My daughter is deciding between UChicago & Pitt (Honors) for her undergrad Neuroscience degree, and she plans on eventually getting a PhD in Neuroscience to do research. Seems like UChicago is more rigorous and competitive, but both schools have good programs and lots of research opportunities. Is it worth $15k more per year plus the stress of the environment to get her undergrad degree from UChicago? Will it give a “leg up” when applying to grad schools?
Here is a quote from the PhD admissions FAQ at a program consistently rated #1 in the world in it’s field with an acceptance rate of around 3%:
“Coming from a lesser-known school is not much of a handicap, if other parts of the application are strong.”
“not much of a handicap” is still a handicap, and any handicap might matter in highly competitive Phd programs.
So, as to whether it is worth $15K/year? That depends on your family’s financial situation. If it means $60k of loans, I’d probably say it’s not worth it. If you can pay that even if it is a bit of a stretch, then personally, I’d think it was probably worth it.
I would not call Pitt Honors a “lesser-known school.”
For what it’s worth, Pittsburgh ranks 3rd and Chicago 45th on this list of Top 50 NIH-Funded Institutions of 2018: https://www.genengnews.com/a-lists/top-50-nih-funded-institutions-of-2018/ *
I am not saying your daughter should go to one school or the other, but I would not let Chicago’s perceived competitiveness govern the decision. I think it would be more important which school she feels more comfortable at, after having visited and researched both.
*See this site as well: https://report.nih.gov/award/index.cfm
Also, I have no idea how valid this ranking is, but for what it’s worth, Pittsburgh ranks higher than Chicago for Neuroscience:
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/search?subject=neuroscience-behavior&name=
Pitt Honors is awesome. Plus Pitt has a top 15 med school and CNUP, so there are plenty of opportunities to get involved in research. Attending Pitt won’t hinder her from top PhD programs. Now, whether the private is worth $15k more is a family decision. Has she visited either? Does she like one better?
http://www.braininstitute.pitt.edu/center-neuroscience-university-pittsburgh
Thanks for everyone’s input!
@bluebayou We’ve been to Pitt twice - once to tour and again a week ago for accepted student day. We have accepted student day at UChicago next weekend where she’ll see it for the first time. We held off visiting because it was nowhere near certain she’d get accepted RD. I’m trying to help gather a list of things to consider before she makes her decision, and this question about entry to grad school came up.
From my experience as a faculty advisor, I would say that either program would be an excellent starting point. The most important points, as others have mentioned are finances and fit. Either program offers high quality research opportunities with faculty and undergraduate programs are generally very similar across universities.
OP: Did your daughter consider Duke University ?
@Publisher She looked at their program but dismissed it because the NPC was outside our budget and it has low acceptance rates. Same with Vandy, WashU, JHU, and a few Ivies. Fact is, she probably wouldn’t have applied to UChicago except that the NPC seemed doable (but it was $10k off ?), she was intrigued after meeting with UC admissions rep at her HS, and there was no application fee. (It might sound silly, but at ~$100 a pop, she mostly applied to schools where there was a decent chance of acceptance and a good possibility to get some merit money since we don’t qualify for much if any financial aid and we’re hoping to get her through undergrad with low/no debt.)
Not silly at all. That’s the best way to play the game!
@bluebayou Thanks for saying that. We’ve had a lot of people questioning this strategy, since she’s “qualified” to get into top schools. (Of course, most of them are either uninformed about the current state of college finances, or they’re still paying off their own college debt so see it as the norm.) On the other hand, we also have had a few folks tell us we’re crazy not to send her to one of the schools that would give her a free/near free ride. ?♀️
I interview prospective PhD students for an umbrella biomedical research program at our medical school, and it won’t make any difference which of these schools your kid attends, what will make a difference is how well and what she does while she’s there. Both will provide plenty of opportunity for her to achieve.
Absolutely not. Pitt is an excellent university, with a strong reputation in the biomedical sciences/neuroscience. Going there vs. Chicago won’t make any measurable difference in PhD competitiveness later (if she even still wants a PhD after 4 years).
She should choose whatever university she likes better and what is affordable for your family.
Getting into a top school that is not affordable to your family is a waste of time and application. Part of “fit” is financial fit. Take the money and run.
Hi, recent Pitt alumni (who chose Pitt over 150k of debt at Vandy or Swarthmore) coming back from the College Confidential grave to let you know what’s up. I’m not in neuro, and my perception is that neuro is a very well-respected and rigorous undergrad major at Pitt. Much more well-respected than my major. My major at Pitt was around #30-40 nationally in US News. Through FER, the Brackenridge fellowship program, and just reaching out to professors, it was really easy to get involved in research all throughout undergrad and take PhD-level classes my senior year.
That being said, I wasn’t an obvious standout at Pitt. You’d see no articles written about me in the Pitt News, no press releases from the Honors College. My GPA was a little bit under 3.9, got a few B+s and a ton of A-s in my first couple of years. My profs (at least the ones that wrote my letters) liked me though.
Anyways, I applied to PhD programs this year and did really well. I applied to all the top 10 schools as well as some others. Rejections from the #1 (tied) and #4. I’m going to the other #1 school (a HYPS) in the fall with a university-wide fellowship that provides extra money beyond the normal PhD stipend package. I don’t think going to Pitt hurt me at all – the only people I know who were more successful than me in this entire ordeal were either people who were well-connected (and perhaps had a race card to play) and like 5 people who went to Stanford and Harvard.
I will admit that at my visits (or at least the ones at top 5 schools), when we went around talking about what undergrad we came from, I pretty much always came from the least “prestigious” school. At one visit there was someone from UGA, at another there was someone from Alabama (the flagship). That being said, students from somewhere like Pitt don’t have the desire to get PhDs at the same rate as more prestigious schools. I don’t think anyone has applied to PhD programs in my major in a few years – most of them come in wanting to do law school, MPA/MPPs, or do related work with organizations. In neuro I’m pretty sure they are applying regularly to PhD programs though, and because Pitt is a good neuro school, a good rec should come along with some clout.
I wouldn’t worry about school as long as it’s an R1 with active faculty and active graduate programs: the faculty have connections to other professors in the field that they maintain by going to conferences, and they have to stay on top of the research in order to teach grad students. The schools I would worry about are mid-tier LACs and regional colleges with faculty who do not stay engaged in the cutting-edge work in the field post-grad school.