UTD vs UTA vs Collin College vs Baylor vs UNT for Premed undergrad (Houston: 2014, how much)

[FolkArtsy]

My SD is in 11th grade and current ranking is in 12% in a Plano school with 4.2 GPA and 33 ACT. She wants to go in medicine, which one would be a better choice for such a student?

[aggie972]

Better choice based on what factors? Baylor would give her the best "college experience" in terms of making friends, attending football games, student organizations, etc. but it can come at a steep price. To give you an idea of which school would provide the best ROI, we'd need to know what each one would cost after financial aid/scholarships, how much of the bill is being paid with debt, etc. I'm biased, but what about Texas A&M? It sounds like she'd be an auto admit with those scores, and it's cheaper than Baylor (and usually ranked higher too).

[FolkArtsy]

Not eligible for financial aid. Not interested in A&M for some reason. She is focused on getting into med school and has about $160K in her college account.

[J800]

I personally wouldn't go for Baylor and exhaust your funds, considering how expensive medical school will be. Your daughter seems smart, so I'd aim for one of the cheaper options and get the highest grades possible, nail the MCAT, and boom.

[4Movingeast]

Doesn't UTD have a oretty strong premed program or am I remembering something else? I would say UTD or UNT. Not much campus culture at UTA- more adult commuters. Not knocking the school at all- just thinking it is fun for kids to get a taste of "college life" which is definitely something I missed out on.

[Big G]

I'd say UTD or Baylor.


With a 33 on the ACT, that makes me think she may be in the National Merit range. If so, Baylor and UTD both offer ridiculously generous scholarships, making the "list price" cost a non-factor. Between those, I'd say Baylor would be a better "college experience", but UTD is a fine school as well.

If she isn't quite at that level, Baylor becomes, IMO, cost-prohibitive. Even a bit below that level, UTD is still very aggressive about "buying" students with high test scores.

From the UTD site:

The following are the average SAT/ACT scores for students who were offered an AES award in Fall 2013 and Fall 2014:

Achievement
Average SAT (Critical Reading + Math only): 1315
Average ACT: 30

Distinction
Average SAT (Critical Reading + Math only): 1405
Average ACT: 32

Honors
Average SAT (Critical Reading + Math only): 1510
Average ACT: 34

The bottom level is a $3k/semester discount. The other two are full tuition, with an extra $1k/$3K per semester, respectively.

UTD also offers a 7-year combined BS/MD program that should be seriously considered.

http://www.utdallas.edu/pre-health/ut-pact

[EDS_]

Hey something I know a little about.

My son is a Baylor grad (BS Bio, minor physics) and he is now an MS-2 at UTSW.

I'd rank the Texas schools like this..........

1. Baylor (BS bio in particular) UT (bio - they have a bio degree that is geared towards prospective MD types and it's world class), Rice (bio programs - it is tiny and VERY hard to get into) A&M (BS bio as well)

2. Trinity, SMU, TCU, UTD, UNT (ties in with TAMS and UNT's top notch D.O. school in Fort Worth) St. Edward's, Texas Tech, Austin College,

With a 33 ACT, assuming I didn't forget a school, that's the Texas school short list right there.

Tidbits:
1. There are no auto-admittances into A&M's top few MD tracking degree plans per se'. Same at UT.
2. A 33 ACT should garner a nice scholarship at Baylor. It's a odd thing - women within MD tracking undergraduate degree paths are an underrepresented group. But women per se' are not underrepresented in medical schools as a cadre. Translated Baylor, Austin College, Trinity etc. in particular might open the vault for her.
3. Whether she likes the place of not she should apply to Texas Tech. They seem to have a lot of scholarship money for females.
4. All protestations to the contrary should be ignored. Bio and very closely related degrees are the #1 degree held by docs and those in medical school and there is no close second place. The AMA publishes all sorts of related data.
5. At the first meeting with your kid's advisor try to arrange things such that kiddo is done with Organic Chemistry II and all related labs before taking the MCAT - the MCAT is jammed with O-chem. II subject matter.
6. She needs to know the cold hard truth about medical school admissions - to illustrate:
First day of school at Baylor next year about 1,300/1,500 freshman kids will indicate that they want to become MDs. Four years later about 100/115 will get into medical school their first eligible year and about 20/30 will start a year or two later and Baylor's success metrics in this regard are absolutely excellent.
7. No matter what maintain Texas residency for medical school purposes. Texas medical schools are numerous, large and growing and 90% of all slots are reserved for Texas residents excepting Baylor College of Medicine ( I think BCOM can admit as it sees fit ). And Texas medical schools are excellent and a screaming bargain.
8. Your kiddo needs to be prepared to make very close to a 4.0 and score a 33/34 or better MCAT to have an excellent shot at UTSW, BCOM, UT Houston which are broadly considered the top 3 medical schools in Texas.
I can't look it up now but IIRC UTSW's inbound metrics last year were 3.83 GPA and 34 MCAT BCOM was very similar. UTH just a tad lower.

Best of luck - I'll think of more later.

[txplanomom]

If your daughter's grades are good you might be inline for merit or scholarship money Will she be a NM finalist? Some schools will give scholarships based on National Merit status? My daughters had about the same grades and got scholarship money from UTD, A&M and Rice. Didn't apply to Baylor but it shouldn't be a problem getting in with your daughter's grades. The hard part is not getting into college but having the high grades as a undergrad and doing well on MCAT.

BTW one of my daughter is at Rice in Bio-E program and didn't have any trouble getting into the major but it is one of toughest majors. You don't declare a major until soph year at Rice.

Check out collegeconfidential.com for posts to and from other parents about colleges. This really help us when daughters were looking at colleges

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by txplanomom

If your daughter's grades are good you might be inline for merit or scholarship money Will she be a NM finalist? Some schools will give scholarships based on National Merit status? My daughters had about the same grades and got scholarship money from UTD, A&M and Rice. Didn't apply to Baylor but it shouldn't be a problem getting in with your daughter's grades. The hard part is not getting into college but having the high grades as a undergrad and doing well on MCAT.

BTW one of my daughter is at Rice in Bio-E program and didn't have any trouble getting into the major but it is one of toughest majors. You don't declare a major until soph year at Rice.

Check out collegeconfidential.com for posts to and from other parents about colleges. This really help us when daughters were looking at colleges

The only thing I'd add is bio-engineering and bio-medical engineering degree paths do not contain enough hard biology to meet UTSW, BCOM, and UT-H minimum requirements without altering the degree plan a good bit - even considering very best similar programs BU (Boston Univ.), Berkeley, UCSD, Georgia Tech etc. Apparently, Johns-Hopkins does but it's nominally a 4 year + 2 summers program.


ETA - txplanomom,
A hearty congratulations to you and your daughters. And I agree with a key point you made. It's less where ones earns his/her a degree and more what his/her grades are and most importantly what ones MCAT score is.....

[EDS_]

Arghhhhh,

Forgive me, didn't see the school choices in the thread title. Among the choices........

New List:
1. Baylor
2. UTD relatively large gap between Baylor and UTD......not so much quality of instruction but quantity of high calibre students and extremely talented faculty and very high success rate at Baylor so far as top 30 medical school admittances.
3. UNT relatively large gap between UNT and UTA
4. UTA
5. Collin College - more or less non-competative with UTA and above.