Texas A & M University - College Station

I graduated public high school in the top 5% with 1410 SAT in 1998. I originally planned to attend Rice University (parents lived in Houston), but decided to go to Texas A&M because I obtained scholarship money for that university. I am an Iranian American and I expected to be somewhat of an outcast at what I perceived to be a white conservative institution. Fortunately I was wrong. The people are very friendly and there is more diversity than you might expect. I cannot express with words how much I miss playing indoor soccer at the Rec center, one of the best physical fitness and recreation facilities I have ever seen. I became good friends with other students who enjoyed soccer from Germany, Czech Republic, Turkey, Jordan, India, Pakistan, Brazil, you name it.

As for education, I received a stellar one, but this is something that will depend on the student's ability and motivation. TAMU will provide the right environment: there are solid professors (my biochemistry proff trained at Harvard and helped me get into medical school, philosophy proff from Yale, etc.) and opportunity for research (I did research at a microbiology lab on campus and actually got to take it as a class, you have opportunity to get your name on publications as a co-author). My science and engineering classes prepared me very well for the curriculum in medical school.

The office of professional school advising helped me get on track early on for medical school, and I was accepted straight out of college. They have meetings for students interested and spell out exactly what medical schools are looking for and what you should be doing by what date. I am graduating medical school in less than two months and have secured a residency at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles starting this June.I am not making money now as a fourth year medical student, but after residency/fellowship I expect a salary of six figures. The average salary for an interventional cardiologist is $320,000. If I had the choice of picking a college again, I would not hesitate to attend Texas A&M University.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000