Need help on deciding which college to attend.

[TommyAtkins]

I have been accepted into University Of Minnesota (Twin Cities) and GMU. I also applied to VT, JMU, and VCU. Virginia resident btw.

I am seriously considering taking a pre health path in college, either pre med or pre optometry. However, I am not 100% sure I want to be a doctor or optometrist. I'm really not sure what career I'd like to pursue ,and I would not be surprised if I change majors in college.

I'm deciding mainly between GMU and VT if I get accepted. Here the reasons why I would want to attend either college:

GMU
- By commuting to school (I live about 30 minutes away) I will only be paying about $12000 a year instead of around $24000 a year. I would be saving around $40k on my undergrad education. If I choose to go through with a bachelor's in engineering or computer science I might be able to get by without borrowing a lot of money. If I chose to go to medical school, I won't be neck high in debt like I would be with VT.
- After searching around these forums for an hour, the general consensus seems to be that your undergrad does not matter to medical schools as much as your MCAT or GPA does. It would seem pointless going to VT for pre med just to acquire an extra $10k of debt a year.

VT
- Asside from a pre health profession, I am considering a career in engineering or computer science. I believe that VT is very strong in these areas, especially engineering
-I will be able to have the full college experience if I go here. I won't be living at home and will get to meet new people in dorms
- VT is more known than GMU. Most of the people on this forum have said this will NOT matter for medical school, but I cannot say the same if I decide to follow an engineering or computer science path.

Financially, I am not well off. My parents are divorced. My dad will not support me whatsoever, I doubt he'll even help me get a loan. $20k+ a year would be a big burden on my mom and I. I'm well aware that you should go through federal loans, aid, scholarships, etc. before going after private loans. However, I'm pretty certain that after all of this I will need some amount of private loans to cover the remaining cost of college. I am not familiar with how this process works and I don't expect anyone on these forums to be experts on this matter. However, I do know that my mom does not have very good credit because of her divorce a couple years back. I'm sure this will negatively affect my financial situation in some way but I'm not sure how and to what extent.

After browsing on these forums, I'm also not sure I want to go to through with medical or optometry school for the right reason.

I was a relatively decent student in high school. 4.29 weighted GPA, 30 ACT, 10 AP classes, top 7% as of senior year. However, I just don't feel like I pushed myself hard enough. I feel incomplete and unsatisfied with myself. I didn't apply to UVA or any of the tougher schools in Virginia. I've heard of how difficult it is to become a doctor. You must excel at your undergrad college and excel at the MCATs to have a chance of being admitted to medical school. Then you must go through medical school and residency. I truly do believe you guys when I see you talking about how hard it is to go through all of these things, but it is that difficulty that appeals to me the most. I love learning, studying, and grinding for that straight A average. I want to study for hours on end to achieve that high MCAT score.

I'm not going to say that I have no interest in the health field itself though. I've been interested in optometry since 4th grade. I don't have any hands on experience with health professions so who knows I might fall in love with pre med once I do get some experience in college. My own physician told me that he switched majors 3 times (business to engineering to something else) before finally going to pre med.

I'd greatly appreciate it if you guys could give me some insight on this matter!

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[eteshoe]

Go to whichever school you feel will help you be successful as well as provide you with opportunities if you choose not to do medicine. You do not have to do a pre-health major. Reasons for pursuing medicine are subjective but a common theme is not to go into medicine for the money - go into business or finance for that.

Also as someone who did do engineering in college - just a warning since the major can be tough (and at a academically rigorous school - it can be really tough). Which means that if you choose engineering you will have to work quite hard to keep your GPA within an acceptable med school range (~3.7). Computer science is sort of tough but it really comes down to how well you understand computer logic. That being said, if you do well in the major (engineering or CS) - you can come out of college making a good bit of money. Just some things to consider. Good luck!

 

[TommyAtkins]

Go to whichever school you feel will help you be successful as well as provide you with opportunities if you choose not to do medicine. You do not have to do a pre-health major. Reasons for pursuing medicine are subjective but a common theme is not to go into medicine for the money - go into business or finance for that.

Also as someone who did do engineering in college - just a warning since the major can be tough (and at a academically rigorous school - it can be really tough). Which means that if you choose engineering you will have to work quite hard to keep your GPA within an acceptable med school range (~3.7). Computer science is sort of tough but it really comes down to how well you understand computer logic. That being said, if you do well in the major (engineering or CS) - you can come out of college making a good bit of money. Just some things to consider. Good luck!

Money is not the main reason I'd like to pursue medicine. I'm attracted to the difficulty of getting into the field for some reason. I honestly don't know why.

Which of these schools do you feel has better opportunities for me if I don't go through with medicine? I think it would obviously be VT, but what complicates this more is my financial situation. Is it worth an extra $40k for undergrad just for the name recognition of VT?

 

[eteshoe]

Money is not the main reason I'd like to pursue medicine. I'm attracted to the difficulty of getting into the field for some reason. I honestly don't know why.

Which of these schools do you feel has better opportunities for me if I don't go through with medicine? I think it would obviously be VT, but what complicates this more is my financial situation. Is it worth an extra $40k for undergrad just for the name recognition of VT?

VT would be worth it in that case since if you choose a very marketable major (engineering or CS) at a more recognizable school you'll have access to their alumni network and industry connections. Both would help with placement into a well paying job after college (if you choose not to go into medicine) which would mean that you'd be able to pay off your UG debts within a reasonable time frame (e.g. 5 yrs). Just to give you a bit of context: I worked as an engineer after college for about 2 yrs making about $70k/yr - it wasn't the most exciting or lucrative job but I tell you this so that you know the typical pay range for some of these majors (and I had CS friends who went on to work for Google, Microsoft, and Amazon who had ~90k offers).

Overall, in your case VT would provide you with good opportunities for medicine or not. The downside being that the tougher the major, the more risk you incur trying to keep a med school competitive GPA (which is one of the most important factors). Since I don't know you're particular strengths, I cannot make specific suggests but I will say if you have the chance and are comparably skilled in both, go with CS over engineering.