That’s what I’m wondering. Is it worth it for me to take on added debt? The preparation I’ll receive from schools such as Emory or Mercer will be second to none. But, is it the right choice at my age of 32? 33 when I get started in pre-med. There are plenty of other schools I could choose to attend, but I’m leaning towards one of these two schools. Of course, I have to be accepted first, but with a 4.0 through these past two years of college I feel confident I will be accepted. I would like to here some opinions on my considering private over state university.
I’m from Ga as well, same age as you. I live in Cherokee county and I’m doing DIY post bacc pre reqs at Reinhardt (4 year private univ. In North Cherokee). I love it, but it’s expensive as well. But, it’s the environment I felt I needed. If I thought I would do as well in a state school (GPA, small class size), I’d opt for that and save the cash.
Best of luck to you whatever you choose,
Dan
Are you intending to apply to those med schools as well? If you have your heart set on Emory, there might be an advantage to doing your pre-med there. If you’re going to broaden your scope to include public medical schools, where you do your undergrad is probably not as important as how well you do. I’m on faculty at MCG. UGA and GA Tech are the traditional “feeder schools” for us, but about a third of each class is comprised of matriculants from other GA schools, both public and private, including several in the ATL area, Emory, Mercer, GA State, Kennesaw, Agnes Scott, Morehouse, Clark.
I’m having a hard time making that decision. I want to stay in the Atlanta area so I’ve considered Ga. State and Kennesaw State. I would like to attend Emory med. to stay in Atlanta, but I’m not limiting myself to only that choice. The main goal is to be accepted to medical school be it private or public. Are you aiming to stay nearby for medical school?
So graduates from Kennesaw and Ga. State have a fighting chance against Tech, Emory, and Mercer. I’ve been looking at both Kennesaw and Ga. State. But, my heart is somewhat set on Emory at the moment. I have also looked into Medical College of Georgia, but as I said on my post above I’d like to stay in the Atlanta area. I want to keep the moving to a minimum for the kids. I’m sure when residency comes around a move will too. So I’m saving the move for residency if I can.
Georgia State should work for you if you kick behind on your pre-reqs. Is Georgia Tech an option? I don’t know what majors are available there.
I’d love to stay in Atlanta, but I’ll go to whatever school (u.s.) accepts me. I understand it’s different when you have kids though.
I graduated from Kennesaw back in 2002, I loved it back then. They’ve since experienced some “growing pains.” they’re huge now! 20,000 + students! I started to go back there, but long story short, I felt I needed some fresh ground. The only disadvantage is that you’ll be placed in a class with maybe 60 other people. If you’re really strong, maybe that’s fine. I felt I might need some extra help, so I opted for private. Another thing which irritated me, I work full time and even though I’m KSU alumni, I didn’t get priority registration going back. I got the worst possible class. That’s definitely one nice thing about going private, money talks when it comes to registration!
But as JMDMD said, if your heart is set on certain schools, I’d take his advice!
Dan
- jmdmd Said:
Are you intending to apply to those med schools as well? If you have your heart set on Emory, there might be an advantage to doing your pre-med there. If you're going to broaden your scope to include public medical schools, where you do your undergrad is probably not as important as how well you do. I'm on faculty at MCG. UGA and GA Tech are the traditional "feeder schools" for us, but about a third of each class is comprised of matriculants from other GA schools, both public and private, including several in the ATL area, Emory, Mercer, GA State, Kennesaw, Agnes Scott, Morehouse, Clark.
Going to the best school that you can do well at is more important than simply going to the best school. I think the "prestige factor" (weight or ranking that a specific school carries) is not quite as important as most students think. Staying in a local school to prep for a local med school makes reputation a little more important
I recently posted the below on SDN to a similar question and thought it would bear repeating here:
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A large percentage of schools likely have either a formal or informal "ranking" system of the school where you have your undergraduate degree. But understand how it is structured and used and you will see its makes little difference.for most nontraditional students.
It appears that few schools have some highly structured system. Most are a simple 3 or 4 rank system. They typically give a small weight based your GPA from your orginal undergraduate institution and to a lessor extent to other schools such as postbacc or graduate. So a school that is say ranked high at a "4" might give your GPA a multiplier of .04 as opposed to a low school where the rank was a 1 and you get .01 multiplier. These would then be added to whatever numeric formula the school uses that combines GPA (sliced and diced with science, non-science, post-bacc, etc), MCAT score for that first initial cutoff to decide to send you a secondary application. Even so, most schools then have a brief review of applications that didn't make the cut to see if there were any gross disparities, outstanding reasons, etc why the app didn't make the cutoff. So if you mentioned that term of W's due to illness, a loss of a job, etc, they'd probably flag it for further review. This is the majority where any numeric "prestige ranking" is used. It is not likely used much in a direct way in the actual admissions decision.
The more important questions are "well, where do the rankings come from?" What are they based on?" "How are they decided?" For that, nobody knows. They seem to be subjective, based on a few individuals within the admissions department. Nobody I have ever spoken seems to have a rational objective system.
As someone previously mentioned, specific knowledge, general understanding or other perception that admissions staff has of a particular school likely has more impact on "prestige weight" than any numeric ranking system.
General rule of thumb is go to the best school you can do the best at. If that means a nearby CC instead of University an hour and half away because of family or job constraints, then do it.
3kids, in addition to Emory, have you thought about Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, ATL branch? It’s located in Suwannee, about 25 mi north of the perimeter. The branch was started I think around 2004 and graduated their first class in 08. Currently there are two PCOM graduates in our Family Med residency program at MCG, and they are both excellent physicians. Emory has a reputation for not being very open to non-trads (although you should still pursue it if it’s your first choice), so the DO track may be a good option for you and your family.
Thanks jmdmd. I didn’t know about that school. I got a chance to check it out briefly last night. It looks good from what I read.
There’s something I’m curious about. As you know part of my concern is moving my kids around too much. Do students who attend MCG for med school have a good chance of doing residency there? I would really like to make my med-school and residency our home when that time comes. It’s not really all about staying in Atlanta I just want to keep the moving to an absolute minimum.