My son got into bioengineering: biotechnology in UCSD with Jacobs Scholarship and Regents Scholarship. Both these scholarship together provide a full ride (full tuition, room, board, etc.), priority class registration, guaranteed housing, and a guaranteed lab to do research in starting from the first qtr. He got into Rice University for biomedical engineering with no merit scholarship. We have the assets to cover the costs (~$56k).
In both universities he will attending as a pre-med with a hope to go to medical school after undergrad. Which university will prepare him better and give him a better chance to get into medical school? Will he benefit from Rice’s small class sizes, affiliation to Texas medical center which is across the street, and the ease of obtaining a research position under Rice professors?
If you have the money, I would pick Rice. The qualitative experience isn’t even close, imo. Class sizes can be huge at Ucsd
Maybe, but at a very high cost. Both universities have the availability of what he needs.if he takes advantage. I’m not sure you can quantify better med school chances. It looks like he will get research at either place and that is part of the perks of Jacobs particularly. He must already be an exceptional student to get that offer. Jacob’s scholars often have offers from top schools. I am a fan of the kind of access you get at schools like Rice but the perks of the scholarship would help with that issue. Couldn’t that money be used for med school? And students do change their interests and aspirations as they mature and discover new possibilities.
I think engineering gpa’s and med school aspirations aren’t that compatible. Please take advantage of the med and premed forums to do some browsing while you are here. And congrats to him for great choices!
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-medical-school/
Save the money for medical school. UCSD.
Thanks for the comments. I am browsing through med and premed forums. My question is
Does Rice have Grade inflation or Does UCSD Grade deflation? I am asking since high grades are required to get into medicine.
In order to maintain Jacobs scholarship, one has to keep 3.5 GPA or higher. If your son can keep Jacobs scholarship for four years that means he will have 3.5 GPA or above when he applies to medical school. He should have no problem getting into a medical school.
UCSD does have grade deflation, especially for premeds, while Rice doesn’t. A lot of the undergrad UCSD premed classes are weeder classes.
I still pick UCSD, it’s a no brainer. My neighbor graduated from UCSD and got into UCLA medical school which is not easy to say the least. He doesn’t come off as a genius.
Most people from UCSD who are set on premed, however, get weeded out. Your neighbor may be an exception to the case, but I would still go to Rice. Rice has almost a 50 percent medical school acceptance rate to Baylor, and which premed school can beat having the Texas Medical Center (the country’s largest) right across the street?