which school to choose as a predental student(NYU vs Umich vs UCSD)
I have been accepted to NYU (College of Arts and Science), UCSD (Biology major), and UMich (Biology, Health, and Society).
I am a low-income student. For cost of attendance, UMich (25K) > UCSD (11K) > NYU (1K).
At this point, I am not sure which school to choose.
UMich:
Pros: Top 20 university, more prestigious, strong in science-related majors.
Cons: High cost, very competitive, and I am not sure whether I can maintain a high GPA.
UCSD:
Pros: In-state, closer to home, and more recognized in California (according to my aunt, a doctor at UCSF, UCSF medical school admission officer).
Cons: Quarter system (more pressure), biology is a very competitive major, and I am not sure whether I can maintain a high GPA there.
NYU:
Pros: Lowest cost of attendance (about $1K), accepted into the honors program, and closer to my twin sister, who will be attending Cornell.
Cons: My personal impression is that it is not very good, and not very strong in science-related majors.
My aunt suggests that I go to UCSD. As a UCSF admissions officer, her impression of UCSD is the best among these three schools. She does not have a good impression of NYU and says she has seen very few NYU students in applications she has reviewed.
She recommends UCSD mainly because she believes it has strong resources for pre-med students, the UCSD medical school is very close to the main campus, strong access to research opportunities, and has good weather. Since we live in California, it is also closer to home.
However, I am concerned that the quarter system may be stressful. My cousin’s son also attended a UC, and she said it was manageable. (but my aunt graduated from Harvard, her definition of a manageable workload might not be for me). Is the quarter system difficult?
She also said that the DAT is more important than GPA, and that when reviewing applications, she pays more attention to DAT scores because she knows GPA inflation exists at some schools. However, I think students admitted to UCSF all have very high GPAs, so they care very little about the small difference in gpa.
Which school should I choose?