<p>Hey Mom nd Emma, Does Temple have an honors program that will help by challenging you and other high achieving students?</p>
<p>rebel11- Temple does have an Honors Program that challenges high achieving students</p>
<p>If you are in that Honors program it will certainly help.</p>
<p>Rebel…yes it does.</p>
<p>however, even if it didn’t, the premed prereqs will be challenging no matter what. Those classes aren’t taken by most students. The kids who take the STEM versions of Gen Chem, OChem, Physics and Calc are going to be challenged. Those classes aren’t easy anywhere.</p>
<p>The premed goal is to be a top student in these classes to get the limited number of As that are given out. These are the weeder courses. If you go to a school where your stats are kind of average, then the chances of you grabbing the As in the weeder classes are not good.</p>
<p>There’s a wealth of evidence that suggests that the types of students who can get into Villanova or Lehigh, but attend lower-ranked schools instead, do just as well as if they had attended the higher-ranked schools. This is probably particularly true in fields like medicine - once you get your MD, where you went to undergrad doesn’t matter at all.</p>
<p>Personally, I think it’s far better to minimize your debt, especially with pre-med plans. I turned down Emory for a good solid LAC in the top 100; I loved it and I’m at Columbia for grad school. You can get a good solid premed education from Temple. Will it be the same as a Lehigh or Villanova education? No; those schools do have higher quality programs and more competitive students. But you’ll still be able to get into med school, which is your ultimate goal.</p>
<p>My son is in a similar position to the OP. He has been granted a full tuition scholarship to Fordham but has been accepted to Georgetown and other higher ranked schools EA. He is also going to be pre-med. We are trying to decide whether to accept the Fordham scholarship or make a financial sacrifice to attend a more prestigious school.</p>
<p>You will find a higher level of academics at the other schools. I don’t care how much it has improved- Temple is still in a bad area and has a large commuter population. Yes, you can work hard and do fine, but there are better experiences to be had elsewhere.</p>
<p>There has a been a significant change at Temple in recent years and I don’t know if I would still call Temple a commuter school - 75% of freshman now live on campus.</p>
<p>As someone who lives in the Philadelphia area, I have seen the school building more on campus housing to meet the increased demand, as witnessed by this new 1,000 bed complex now being built:</p>
<p>[Residence</a>, Dining and Retail Complex | Temple 20/20](<a href=“http://www.temple.edu/2020/projects/new-residence/]Residence”>http://www.temple.edu/2020/projects/new-residence/)</p>
<p>If you are strong and independent, don’t go to Temple. While going to a lower ranked school could be fine, Temple is pushing the bounds for premed. This doesn’t even consider the fact that Temple is a commuter school where you could easily lose focus and not strive hard enough to gain the research opportunities you need for med school.</p>
<p>Unless if you save a very significant amount of money, go to a more prestigious school.</p>
<p>I don’t understand how being strong and independent puts someone at risk for losing focus. Aren’t the strong and independent students the ones who would work hard regardless of peer grou, and be able to make the most of being a top student by getting involved in research etc…</p>
<p>I have no opinion on the specific schools.</p>
<p>People who think Temple is a commuter school have not been following its current history. Over 75% live in college housing. Of the remaining 25%, a good bit live off campus but do not commute. </p>
<p>23% of freshmen are from out of state! They have an 87% freshman retention rate. Gone are the days when Temple was the school for every kid in Philly who had to work and put himself through school.</p>
<p>While the experience at Temple will be vastly different from that at Lehigh, there is no reason a motivated bright student cannot get into med school from Temple.</p>
<p>I visited Lehigh and wasn’t overly impressed. A free ride at a strong school like Temple is the way to go unless the others match it or come close.</p>
<p>Temple. Just make sure to get to know Bio, Chem teachers early on and get into their research Lab. The recommendation of the Professor regarding your research is really important to med schools. Otherwise, GPA is GPA, and MCAT is MCAT.</p>
<p>Unless you have trouble focusing in a larger environment, then you, like all other cream, will rise to the top in STEM class proficiency wherever you are.</p>
<p>Here are the rankings.Temple=125/ Lehigh=38/Villanova approx 40 nationally/ Pitt=58. The notion that these schools will offer merit aid to match what Temple is offering is not realistic. Temple like many schools will offer a scholarship to induce a high achieving student to enroll.</p>
<p>
Full tuition is not a free ride. Room and board at Temple costs about $10K; full cost at Pitt is about $25K. A difference, yes, but Pitt may well be affordable with a good financial aid package. </p>
<p>As I said before, it is important for the OP to wait and have all options on the table. There is little justification for rushing into a decision. Considering that many colleges have deadlines in late January or early February, she may even decide to throw in a couple more applications somewhere.</p>
<p>It would be especially foolish to rush into a decision if the OP is waiting for an admissions decision for the BS/MD program at Pitt.</p>
<p>Temple is still a good school. I would attend Temple.</p>
<p>Your other schools may offer you a better/more rigorous education, but Temple’s dollar savings would be more beneficial in the long run. If you’re truly pre-med caliber, then really, it won’t matter where you attend school.</p>
<p>Although I will note that undergrad institution DOES matter…it will only account for maybe 5% of your application if that. It’s more about your peers and environment. Nobody wants to try to get into medical school while being surrounded by boneheads, right?</p>
<p>Go Temple</p>
<p>I’d want to see the stats on how many temple undergrads get into good med. schools before you decide to go there, over the significantly better other schools.</p>
<p>Well those numbers are rarely published…it’s sort of a breach of privacy. Who wants to become immortalized by their alma when they don’t get accepted? lol</p>
<p>What you CAN do is look at the AAMC’s rank of undergrad institutions sending applications to medical school. That way you get maybe get a feel for how many pre-med students attend that school relative to the undergrad population.</p>
<p>Not a good measure for LACs, but a pretty good measure for other schools. They also have breakdowns by race.</p>
<p>The schools that send the most students to medical school are the schools where the brightest and best students attend, and the schools with the biggest science department to hold those pre-med students.</p>