Should I transfer from UW Seattle to Northwestern?

[WhereIsTheLambSauce]

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Hello,

I am currently on track to transfer to Northwestern University as a sophomore but I am concerned I am making the wrong choice. Mainly because, I am doing so well at UW currently. I have a 3.9 GPA and am a full year ahead in terms of credit. I also have a great research position and am involved in a couple clubs. I want to pursue medical school in the future so I am not sure if I should transfer and completely start over at a more prestigious university (which is very debatable for my major - chemical engineering) or stay at UW and maintain my high GPA and great extracurriculars. I've heard that medical schools don't really care a lot about undergrad but rather about GPA and experience. However, the top medical schools will probably prefer more a prestigious undergrad? Basically the question I'm asking is, is Northwestern's prestige over UW worth me dropping everything I currently have going for me?

Thanks so much for your answers! I'm really stuck on this decision and the sooner I can let the admissions office know the better!

 

[corticophile]

My understanding is that prestige isn't that important in admissions. Maybe someone who knows more than I can go more into depth, but based on this chart I wouldn't do it given the success you're having and the opportunities you're getting. Plus, UW is a generally very well regarded school.

 

[AllBleedingStops]

Hello,

I am currently on track to transfer to Northwestern University as a sophomore but I am concerned I am making the wrong choice. Mainly because, I am doing so well at UW currently. I have a 3.9 GPA and am a full year ahead in terms of credit. I also have a great research position and am involved in a couple clubs. I want to pursue medical school in the future so I am not sure if I should transfer and completely start over at a more prestigious university (which is very debatable for my major - chemical engineering) or stay at UW and maintain my high GPA and great extracurriculars. I've heard that medical schools don't really care a lot about undergrad but rather about GPA and experience. However, the top medical schools will probably prefer more a prestigious undergrad? Basically the question I'm asking is, is Northwestern's prestige over UW worth me dropping everything I currently have going for me?

Thanks so much for your answers! I'm really stuck on this decision and the sooner I can let the admissions office know the better!

Why would you leave a place where you are well established to go to a place where you are an out of state student and have no background?

 

[efle]

My understanding is that prestige isn't that important in admissions. Maybe someone who knows more than I can go more into depth, but based on this chart I wouldn't do it given the success you're having and the opportunities you're getting. Plus, UW is a generally very well regarded school.

Unfortunately this is likely misleading. The same survey was given a year prior and did find "highest importance" preference for selective undergrads among private MD programs. After this result was reported and started circulating, mysteriously the survey was done again with the private schools no longer reporting the high importance. It looks like an optics thing. The phenomenon of favoring selective premed feeder undergrads is very real.

To the OP however, it's not worth transferring. Not only are you giving up a good thing for the unknown, but coming in as a sophomore transfer and dealing with breaking into friend groups/finding your people again, the cost difference, the extra time to graduate...not worth it at all.

 

[atomi]

No. Stay where you are, keep your grades up, and have as much fun as possible.

 

[freedoctor17]

If you score well on the MCAT with your current gpa then the school you went to will make very little difference. I know people that went from a no name public school to top 20 med schools so keep doing well, work hard, and have fun beforeed school application time comes around.

 

[freak7]

I'd like to chime in here with some knowledge that is not well-circulated about UW. Depending on your major, you may be likely to suffer from massive grade deflation due to the way things around are normalized to have the median at 2.8 or so in most science classes and in some cases getting a 4.0 may be statistically impossible. This happens mostly in the science departments that pre-meds typically go through. In upper-level classes where you're less likely to be faced with starry-eyed bushy-tailed "I'm going to be a pediatric cardiovascular surgeon"-types to compete for a spot on the curve with and more likely to see the types that take their work just as seriously (or even moreso) than you do.

n=1 but I had a pretty much lethal gpa from there and thought I was never going to be able to amount to anything significant. I took the MCAT with the mentality that I'll score what I score and then I'll know if I'm smart enough to even being allowed to think about being a doctor. I thought "if my grades are any indication then I'm just not cut out to get through med school. If these are the best people who made it all the way through undergrad and decided to see how they stack up, then I'm competing with the smartest of the smart." I ended up with a 90th+ percentile score and was once again assured that I am not in fact a total idiot.

UW despite being public (read by adcoms as "easy") institution is not an easy school for a traditional pre-med to do well in. I'd advise to not go to Northwestern to start over etc., but please be careful with what you're dealing with.

Edit: I guess my point is that it's not UW's lack of prestige that will keep you back, but it could hold you back in other ways.