Tulane vs. LSU for premed

naseemalammar
Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:30:27 +0000

I was pretty much set on LSU, but I visited Tulane University today and now I’m confused about where I should go for my undergraduate studies. I had been previously told before that where you go for undergrad doesn’t matter, which is why I primarily ended up deciding on going to Tulane. However, I realized that it does somewhat matter. At Tulane, 71% of their students get into medical school and 95% of them with a 32 or more on the MCAT and at least a 3.7 GPA have gotten into a medical school. These numbers are very impressive. At LSU, I believe less than 50% even get into medical school.
I’ve been accepted into LSU’s honors college and I got a full ride there and it’s only 3 hours away from my hometown. Also, I’ve gotten so much credit from LSU from placement tests and AP exams that I can skip at least 1 year. However, everyone I talked to there that is from my old school told me it’s very easy to get As. I’m worried that if I go to LSU, I’ll just try enough to get As but not actually learn anything, which will screw me over when I start to take the MCAT.
Tulane, on the other hand, is a very good school. It’s academically a lot better than LSU. I got a scholarship from there, but I’ll still have to pay around $21,000 a year. It’s 4 hours from my hometown and I will get some credit from my AP exams, but not nearly as much credit as I will get if I go to LSU. I feel like if I go to Tulane, I will actually learn and be challenged which will probably not happen if I go to LSU.
Any advice?