools that have the energy and opportunities that MIT presents. The son of a friend of ours attended MIT without the intention be being a pre-med. He did a bunch of UROP’s, and had some excellent paid summer internships. After graduation, he got a six figure position at one of the medical research companies in Technology Square just north of campus. After two years working, he quit and now attends med school in the Boston area. That sort of path would be difficult at most schools.

If the $250,000 is easily doable for you and your family, stick with MIT. If you decide not to attend med school, and most pre-meds change their mind along the way, there will be a wealth of other opportunities presented.

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It’s a classic question–is it better to go to a better school or go to an “easier” school and get a better GPA for med school. I don’t think there’s a right answer but always consider that 90% of people who think they are pre-med end up not going to med school. My philosophy is to go to the school where you will get the best education because there’s no assurance that you will be able to get a better GPA at USC and there’s no assurance you’re going to med school. And if you’re really at the tippy top of the med student ladder (which it sounds like you might be), a top student from MIT will beat out the top student from USC when they are applying to Stanford or Harvard med school every time. The financial implications of the USC scholarship is a complicating factor; I think only you and your family will know the value of that money to you, and whether financial considerations will be paramount to a decision.

A cautionary personal experience: I have a close relative who got into Columbia and was considering pre-med. His father talked him into going to a middling state school because it was cheaper and he would be assured of getting better grades at the state school to apply to med school. The relative ended up regretting the decision from the moment he got to school. Lacking the motivation and self-esteem (and regretting that he turned down his Columbia admission to this day), he dropped out of college and never went to med school. He probably never was cut out for med school in the first place, but this points out the whole folly of people deciding to be pre-med before they ever set foot on campus, and you should factor in the possibility of your going an entirely different direction when you get to school, and whether MIT or USC is going to offer you the better options for that path.

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I think we need more info…

On a scale of 1 - 10, how badly do you want to become a physician? Have you done any shadowing which would dispel any romantic notions about what a day in the life of a doctor?

If your choice was…completing an eng’g degree or changing major to have a better GPA for med school, which would you choose?

Would you be fine with an eng’g career if your GPA ended up not being med school worthy?

Eng’g is a tough row to hoe as a premed. My son, a 4th year med student with a Chemical Eng’g degree has said that he “lucked out” and got a great GPA 3.99 thru a mix of fab profs (carefully chosen) and attending a good program, but not tippy top one. He doesn’t think he would have emerged with a top GPA if he had attended a top program where everyone is a tippy top student. Don’t get me wrong. He worked VERY hard to get that GPA, missing many social activities and (lol) neglecting his long-time awesome GF.

To further explain…my son and my nephew both started college in 2009 as ChemE premeds. My son was at Alabama and my nephew was at Vandy. Both had nearly identical high school stats from very good private schools. My nephew soon had to drop the premed path because some STEM classes just dropped his GPA too much. My nephew has also reflected on the path he took. Yes, he’s got a nice eng’g job and is doing fine, but he also thinks that if he had gone to a match school instead of a top school, he’d now be in med school as well.

The truth is that there are a few eng’g classes that are just brutal and sometime escaping with C’s can be a celebration (thermal, statics, fluids, and some others)…but those C’s can drop a good GPA quickly and med schools don’t give a student “a pass” because he had a super-hard major.

You have to stop and think about how badly do you want to become a physician. If that answer is, “yes, absolutely and I’d be forever sad if I don’t make it,” then choose the path that will likely best get you there.

What is your home state?

Where else where you accepted and the net costs of those schools?

What is the net cost of MIT?

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@soporificturtle really only two questions to ask:

How much will you have to pay at MIT and can you/your folks handle it? (If they can’t, USC is it.)

Which school do you like better? As noted, USC will not be “easy” for a pre-med, esp in bioengineering. And MIT won’t be that much harder, esp for a kid who is up for a trustee and got in EA to MIT. You clearly have an aptitude to succeed at school and I doubt either school will be “that much” harder. So for me the question is do you think you are going to be happier/more at home in Boston or LA?

My D is in Viterbi. One of her suitemates transfered back to upstate New York after a semester - just missed home/family/friends too much. Another suitemate is premed, supersmart and having trouble getting the grades. Her best friend is at MIT. Some similar stories from them when they came by at Christmas. Kids that are comfortable/happy tend to do better, it seems to me, especially in challenging programs.

I would pick based on finances first, then on where you think you’ll be happier/more engaged. That will probably affect your education experience more than the initials on the diploma.

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I’m a CA resident and cost isn’t an issue to my family (although it would be pretty nice to save ~250k). I visited MIT over the summer and really loved everything about it…but I’m just trying to think of what would be the better choice in terms of my ultimate goal of medical school. Anyways, thanks for the advice. I will definitely give the USC interview my best shot :smiley:

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I probably shouldn’t trust gradeinflation.com but I will here and MIT’s average GPA is a 3.4 so it is no harder than any other top tier school GPA wise. The real thing that you may want to consider is engineering and pre-med as being an engineering undergrad will make it harder to get into medical school. I’m not saying don’t, because it has been done by many, but consider the pro’s and con’s to engineering and if you still want to do engineering undergrad the obvious choice is MIT.

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@mom2collegekids is exactly correct.

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@mom2collegekids @IN4655 I’m leaning toward a biology major (more than bioengineering).

