<p>hey–i’m debating between caltech and rice</p>
<p>FINANCES:
i was awarded the trustee scholarship for rice, so i would pay less than 10k a year
no financial aid from either school</p>
<p>WHAT I WANT OUT OF UNDERGRAD:
-lots of good research opps, and a good education (basically, somewhere that will help me get into a top med school)
-i haven’t visited rice, but i liked the people at caltech
-even if I don’t pursue a MD/phD program, I will definitely try to do research as a physician</p>
<p>MY WORRIES:
I know Caltech has a reputation of being an extremely rigorous place, and I’m just worried that I won’t be able to maintain a GPA high enough so that I still qualify for medical school.
I also want to be in a place that will challenge me…</p>
<p>Thanks in advance! :)</p>
<p>CALTECH. GPAs a legit concern, but Caltech builds in a lot of transitional tools to prevent a stilted or deflated GPA. It’s been a while since I visited, but I think first semester doesn’t count at all, then it’s pass/fail, THEN they count your grades. There is definitely a “learn for learning’s sake” attitude there. Along with the superior support staff (Nobel anyone?), I think Caltech would be the place even though Rice is ranked by some higher in bio/premed.</p>
<p>Rice has a reputation as being an extremely rigorous place. You may not be able to keep up your GPA there if you are a slacker. </p>
<p>You should be able to do undergraduate research at Rice starting the summer after your sophomore year or earlier. You should be able to publish a couple of papers from that research. Rice is the school to go to if you wish to end up in medical school in Texas. Baylor CoM, UTSouthwestern, UTHouston, and UTSanAntonio have direct pipelines from Rice. Rice grads go to all the top medical schools out of state as well.</p>
<p>My experience with CalTech is less. My niece dropped out of CalTech and is now unemployed. Her mentor at CalTech was a Nobel Laureate. She recommended that one not go to CalTech. I’m not sure why.</p>
<p>BTW, going to medical school is not much of a goal. Lots of people go to med school and end up being physicians doing boring work: surgery, pediatrics, psychiatry, gynecology, orthopedics, etc. What do you want to accomplish with your knowledge and training?</p>