rice , reed, bu, nyu, or suny buffalo?

[terryhi]

I want to be a dentist. my choices for colleges are

rice
reed college
bu
nyu
suny buffalo

i couldn't make it into nyu ba/dds but just got into the school as pre dental. but, i crossed out nyu because of high cost and there is no guarantee anymore

i really like rice because of its friendly environment and great faculties, but i am not sure if i can manage the gpa in rice

then, i also thought of suny buffalo. first, i received scholarship, so there is no concern about the tuition. i want to try the early assurance program. but i do not know whether suny is thre right choice because i heard many bad comments about suny buffalo.
is it really not recommendable to go to suny buffalo over rice? how is suny buffalo?

I want to hear any comments so please post anything~!!!🙂

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[HH Holmes]

If you turn down Rice, you will regret it forever. One of the best (and up-and-coming) schools in the world. Trust me. Amazing, amazing, amazing pre-med/ pre-dent at the Wiess School of Sciences, as well as amazing research opportunities.

 

[Connell MD]

In terms of environment, I took a tour of BU last Friday and just a heads up if you didn't already know it's right in Boston. What I mean by that is that there is no campus, it's just the city and the buildings are mostly located next to one another but some stuff is spread out. Pretty nice area and a solid school but also very costly (around $50k a year). There is a fairly large amount of undergrads there.

 

[WellWornLad]

Well you can cross off BU right away, as there's no reason to pick it over NYU if you want to go for the urban (and expensive) experience.

Reed is an awesome school, but not great if you're thinking about medicine. There is zero grade inflation at that school, meaning that if you're very smart you'll probably end up with a GPA around 3.0-3.2. I know several people who went to Reed and they had an incredibly difficult time during the application process due to their GPA. OHSU and UW, being local, respects Reed grads, but other med schools might screen you out before you even have the chance to explain.

I don't know anything about Rice or SUNY Buffalo. If there is a huge difference in price, I would strongly consider going to the cheaper school. I don't know you, but being a high school student the chances are that you will not go into medicine for a variety of reasons, either because you find that it's not for you or you fall in love with another field or because you flunk out. It's best to avoid debt no matter what you do, but can be especially important if you find a career you love that doesn't pay 6 figures. Trust me, undergrad debt in this day can be a chain around your neck for your 20's and 30's, and it's really, really not worth whatever the difference is between SUNY Buffalo and Rice.

 

[gravitywave]

if NYU is too expensive, BU is as well.

Reed has terrible grade deflation, as mentioned.

Rice is incredible. SUNY Buffalo is your average state school, but there is an attached health science complex (med and dent both), which is more than most state schools can say.

under no circumstances should you graduate any undergrad with more than $40k of debt. that's $10k a year.

 

[BenFelson]

I graduated from Rice a few years back. My sister went to UT-Houston dental, my ex-room mate graduated from UT-San Antonio and my nephew's ex-girlfriend attended BU Dental School.
I am under the impression that dentistry is noncompetitive, meaning all applicants get into a dental school. The dearth of applicants reportedly was the reason Georgetown University discontinued its dental program.
Rice is great and I think you can maintain a GPA there that would get you into dental school. Major in the humanities or Psychology and avoid engineering.
Are you a Texas resident? That would help tremendously in regard to UT Houston and UT San Antonio. There is also a school in Dallas - Baylor Dental School.
Since the job market is tight and you may have to work as an employee, I would also recommend not going into a lot of debt (eg BU). Keep an open mind, you may change your major. This year, Rice was difficult to get in. Besides my daughter and her friend, all applicants from her class of eight hundred were rejected or wait-listed. The students that I interviewed did not get in. Many were quite impressive and instead went to Duke, WUStL etc. Don't turn down Rice!

 

[RapplixGmed]

I would suggest rice as well.

I would have gone to Rice/Baylor for MD/PhD if I had gotten in. LOVED the biomedical engineering department. Everybody I have ever met that has graduated from Rice has been super cool as well. 🙂

 

[deleted393650]

Well you can cross off BU right away, as there's no reason to pick it over NYU if you want to go for the urban (and expensive) experience.

Reed is an awesome school, but not great if you're thinking about medicine. There is zero grade inflation at that school, meaning that if you're very smart you'll probably end up with a GPA around 3.0-3.2. I know several people who went to Reed and they had an incredibly difficult time during the application process due to their GPA. OHSU and UW, being local, respects Reed grads, but other med schools might screen you out before you even have the chance to explain.

I don't know anything about Rice or SUNY Buffalo. If there is a huge difference in price, I would strongly consider going to the cheaper school. I don't know you, but being a high school student the chances are that you will not go into medicine for a variety of reasons, either because you find that it's not for you or you fall in love with another field or because you flunk out. It's best to avoid debt no matter what you do, but can be especially important if you find a career you love that doesn't pay 6 figures. Trust me, undergrad debt in this day can be a chain around your neck for your 20's and 30's, and it's really, really not worth whatever the difference is between SUNY Buffalo and Rice.

I thought that about 90% of reed students got into medical school despite the grade deflation. Also, go to the school that you want to go to as long as money does not seem to be an issue.