Pre Med In Texas

[Randomstudent66]

Hi I'm currently a junior in high school and I wish to attend a school in Texas as I will be paying Instate fees. I have my heart set on becoming a physician. I heard that Rice and Baylor were good (I also heard that Rice is very expensive) any suggestions?

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[iforget2]

Why not a public school? Both Baylor and rice are private and are very expensive.

 

[inthemaking1]

You can go to any university/college (both public and private) for undergrad and get into medical school. There are many great Texas universities, pick one that you like and/or gives you the most scholarship money.

 

[yaka]

Why not A&M or UT? If you're a competitive candidate for Baylor or Rice, I'm sure you'll qualify for the automatic admission at UT, which is a very good school and not that expensive compared to Rice and Baylor. In terms of cost, A&M and UT are probably the best bang for buck you can get, probably anywhere. For premed, you can't go wrong with any of these four, imo.

Also if you know you're set on medicine, I think Rice has a undergrad to med school track in coordination with Baylor Medical School, I'm sure it's super competitive, but just one more thing to consider.

Disclaimer, I was born and raised in TX, but went to college in CA, so my info may be dated.

 

[Randomstudent66]

Ok thanks I think I will look into UT and A&M as well

 

[EParker37]

Just to add, UTD is also a great undergrad school as well.

 

[whyudog]

.

 

[FootballFoot]

Rice is very prestigious though.

 

[LivingLikeLarry]

Another thing to consider is how much less supportive the premed environment is at large schools like UT and A&M. I'm at UT right now and the advising here is useless, the science classes are incredibly overcrowded, and it can be very difficult to find good volunteering and research opportunities here.

That being said, the tuition is awesome and SDN is a great replacement for advising, so how well you do here all depends on how driven you are I suppose.

 

[Weirdy]

UT systems in general are good.

UT, UT Arlington, UT San Antonio, UTD

UNT, UH, and UD (private Catholic though) are also very good.

Where you go does not matter as much as how well you do.

Also be aware of the vibe at each University. UT is liberal party city. UTSA although only 1.5 hours away is very mellow. UTA is in the city and more akin to a commuter school. UH is massive and also in the city. UD is extremely small but their curriculum is top notch.

I take it you aren't from Texas?

 

[Ismet]

Moving to hSDN

 

[drdamon]

I'm applying to Baylor University, and it's my dream to attend there. It's a great school, and I fell in love with it. The pre-professional programs are really good. The university also has a new building for business students. Also, 20% of Baylor College of Medicine's board is Baylor University owned. Although they split their relationship a while back, the Baylor and BCM ties are still there somewhat, which is great. Their pre-med is rigorous and they boast a 75% acceptance rate to medical school. Waco is meh I heard.

Rice is also very prestigious. The campus is beautiful and is in a really nice part of Houston. Also, given the location (right beside the medical center), it can't get better than that. Rice is a great university as well.

University of Texas in Austin is also a great university. It's getting harder to get into, and is the best public university in Texas. However, it does have ~50,000 students. If you start to fall behind, no one is really there to catch you. It's a giant university, and in the best place in Texas (Austin). Very liberal, lots of partying. Just keep in mind that the sheer size of the university may be daunting, and can make it more difficult to get help.

Texas A&M is a great school. College Station is pretty fun, and the campus is enormous. It's a fifteen minute bike ride from one side of the campus to another (I forgot the specifics). A lot of people love A&M, but again, it's massive.

What's nice is that the tuition for TAMU and UT is very low, however, Baylor is very kind with their scholarship money. I've been to all these universities. I'm personally applying to UT, A&M, and Baylor. Baylor is my first choice, A&M is my second choice. If I pull off a hail Mary and get into UT, of course I'd go there. I have two friends who go to Baylor. One is pre-law/engineering and loved it. He said that the campus is small and that everyone knows each other. It's a very nice, small-knit family. He knows everyone in his graduating class. The other is pre-dental and in Honors, and he is enjoying himself as well. I have a bunch of friends at UT Austin and their partying their ass off and attending McCombs.

Sorry for the long response, just wanted to give you a good idea of what the universities are like. Honestly, they're all good. Sorry for any typos or grammar mistakes, I'm tired.

 

[app1]

Your effort and performance on the individual level matter much more than the university you attend as far as acceptance to med school goes. My Med school had students from Harvard, Rice, Stanford, Brown, Cornell. The top two students in our class went to UH and OU. Go to a reputable institution that will give you the least debt. As far as Texas goes, if you can get into Rice the "top 20" reputation may help you and be worth the additional cost.