Best Uni for DFW undergrad (pre-med track) within 8 hour drive (Houston: private schools, college)

[patish]

Also, a prestigious undergraduate school usually just equals huge student loan debt. My husband graduated from a cheap state school and has less than half the student loan debt from medical school than his associates graduating from expensive undergraduate private colleges. Here, not texas, being a state resident and a 3.6 or higher gpa and a good mcat score get you in. A lot of it is networking. And so far not going to an ivy has only worked against my husband getting a decent teaching job. It hasn't affected his salary whatsoever.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by patish

Also, a prestigious undergraduate school usually just equals huge student loan debt. My husband graduated from a cheap state school and has less than half the student loan debt from medical school than his associates graduating from expensive undergraduate private colleges. Here, not texas, being a state resident and a 3.6 or higher gpa and a good mcat score get you in. A lot of it is networking. And so far not going to an ivy has only worked against my husband getting a decent teaching job. It hasn't affected his salary whatsoever.

Where is here?
In Texas a 3.6 and a good MCAT score - call it 32 - most times isn't good enough to get into one of the big three medical schools (UT-Houston, UT-Southwestern in Dallas and Baylor in Houston). My son's roommate has a 3.85 GPA in BS - bio and a 32 MCAT and he didn't get a single Texas medical school interview let alone an offer of admission.

[EDS_]

After digging around a bit - here's the percentage breakdown of undergraduate majors for UTSW's 2013 class.


These numbers are from UTSW's webpage..........
Biology/Cell/Neuro/Mole/Micro: 47%
Chemistry/Biochem: 17%
Honors Programs: 1%
Neuroscience: 4%
Other science: 5%
Business/Acct/Finance: 3%
Engineering: 5%
Liberal Arts/Humanities: 6%
English: 1%
Mathematics: 3%
Physics: 1%
Public Health: 1%
Other: 1%
Social Sciences: 4%

So 75% of the class have hard science undergrad degrees. And ~85% are STEM majors. Nearly everyone else has a minor in bio or bio chem or they spent an extra year in college taking bio courses.

[thenewtexan]

Rice. Plenty of excellent choices already mentioned though.

[kretsch]

here's some advice from someone who has gone through all of it.... go to the school where you wanna go and know you are going to enjoy b/c hey you're only going to be this age once and we are talking about 4+ years of your life...

i guarantee that your patients don't give a rat's a** about where you went to college, medical school, residency, fellowship etc etc etc

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by kretsch

here's some advice from someone who has gone through all of it.... go to the school where you wanna go and know you are going to enjoy b/c hey you're only going to be this age once and we are talking about 4+ years of your life...

i guarantee that your patients don't give a rat's a** about where you went to college, medical school, residency, fellowship etc etc etc

Yea sure but all else being equal excellent undergrad + excellent medcial school = excellent STEP 1 and STEP 2 scores = the residency one wants, maybe second choice, instead of taking what one can get or worse as happened to so many this last year matching into no residency at all.

[mezman]

Originally Posted by EDS_

Yea sure but all else being equal excellent undergrad + excellent medcial school = excellent STEP 1 and STEP 2 scores = the residency one wants, maybe second choice, instead of taking what one can get or worse as happened to so many this last year matching into no residency at all.

You forgot = going on to a difficult residency = being a miserable human being. I'm partially being facetious but there are plenty of gunner types who end up just like that.

[kretsch]

Originally Posted by EDS_

Yea sure but all else being equal excellent undergrad + excellent medcial school = excellent STEP 1 and STEP 2 scores = the residency one wants, maybe second choice, instead of taking what one can get or worse as happened to so many this last year matching into no residency at all.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by SonyySung

We want to be able to drive often to see our baby, deliver goodies from home and take a short flight in case of any emergency.

We are willing to pony up the private tuition as we feel that going to a higher ranking school with driven peers has some value. I feel kid's odds are better into getting a private school of similar level vs getting into a public school of that level. Do you agree that its worth it or it's just our unfulfilled dreams that we are trying to fulfill?

How would you rate majoring in business, public health or nursing to get into a med school.

I posted this elsewhere but here is the info. for UTSW's 2013 class.

Undergraduate Majors

Biology/Cell/Neuro/Mole/Micro: 47%
Chemistry/Biochem: 17%
Honors Programs: 1%
Neuroscience: 4%
Other science: 5%
Business/Acct/Finance: 3%
Engineering: 5%
Liberal Arts/Humanities: 6%
English: 1%
Mathematics: 3%
Physics: 1%
Public Health: 1%
Other: 1%
Social Sciences: 4%

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by mezman

You forgot = going on to a difficult residency = being a miserable human being. I'm partially being facetious but there are plenty of gunner types who end up just like that.

I'm sure that's true.