Tulane vs. LSU Honors College (Pre-med)

fallenchemist
Sat, 23 Jun 2012 21:40:52 +0000

You have opened a topic that has no easy answers, it is really complex and involves some intuition on your part. FWIW, here is my opinion on a few aspects.

Most important is the money. You say it is “not too big a problem”, but med school is expensive also. So if you think you can pay for Tulane and for med school comfortably, great. If not, then save the undergrad money as much as possible and pick LSU. If you are sure that you can come out of undergrad with little debt even if you pick Tulane, then we can take money out of the equation.

Assuming the latter, then there is your assumption that you will stand out more at LSU because it is less competitive. This is the natural assumption, but not always the case. Some students react much better to the greater competition and end up excelling more than they would being the “big fish” in the pond. It just depends on your own traits, and you have to do an honest self-assessment in that regard. I personally fell into that category, being much more motivated by the competition at Tulane as opposed to skating a bit when I took summer courses at the local State U, where I saw first hand how much the quality of your classmates mattered. Also, as far as your comment about having more time at LSU, again this can be highly dependent on your own character. Many people (again, me included!) do better when they are flat out with activities and school. It forces you to organize your time.

Then, of course, there is the whole New Orleans vs. Baton Rouge and Big State U vs. smaller private school dynamic. Which environment do you truly thinks suits you better and which will be what you want to think back on in the years to come? Also, keep in mind the very real budget issues LSU is facing, like many state schools.

Finally, in general I agree that where you go undergrad makes less difference than how you perform, recommendations, etc. Naturally there is some bias towards the most prestigious schools, but it is hard to separate the “name” effect of the school from the fact that they are more selective to begin with so the students are bound to be more qualified. In the end a great student from almost any accredited school can be highly successful in this process.

To summarize, I would answer the money question first. If it is an issue, go LSU. If not, then think about the other factors. I assume that GPA is UW. If so, and if you can get your ACT up a couple points (or try the SAT?), then you might get a nice merit scholarship from Tulane, making the cost of attending much less. Not less than LSU probably, but closer at least.