Undergrad

[I'm No Superman]

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Hey,

I'm a high school junior currently with my mind set on being a neurosurgeon, I've talked to a neurosurgeon at our city's hospital, and the career seems like something I would enjoy. My father is an Orthopedic Surgeon, and we talk about college constantly.

My question is, if I could get into a decent state college for free (UNL) or pay to go to an Ivy league college (Princeton, already talking with them), would it be worth it in the long run? My father did the former and still got into Wash U for med school, but I'm not sure what do.

Edit: Wow, I was one of those kids... Thank God for SDN!

 

[indya]

There should be a notice in large, bold, block letters at the top of the hSDN and Pre-Allo forum that reads

YOUR PERFORMANCE DETERMINES YOUR MED SCHOOL APPLICATION, NOT YOUR UNDERGRAD'S NAME

 

[HH Holmes]

There should be a notice in large, bold, block letters at the top of the hSDN and Pre-Allo forum that reads

YOUR PERFORMANCE DETERMINES YOUR MED SCHOOL APPLICATION, NOT YOUR UNDERGRAD'S NAME

👍

I wouldn't have your mind "set" on anything -- even medicine, really. I think after simplifying everything your question is "Does it matter where I go to undergrad?". That answer, in short, is no. You can get into really any medical school (note the word really) from any four year undergraduate institution. What undergraduate university you go to has no effect on where you will match, or what specialty you will match into.

To become a neurosurgeon you must go to undergrad, medical school, then match into a general surgery residency then go on to a neurosurgery fellowship or you can go straight to a neurosurgery residency (which I believe is more rare and harder to get into, but don't quote me on that).

Anyway, at the end of the day, you should be fine going to Nebraska instead of an Ivy if it saves you that much money. Medical school will end up costing a lot of money, so save as much as you can.




There have been a ton of posts about this in hSDN, and the pre-allo, pre-osteo boards. Indya's comment should be a sticky somewhere.

 

[I'm No Superman]

Thanks, I was leaning towards UNL, and its nice to get input from others.

 

[Mahliah]

Pretty much what the others said. You can go to Podunk U and get into medical school. 🙂

I wonder, if there is some naive premed out there, who thinks that a gpa <2.0 and a 15 mcat will get them into med school, since its from a "name" school.

 

[RapplixGmed]

I agree with what the others have said. I'd also like to add that once you're in medical school, where you went to undergrad matters about as much as where you went to high school. Nobody cares if you went to Harvard or don't even have a bachelors (both cases exist at my school). What matters is how hard you work.

 

[NTett]

I think and see a lot of kids getting worried about going to those ivy league schools; oftentimes people feel like their school isn't good or worthy if it isn't listed in the rankings somewhere.

You shouldn't let anyone elses' rankings get int he way of your rankings. If you have the opportunity to, visit each of the schools and take tours, talk to students about their experiences and do some research to figure out which school fits your financial, social and geographic needs. I know a few kids who are too 'prideful' to save lots of money by going to a less expensive university; they went to an Ivy League instead of getting a full ride at a school that is equally as good (without the name recognition). If you really care about it, then go to Princeton. A full ride sounds pretty damn good though. The cost of attendance at Princeton is $52,000. Ask yourself, is Princeton worth $208,000 more than going to UNL? Making my decision of colleges, I realized that I would rather be paying less for undergraduate than more.

 

[gravitywave]

there are very few private colleges worth the sticker price. Princeton is among those few.