UTD Nation Merit Scholars Programs vs UT Austin - Neuroscience - MedPath

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My Daughter is ranked top 10 in her school and academically good. Her goal is to get into Med School without Gap year.

She got admission into UTD National Merit Scholars Program.
She also got into UT Austin, entry-level.

She likes to join UTD for the good HPAC program as she heard good things about it, specially for Natoin Merit Scholars students who get into Collegium V program.
UT Austin is a bigger university and may be lot of competetion.

I would appreciate if somone can share their experience at UTD, what helped you to decide to go to UTD. Or if someone have information that can help guide us.

We are having very hard time making the decision as UT Austin is top #1 in Texas
and UTD is not highly ranked but the National Merit Scholars Program seems to be good based on the UTD orientation she went.

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Did she also visit UT Austin?

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Your daughter can achieve her goal at either of these colleges. She should choose the one she feels most comfortable at.

She can evaluate whether to apply to medical school during her junior year when the time comes. She will have an MCAT score and will know where her volunteering with underprivileged groups, shadowing, patient facing work experience, GPA and sGPA stand.

No reason to make that decision now.

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Top 10 of how many?

Not sure what you mean by entry level. I assume you are a Texas resident.

I would be most concerned with budget than anything else for a pre-med.

You have to pay for four years of college and potentially, unless you get into a local school, another $400K plus for med school.

I don’t think where you go (by name) matters. Obviously experiences can be different at different schools and that could impact your grades, etc.

You might ask each school if you can speak with a student ambassador - so you can get a sense of each school. Your student will be able to ask them anything - as those kids will be students now. You can ask admissions to set that up for you.

Obviously, beyond academics, UT will have more sports, etc. - and a different level of diversity.

UT has more females than male by a healthy margin. It’s 33% white, 25% hispanic, 22% Asian, 4.5% black.

UTD is more male skewed than female - with far more Asians than any other ethnicity, followed by Hispanic and then white.

Just to give you a sense of - do you need a big name like UT - here’s where some of the residents for top academic hospitals did their undergrad:

  1. To show you some schools, I was a patient at Vandy in Radiology - and here’s where the residents went to school (first two year residents):

Auburn
CWRU
Florida A&M
Florida State
Fordham
Lipscomb
Luther
Murray State
Northern Illinois
Pitt
Princeton
Tulane
Tuskegee
U North Carolina
U Puerto Rico
U Tennessee

Taking it further to Johns Hopkins - resident undergrads:

JHU
UMD
UMBC
U Miami
Morgan State
South Carolina
TCNJ
U of Puerto Rico
UT Dallas
Towson
Vandy
and more

Duke Medical - this was just the early letters of the last names of the alphabet

Arkansas
Michigan
UNC
Princeton
Rochester
South Florida
Southeastern Louisiana
Texas

So if you’re not at a top name, no issue. If you have money left to pay for or reduce med school loans - huge bonus.

Best of luck.

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I think she should go to the school she likes better. Medical school will depend on her.

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What is the rush? Gap/glide years are very common and allow potential applicants to strengthen their application, etc.

This is not something to rush.

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This OP is in a great position. Student is instate for Texas, and undergrad costs will be modest. If this student gets accepted to a Texas medical school…those will be far less than $100,000 a year…they are priced very well for their instate residents. @WayOutWestMom can verify this.

I think this student needs to make this decision. The student needs to be at the undergrad school for four years. That is a consideration that can’t be ignored. Where does this kid want to attend college?

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Yes, this is Texas Tech - that’s why I said - unless you get into a local school - or I could have said an in-state. school.

So under $25K tuition…not including living. Under $37K for OOS although I’m assuming OOS is an even tougher admit although no doubt med school is a tough admit for all.

SOM 1stYr 2025-2026 estimate.pdf