@supermom2 I can add to this discussion because my DD is a 4th year at Georgia Tech, two of her 4 roommates for the past two years are Stamps Scholars and one out of the two is going to med school, my DD is in Grand Challenges with 10 Stamps Scholars and I work as a college admissions facilitator and have had students at JHU.
The Stamps Scholarship Program is a very, very special program nationally especially since Roscoe Stamps is a graduate of Georgia Tech. Not only is it a scholarship program, but it has many national implications including attending the national Stamps Scholar Conference. Many congratulations to you and your DD because her receiving the scholarship means that she is the top .001(may be wrong on my numbers) of the entering freshman class at GT especially because the biggest part of the decision-making process is the activities your DD engaged in during high school, but also how she interviewed during the scholarship weekend. I have many student become semi-finalists, but it is really tough to become a finalist. Having this award and distinction on her resume will really set her apart from other medical school applicants because it is such a high honor. Nationally colleges know what it means to be a Stamps.
Chafee who runs the program at GT makes sure his students accomplish all that they want to. I am close to my DD’s roommates (I just returned from my annual spring semester visit) and I am just in awe of what her Stamps roommates get to do. The travel, conferences, special dinners, opportunities etc. is just amazing. Look up Nick Selby’s speech and any of his videos from a few years ago, he was a Stamps Scholar and is currently at MIT for graduate school. Calvin Runnels just was named a Rhodes Scholar.
Someone mentioned that they thought your DD wouldn’t be able to take advantage of study-abroad because of the pre-med track. That has not been the case for my DD’s roommate or any of her friends who are going to med school. Plus Stamps Scholars have extra trips they can go on during certain times of the year. I am always hearing about my DD’s roommates doing cool side trips. I know for a fact that my DD’s Stamp/Med School roommate did study abroad and is graduating in 4 years on the pre-med track. One of my DD’s sorority sisters had 18 medical school interviews, got into 5 (it may be more since I hadn’t talk to her mom since the ivies came out) including getting two full tuition scholarships to med school. This sorority sister went 3 study abroad trips during her time at GT and is graduating in 4 years this May.
I asked my DD about her Stamps roommate’s research and she said she did it at the CDC. You have to remember that the CDC in Atlanta also provides opportunities for research for GT students. Plus the Emory hospital is closer to GT than to Emory in terms of distance. Any of my DD’s friends/roommates who have wanted to do research have been able to at GT including her sorority sister I mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Just to give you an idea about some research done for the medical field, I suggest you look at the Petit Scholars program where I know some Stamps scholars are also a part of. http://petitinstitute.gatech.edu/petit-scholar/archive One of my favorite Stamps Scholar who does research is Maria Diaz Ortiz. You can read more about her here. http://www.ramblinwreck.com/genrel/091614aab.html I love the fact that Maria was also a cheerleader at GT while doing some great scientific research. Maria who was in my DD’s sorority is currently in med school at Harvard. This is a side point, but one thing that GT has for it over JHU is that it will give your DD more of a complete college experience in terms of school spirit, (with all the sports, stadium on Sunday) and the Greek system. She may want to do it or not, but either way that is an option for her if she wants to participate in it.
My DD has done two research projects, she has had friends get article credit for their research and have been paid to present at international conferences and all of my DD’s premed friends have done as much research as they want.
Two final points, one of my DD’s friends who was pre-med transfered out of JHU because she found the pre-med students very cut-throat and not supportive. I am not saying this is of all JHU students, but just wanted to share this friend’s experience. My DD and her friends have always commented on how collaborative the GT students are and how supportive the faculty and staff has been. GT is not an “easy” school, the students have to work hard, but the school has an interest in giving the student who is willing to work hard to be successful. A GT degree is very valued out in the STEM community. My DD is graduating with the highest honors this year and she did not have a GPA over 4.0 or SAT score over 2000 when she graduated high school back in 2014. Hearing her talk about engineering blows me away because she really knows her stuff.
I think the ability to have undergraduate expenses covered is really a great security blanket especially with med school on the horizon because you just never know what life will throw at you. One month before my DD graduated high school, the water supply line in our home burst while we were attending our son’s out of town college graduation. The damage was $550K and although we had a ton of insurance, the company refused to cover everything. I was accidentally significantly injured by our contractor during the rebuilding which meant I had to take off 6 months from work and then my husband suffered a massive pulmonary embolism last year landing him in the hospital. We had to use our DD’s saved tuition for all of these very, very unexpected expenses. I am so thankful my DD did not go to a full-pay private college because we would not have been able to pay for it the last 4 years despite at this same stage that you are at now thinking we had everything covered. You just never know what life will throw at you so with Stamps you don’t have to have any of those worries.
At GT, you DD will get a great education with all the research she wants and she will build a resume that makes her a competitive med school applicant. I recommend you visit GT and talk to as many people as you can about research, med school and any other relevant issues for you and your DD.