College rankings, especially for someone who’s thinking about pre-med, are not really important in their lives once someone has decided on a school and graduated from high school. There will be pre-med students at UTSA (all 4 years) who will be accepted to med school just as there will be from UT-Austin or U. of Florida. What will matter the most in terms of college is where your D thinks she will do the best. Her odds of acceptance to medical school will increase by whether she is one of the top students at her school, especially for those classes that end up grading on a curve. Her GPA, especially her science GPA, will be a crucial factor in med school admissions. Med school won’t care if her “A” in organic came from UT, UF, or UTSA…they care about the grade and her mastery of the material.
So the question is, at which of her acceptances does your D think she will do best academically? Relatedly, where does she think she would be happiest? If your D is happy, that bodes well for her success at a school. If she is not happy at a school, then the odds of her success will decrease.
@AceNtheHole, listen to @AustenNut.
As people mentioned you are lucky that you are in TX and your student can potentially attend medical school there. Many students from other states are not that lucky.
You do not need highest ranked school.
You indeed need school where your daughter can SHINE academically and physically.
My DD is premed for BS/DO. She took that route to get the most affordable and most direct way to medical school. She passed on her best option that she loved with name scholarship 1 hour from home. She passed on 2.5 hours from home school with identical program because she couldn’t find her crowd there. She chose the fatherst school 12 hours away because it ticked all marks but being close (her major requirement initially). (She got accepted to 18 school out of 21 with 1 rejection and 2 WL)
Premed classes are very hard everywhere. Getting highest GPA possible for premed is the top priority. Getting 3.2 GPA at Yale will not get you to medical school. Getting 3.8 at the middle of nowhere school with good MCAT and shadowing and you have a chance for medical school. Also money is very big factor. Do not spend $200k on BS.
Well, no. 3.8 college GPA + good MCAT + pre-med ECs merely keep the pre-med from being an auto-reject. Admission to a medical school is still a highly competitive process even when passing the initial screens of GPA, MCAT, and pre-med ECs, unless one has previously been admitted to a combined plan (BA/BS → MD/DO) where doing these things means admission to the associated medical school.
Has she already signed up and been accepted to cap at San Antonio?
Last year the available spots (first come-first served) at UTSA were filled within 30 seconds of the portal opening apparently. And I believe the time to sign up is behind us.
I also found Biology is an “impacted” major at UT Austin which means it has more applicants than spots. Your D would be competing with other transfer students both internal and external to get a spot even if they allowed her to apply at all.