MIT’s biology program is supposed to be one of the strongest in the world, but I’ve started to hear that it’s more geared toward those interested in academic research. I’m starting to wonder if a biology major at either MIT or USC is really much different on my track to medical school

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First of all, I am not sure that this is actually true. I certainly haven’t seen any evidence to confirm it.

Anecdotal experiences are anecdotal, but the other important thing to keep in mind is that we are not comparing MIT to an unknown regional public school. We are comparing MIT to USC, which by any measure is a fantastic, elite, selective research university. USC students are way above-average students who will provide a challenging atmosphere. USC has an excellent medical school and many excellent associated departments where you can do good research.

To be clear, I don’t think either of them is necessarily a better choice on the path to med school. They’re both excellent schools that can help you get into med school. And I also don’t see why I’d spend $250,000 going to MIT when I could go to USC for virtually nothing (unless you really love MIT, would be miserable at USC, and the money is basically no object to your family).

However, as others have mentioned, I wouldn’t use being pre-med or your med school goals as the ultimate deciding factor. So many college students - honestly, I would wager most of them - who start out pre-med never actually make it to medical school for a variety of reasons.

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'In a 2006 survey of all residency program directors in the national resident match program, “medical school reputation” was ranked 9th in a list of 14 academic criteria for selecting residents. Reputation was statistically lower than the top six factors, including core clerkship grades, specialty elective grades, letters of recommendation, and step 1 and 2 scores. School reputation was on par with class rank, AOA membership, and other awards, and statistically higher than preclinical grades, research, and publications. (Source: Green et al. Acad Med 2009.)

Thus, it seems the name of the med school is of only modest importance to residency directors in general. However, the survey is a heterogeneous pool of different kinds of program…

To dissect this heterogeneity, I looked at the same study for the rank importance of medical school reputation in different specialties, grouped by competitiveness (% of all spots filled).

Two interest points emerged. First, the most competitive specialties (plastics, ortho, ENT, optho, radiology, rad-onc, neurosurgery) rated medical school reputation with higher absolute importance (3.38, on a scale of 1-5, average weighted by number of surveys from each field) than the competitive specialties (3.26) and less competitive specialties (3.21)."

So if one finds the above quote sensible, whether MIT or USC is a better choice also depends on what kind of specialty (and then of course the prestige of medical residency) one wants to pursue.

BTW, one of my S’s freshman peers at Yale just transferred to his local public university after one semester’s less than ideal performance at Yale. This young man is very determined to be a medical doctor regardless of specialty. For him, his local public university would give him the best odd to be a happy practitioner in family medicine. It is actually all good.

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@prof2dad He’s talking about picking an undergraduate school, your talking about medical schools.

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@IN4655 as one goes up educational ladder, past academic successes tend to become less and less important. OP got into MIT EA (congrats by the way), but this was based on his/her hs years. He/she will start college with a clean slate. Assuming he/she tries for med school, med schools are not going to let OP rest on his/her hs glories. Acceptance to med school will be directly related to one’s college performance, not so much where this performance occurred. I think @prof2dad post is relevant to topic as it makes the same point that even in later stages of med school training (ie residency), most recent performance (aka med school), not where one attends, will be a large part of what the next rung of one’s ladder will be. As a note I suspect info @prof2dad cites is from most recent data (2016, not 2006).

“I’m leaning toward a biology major (more than bioengineering).”
@soporificturtle Why bio? Do you have a Plan B in mind of what to do should you change your premed plan?

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@IN4655 My earlier post was based on an implicit understanding (a stylized fact actually) that the feeder schools to prestigious medical schools are mostly prestigious colleges. In case that this is not clear, one can go on Stanford Medical School’s website. It has undergraduate affiliation information for its current medical students.

Overall, there is a positive autocorrelation, backward in time, from medical residency prestige, to medical school prestige, and to college prestige.

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Do you like USC? If money isn’t a huge issue it’s still nice to get a huge scholarship, but not if you will be very unhappy there. I know a Trustee scholar doing pre-med and bio-med-engineering at Viterbi. She loves USC and says she is surrounded by bright and serious students and that Viterbi is not easy. So I’m not sure that the GPA would be much higher than MIT. However, if you think you would like USC and do well there I would definitely take the money into account. Since you need to go and interview for the scholarship take the time to check out the departments you would be studying under as well as the students and the general vibe.

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@Jugulator20 I never said that medical schools will care that much about where you do your undergradute, I was just saying that @prof2dad was talking about the importance of which medical school you went to when it comes to residencies. While his comments could have been made more relevant to the topic, I don’t think it was well explained how it was relevant and I think the point where @prof2dad says…

“whether MIT or USC is a better choice also depends on what kind of specialty (and then of course the prestige of medical residency) one wants to pursue.”

is outright confusing. Were talking undergraduate schools here. I don’t think picking MIT or USC for undergraduate is going to play any role whatsoever in what kind of specialty one wants to pursue after medical school.

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Whether one goes to MIT or USC shouldn’t much of a difference for med school admissions as other items like state of residence are much more important. One could also argue that it would be easier and cheaper for the OP to get into med school by attending a generic flagship university. The advantage for MIT is really only if the OP decides not to go med school as there are many more opportunities available than at a typical school.

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Overall, there is a positive autocorrelation, backward in time, from medical residency prestige, to medical school prestige, and to college prestige.
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Somewhat but not a given.

Medical school prestige isn’t as tight as many might think. All US med schools are excellent, and yes, the ones with MSTP tend to be “the best,” but those schools are about the top 50 med schools…not the top 10-20 or anything like that.