Anonymous wrote:How does an 18-year old know what they want to do. I went college believing one thing and went 180 in the other direction.
BU does not have a fabulous general reputation, in this instance going with brand name makes more sense

in many countries, or even most, 18 year old must choose their major before they enroll in a college. by that time most kids know what they like/are good at and what they absolutely don't like.

also, medicine is a broad field. you can work in a lab, or be a surgeon or be a sales person for a pharma company. holding an MD degree at 25 with debt comparable to what others with merely BA degrees have will be a great start in life.

Go to BU, especially if it's an admit into a 7 year combined program.

Where you go to undergrad doesn't mean that much when you're applying to med school. Your grades and MCAT do.
My husband went to a third-tier state school on a full scholarship and then Hopkins for medical school.
My cousin went to a bible college (which I don't even think was fully accredited) and then to Penn Medicine.
My brother went to a different christian college and then got a full scholarship at a state medical school (and turned down Northwestern).
All are successful physicians.

In my husband's class at Hopkins there were students from all sorts of undergrad institutions. A handful from the Ivys but tons from no-name schools.
He also did residency at Hopkins and I'd say 95% of his residency classmates came from top 10 medical schools. However, again only a handful of these people
went to top undergrads. (I know because the residency class was 36 and we got to know everyone really well).

Basically, medicine is a weird field. Where you go to undergrad doesn't really matter and many times if you go to an obscure undergrad institution (but do really well)
it actually helps you out. Especially if it meant that you got more personalized time in the classroom, actually learned more and did better on the MCAT. Having a top MCAT is critical to medical school admissions
and the MCAT is a test that actually tests knowledge learned in the science classroom and not general "smarts" like the SAT.

How does an 18-year old know what they want to do. I went college believing one thing and went 180 in the other direction.
BU does not have a fabulous general reputation, in this instance going with brand name makes more sense

OP don't forget to let us know what you decided.

go with the seven year BU program. too many options can be a bad thing.

Anonymous wrote:A friend's daughter chose full ride at Duke Medical over Stanford. When you're that smart the school won't make a difference, you make the difference.

Not sure makes your point. Duke medical school is generally accepted as a better medical school than Stanford.

^^ By the way, I likely eeked into Yale; my GPA was below the 25th%ile though from a very competitive school that sends many students to Yale and it's equivalents each year. I actually did much better at Yale grade-wise because college was more designed to my strengths than my HS was. I ended up at HYS for law school (which is not what I thought I wanted to do pre-college). Which is just to say, I wouldn't assume your kid won't be able to get into med school -- even a better med school than BU -- if he still wants to when the time comes.

I can't speak to the comparison directly, but I took out loans to go to Yale and would do so again in a heartbeat. It was the best decision of my life.

Fascinating thread. I think the choice is be a doctor or go to Yale. Those 4 years will pass quickly and then you will be back here again wondering how to pay for med school

Anonymous wrote:A friend's daughter chose full ride at Duke Medical over Stanford. When you're that smart the school won't make a difference, you make the difference.

Duke vs. Stanford is a totally different decision BU vs. Yale. BU is a city campus with a student body that's not particularly rich in outstanding students. As the previous poster mentioned, she may well wonder "what if?" especially when she comes across MIT and Harvard students in the area.


OP, I can understand the temptation of going for BU and saving the money. But look at all the parents on here who are desperate to get their kids into an Ivy. There's a good reason for that; Yale and similar schools give students options. Do you really pressure her to forego those options so that you can go on a few extra vacations, get a new car and retire early?

Anonymous wrote:My friend turned down Yale for a slac as and spends so much time wondering "what if?" I know that financially it makes sense to pick BU, but if it were my dc, I would encourage Yale for the outstanding academics, cohort and overall experience.

Exactly. OP, I'd think hard about that.

Op -- are you and your child going to Bulldog Days this week? If you reasonably afford Yale, you should definitely go check it out with your D.C. Same with BU. My take is that if you view education overwhelmingly as a means to get to a med school career, and could use the 250,000 to retire earlier or have some luxury really meaningful to you that you would have to forego, then pick BU. If you view college as more of a balance of career prep, liberal arts education for intrinsic value, for making lifelong friends with a large number of amazingly talented kids, or you think your child may want to
switch toward academia/science research, then Yale is the
place. My DC's STEM friend at Yale can debate politics and policy in one breath and give present original research at conferences on the next. I am sure they aren't all like that, but my sense is that Yale produces very well rounded kids.

My friend turned down Yale for a slac as and spends so much time wondering "what if?" I know that financially it makes sense to pick BU, but if it were my dc, I would encourage Yale for the outstanding academics, cohort and overall experience.

Anonymous wrote:A friend's daughter chose full ride at Duke Medical over Stanford. When you're that smart the school won't make a difference, you make the difference.

THIS. So true and should be emphasized to this student.

A friend's daughter chose full ride at Duke Medical over Stanford. When you're that smart the school won't make a difference, you make the difference.