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Blueprint vs Altius MCAT
An honest comparison of the MCAT prep courses from Blueprint and Altius
Trying to decide between the MCAT review courses from Blueprint and Altius can be tough, especially with their high price tags and the importance of your MCAT score to your med school applications. In short, this is a decision you need to get right. In this detailed comparison guide, we cover our thoughts on each course, as well as which types of learners would benefit from the differing features and teaching styles.
Given that this is a lengthy comparison, we’ve included helpful jump-to links above for easy and quick navigation.
Video Guide: Blueprint vs Altius
In the above video, TPI team member John covers the highlights and lowlights of each prep course, as well as how they directly compare.
Additionally, to most effectively compare these two MCAT prep options, we’ve broken down our analysis by which category each company wins. Here is our breakdown of how these courses stack up across the major features, starting with where Blueprint wins.
Advantage: Blueprint. Though a close call, at the end of the day, our team gives the nod to Blueprint. While both companies offer robust sets of coursework that cover every nook and cranny of content review, it’s Blueprint’s course structure that wins out. Their course is smartly organized into integrated and highly streamlined learning modules, which each incorporate a short video lesson, quiz, assigned reading, and assessment. This approach allows you to tackle individual subtopics from multiple perspectives and gain a deep understating before moving on to the next subject.
Video Lessons
Advantage: Blueprint. Without a doubt, Blueprint provides the best video lessons in MCAT prep, hands down. Their videos are packed with animated visualizations of chemical processes and physical systems, striking graphics, and sharp instructor delivery. In addition, the content is on point. The video lessons are housed across 160 or so bite-sized learning modules, making them highly digestible and boosting material retention in our opinion.
Blueprint’s MCAT video lessons are about the best in the industry
For truly visual learners, Blueprint is your best bet (not just over Altius, but maybe across all MCAT prep companies). This isn’t to imply the Altius video lectures are bad – not by a long shot. It’s just not one their strengths though.
Prep Books
Advantage: Blueprint. We unanimously agreed as a team on this one. There is no doubt that Blueprint offers better prep books. And this is largely based on the comprehensiveness of their written materials. Blueprint provides 6 hardcopy prep books that cover the primary MCAT subjects, including Psychology & Sociology, Physics, Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry & Organic Chemistry, and CARS. These books are packed with impactful graphics and key point callout boxes, and they’re just plain well-written. This is in comparison to Altius’ lone “student study manual.” To be fair, the Altius prep book is a bible-type publication with everything contained in one place. But it just doesn’t offer nearly the value that Blueprint’s books do.
User Experience & Interface
Advantage: Blueprint. Although Altius’ online platform and digital assets are more than serviceable, this just isn’t their strength. Their highlights revolve around the human side of MCAT prep – small group live class sessions, 1-on-1 mentoring and live review sessions.
Blueprint offers an awesome user experience
Blueprint, on the other hand, makes user experience a key component of their course. Their digital platform is sleek, responsive and plain cool. No arguing this one, Blueprint wins.
Advantage: Altius. I just mentioned that video lessons are not one of Altius’ core competencies. Well, practice tests are. In our team’s opinion, Altius’ MCAT practice tests are about the best in the space. They’ve used some really high-end software to analyze official MCAT problems by word count, difficulty, length, and more, and used that info to reverse engineer some fantastic practice questions.
The MCAT practice questions from Altius are highly realistic
They’re highly realistic and closely replicate the real thing. To be clear, the Blueprint MCAT practice tests are rock solid as well. Their mock exams were crafted by the Next Step group (acquired by Blueprint in 2020), and that was one of their specialties, so you know these tests are good. But it’s just hard to beat Altius here.
Problem Explanations
Advantage: Altius. Though a close call, Altius gets the slight edge in the practice problem explanation department. Their answer solutions are insightful, super comprehensive, and written in an easy to understand manner. And when combined with their mentorship program to review practice test and quiz results, it is a truly effective combination. We do like Blueprint’s MCAT problem explanations, though they are a bit on the brief side.
A look at the Blueprint problem explanations
Their major saving grace for Blueprint, however, is the sample highlighting for passage-based problems. For problems that follow a long text passage, Blueprint shows you exactly where you should have focused your highlighting and strike-through for the best results.
Live Classes
Advantage: Altius. This is another VERY close call, though we give the nod to Altius, mainly for their small class sizes. Depending on your course option, Altius provides somewhere between 60 to 200 hours of class time, all capped in classes of just 6-8 students. We loved these live classes, and found them to be highly valuable. Our class was taught by two former Altius students who had scored in the 95th and 97th percentiles on the MCAT, and they really knew their stuff – as well as how to communicate it.
The Altius small class sessions add true value
Blueprint’s classes were also first rate though. They too use a combo of two instructors per class, who play off each other and do an excellent job communicating Blueprint’s top tier curriculum.
Pricing & Course Options
Advantage: Tie. Who wins this category really comes down to which type of course you’re after and whether there is a discount running. Blueprint offers just two packages: a self-paced course for roughly $2,000, and its standard package with live classes for $2,600. On the flip side, you’ve got Altius who offers a self-paced course for just $1,000, but then has their more premium courses starting at around $2,500 and going up from there.
Honestly, I wouldn’t even consider the self-paced program from Altius – the Blueprint on demand package blows it out of the water. The real value with Altius is their 1-on-1 mentoring and small group live classes, which you don’t get with the self-paced course. So when considering the more comparable live online packages from both companies, Blueprint seems to get the edge as only Altius’ base package matches its pricing. However, Altius is much more aggressive with discounts and you can often find their packages on sale for $800 off, making this category a tie.
Content Access Period
Advantage: Altius. We always love judging this category because it so cut and dry. Altius provides 12 months of access to their online materials and prep program, while Blueprint offers just 6 months. 6 months should be plenty of study time for most students, but if you plan to study for longer than that, take note.
Score Increase Guarantees
Advantage: Tie. Both companies offer rock solid, money back higher score guarantees, which we were happy to see. This is a great indication of a company’s confidence in its materials, as well as a decent insurance policy.
Overall Win: Blueprint. Though a close call on many fronts, our team gives the nod to Blueprint in this comparison. Though we love Altius’ small group live classes, weekly dedicated 1:1 time with a mentor, and realistic practice tests, Blueprint is simply too strong of a course. Their superior video lessons, smart coursework structure, deep prep books, and strong live online classes simply win the day. If there was a larger disparity in price or Altius’ on demand video lectures a bit better, the outcome may be different. But ultimately we just feel Blueprint is the better overall course, especially for visual learners.
FAQ
Which MCAT prep is better, Blueprint or Altius?
Though a close call, we ultimately have Blueprint as the better overall MCAT prep course and prefer it to Altius. Read our full analysis for details though.
Blueprint MCAT practice tests vs Altius practice tests, which is better?
Altius provides about the best MCAT practice tests on the market. Though we like Blueprint’s simulated exams and found them to be strong, Altius’ tests are the best match for the real thing.
Which MCAT prep package is cheaper, Altius or Blueprint?
On average, Blueprint’s MCAT packages are cheaper than Altius’ options, but Altius is also more aggressive with sales and special promotions.
