UVA vs. VCU Honors

[Patel1]

I have gotten into both UVA and VCU Honors with a full tuition scholarship to VCU. I want to do pre-med but didn't get into the BS/MD at VCU as of now. I can apply again next year if I go to VCU, but there's a risk of not getting in.
Of course, by going to UVA comes the overall better education--for any major not just bio--as well as prestige and area. Also, it would prepare me for the competition and work ethic of medical school in the future.

Thoughts and opinions would be highly appreciated.

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[aSagacious]

Moving to hSDN.

Also, for what it's worth, my vote is for UVA.

 

[ruiner]

how much will UVA end up costing you? full-tuition is nice, opens up your opportunities for summers etc (unless your parents are paying). I would think the honors program at VCU will be rigorous so I wouldn't worry about that.

 

[Patel1]

Tuition is about $11,000 at UVA, but yes my parents are paying

 

[music2doc]

See if the 'rents will cover part of med school instead of UG if you go to VCU. If so, MCV is a still great program (second to UVA for your home state). I would also guess quite a few VCU Honors grads end up at UVA. The full tuition scholarship means your parents could save that money and apply the ~$50k to med school, which would, more or less, cover an entire year at an in-state school (saving you around $100k in the long-run when you take interest into account). If they invested that $50k properly, they might even be able to get a good enough return over 4 yrs to better fund med school for you....

 

[aSagacious]

Take my (limited) experience for what it's worth, but I am good friends with several AdCom members for VCU/MCV. They said that they generally don't regard their undergrad institution as very rigorous and take that into consideration when making their decisions.

 

[ruiner]

Tuition is about $11,000 at UVA, but yes my parents are paying

Go to UVA then, I very much enjoyed my B1G experience (realize this might be confusing. I meant that I experienced my big conference, big academic school experience. UVA in the ACC would be very similar). you wont get it quite the same at VCU. I worked my butt of to pay for school but still had fun, if parents were paying it would have been even better. Just make sure you continue to work hard, just going to a bigger name won't get you interviews in the future.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

UVA, sorry I think UVA is just significantly a better undergraduate institute and generally has a lot of good things that VCU doesn't.

 

[nysegop]

UVA! Great school!