Premed decision help [UIUC vs UPitt vs CWRU vs UW Madison vs SUNY Binghamton]

For better community input, please provide the below details about your college offers:

UIUC - $36K
UPitt-$50K
CWRU - $50K
UW Madison - $60K
SUNY Binghamton - $34K

Parents out of pocket would be above, but they might not be able to help with med school based on what gets used from my college fund.

UIUC - Chancellors Scholars Program, CLAS Honors Program
UPitt - Honors
CWRU - Scholarship
SUNY Binghamton - Scholarship
UW Madison - Honors

Premed with a major in Neuroscience/Psych.

Resident of IL.

I come from a very large high school in IL - ~5000 kids, 1200 graduating class. Ideally would like to go to a large school with sports culture, but want to prioritize academic readiness and med school matriculation opportunity. I have acceptance from UCI, but thinking it’s not best to consider that given the OOS tuition, though it’s ranked high.

I have toured case recently and liked the campus, but didn’t exactly love it. Hoping to tour others shortly. Not sure if I need to tour SUNY and would greatly appreciate any input on that as well.

Applied to colleges based on list from counselor and other inputs here + BSMD (was not successful). Goal was to tour only short listed admitted schools.

I’m thinking UIUC/CWRU/UPitt make the most sense, but would appreciate guidance.

Thanks in advance for your inputs!

In general, if you’re thinking about the costs for medical school, people generally point towards attending a school with low out-of-pocket expenses.

Considering this Id lean towards UIUC or SUNY Binghamton - don’t get me wrong all of the schools you’re considering are incredible schools; however paying an extra $ 16K+ (extra $64K over 4 years if the cost remains the same) to attend CWRU, UPitt, or UW Madison doesn’t seem like the move to me. Once you get to medical school, you may be tacking on extra student loan debt to afford medical school, which is often upwards of $200,000 total.

I’d say go to UIUC or SUNY Binghamton - both have reputable pre-med programs, and are both on the lower end of costs.

Going to page @WayOutWestMom for any input they have.

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To me this means UIUC is a great fit, especially at the price point!

Congratulations!!!

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Any of your choices would be great for pre-med. There’s nothing magic about attending a specific undergrad that will help get a student accepted to med school. That’s all on the student. You have to be willing to work–and work hard-- for it.

With the potentially big changes coming for how medical education is financed, (PSLF goes away. Most income based repayment plans are no long offered. And, if a bill currently under consideration in Congress passes, no more Grad Plus loans and very low cap [$135K lifetime total] on direct student loans to cover undergrad & med school costs), I vote for choosing one of your lower cost options and saving the rest to put toward the cost of med school.

The biggest downside of UIUC will that since CU is a small town, there really aren’t many opportunities there to do physician shadowing or clinical volunteering. The major hospital system there is Carle Clinic and they no longer allow undergrads in their hospital and clinics because it’s now full of Carle Illinois COM med students. The other hospital in town is St. Lukes. It’s not as close to campus as Carle and it’s much smaller with a very limit capacity for undergrad volunteers.

However, many pre-meds do all their shadowing and clinical volunteering during summers at home or during gap years before applying to med school. (Three-quarters of successful med school applicants take 1-3 gap years before med school to beef up their ECs.) So I wouldn’t necessarily rule out UIUC just because of that.

If you’re into big time sports— then Illinois is obvious answer.

Go Illlini! (Proud basketball season ticket holder for the 5 years I lived in Urbana.)

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Thanks so much everyone! Really appreciate the input. Would you also be kind enough to weigh in, which school you would recommend if funding was not a factor.

Our family is torn because, a few people we spoke with were saying that differentiating yourself at UIUC and getting recommendation letters, plus experience (as mentioned by Waywestmom) could be an extremely frustrating experience vs UPitt & CWRU.

I’m not as inclined toward SUNY at the moment as it doesn’t seem to be particularly different than UIUC in terms of a more small town location and shadowing/clinical volunteering opportunities.

Thank you!

If you like the campus, UIUC. You have sports. And you want that so not CASE or Bing.

If you want city, Pitt. Nicest campus Wisconsin.

If saving will help your folks fund part of grad school, then UIUC. But make sure you like the campus. You have to be there day after day for four years. You want to be where you are happy.

Funding no issue Pitt bcuz I don’t like UIUC’s campus and I like Pittsburgh as a city. But why would Pitt or Wisc be different than UIUC? You’ll need to be a top student no matter where and deliver on the MCAT.

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Pitt and Case are urban campuses. UIUC is definitely not.

Differentiating yourself is not all that.

Most recommendation letters are pretty generic You can develop a better connection with a professor by as being a TA or working in their research lab. You can also get to know your professors better by going to office hours and talking with them. Also UL elective classes will be much smaller than the huge intro level lecture, giving you another opportunity to acquaint yourself with potential letter writers.

And, not to be snarky, but it’s really hard to stand out from the pack. When it comes to med school admissions, almost everyone who applies is pack fodder–unless you really have something exceptional in your CV. Olympic participant. Professional athlete. First author publication in Cell, Nature or other high impact journal. Military vet with one or more tours of active duty at an overseas posting. Elected to a political office in your home town or home state. Founded an ongoing non-profit that helps a disadvantaged group. Every year there are multiple applicants with those kinds of things on their CV. Some with more than one of the above.

Finding clinical opportunities in CU will be tough. Small town. LOTS of premeds. But there will be opportunities for other kinds of activities expected of pre-meds, like Research, community service w/ disadvantaged groups.

Summers are for your clinical ECs like shadowing and clinical volunteering.

You can also get a certification to work as EMT, CNA, MA, or phlebotomist and work during the summer to earn a little cash and get your clinical hours in. Scribing in another popular way to get clinical hours.

You may even be able to get a scribing or other clinical job in CU. There are plenty of nursing homes in CU that need staff. If you have car available on campus, you could try some of nearby smaller towns–Danville (where there’s VA hospital as well as Sacred Heart Medical Center), Gibson City, Clinton, Decatur all have hospitals.

And I cannot emphasize this enough–almost no one goes to med school directly from undergrad. More than 75% of med school applicants take 1-3 gap years to improve their CVs, mostly by working at clinical jobs while also volunteering at food banks or homeless shelters. There will be time to get your pre med ECs done.

~~

And one other consideration:

Neither Illinois nor Pitt use committee letters to control which students will get the school’s endorsement to apply to med schools; Case does.

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Thanks a million for taking the time to provide a very thoughtful and insightful response. Very very helpful!

Thanks again!! :folded_hands:t2::folded_hands:t2:

Since Pitt and Case are both at the same price point I’d pick Case so that you can benefit from the amenities of a private school.
So in my opinion the real choice is UIUC vs. Case.

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Since Pitt and Case are both the same price, I’d consider Pitt also. Pittsburgh is a vibrant city with lots of medical places in it.

If you want to conserve funds for grad or professional school, UIUC should be in the mix too.

Have you read about the possible changes to federally funded student loans, particularly the grad plus loan, and the possible loan limits being proposed? If you would like me to link a thread about them, I can.

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Thanks so much, would you kindly share that info? I have seen the reference in another post, but do not have the details.

Thanks so much!

Here you go:

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Late correction:

The other hospital in CU is OSF, not St Luke’s. I mixed up my cities. (Thanks to @ Momofthree24 for pointing that out.)

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Thanks so much! Very very helpful!

Thank you, greatly appreciate all your insights!