2009-2010 Med school applicants

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<p>What’s wrong with that? Parents want to help their kids succeed, and part of that can be paying for part of medical school. Just because you’re over 18 doesn’t mean your parents can’t help you financially.</p>

<p>“What’s wrong with that? Parents want to help their kids succeed, and part of that can be paying for part of medical school. Just because you’re over 18 doesn’t mean your parents can’t help you financially.”</p>

<p>It doesn’t mean we CAN afford to, either. At what point do we get to start planning for retirement? Our son is only a junior in college (8 yr program) but we warned him before he accepted, that we wouldn’t be able to pay for med school. With 3 kids (one starting college when he starts med school), we are struggling to “help” with undergrad. We warned our kids that they would be on their own for grad school.</p>

<p>Don’t you think it’s presumptuous to assume parents are willing to pay for med school? Is this new or has this always been how med schools handled financial aid? I’m just wondering when does the “support” end?</p>

<p>This is a parent here. I also makes it clear to DS that if he is accepted and go to a medical school, we wouldn’t be able to pay for med school. It is not that we are not willing to. We just could not afford it, after paying 4 years for the college. I hope it is not the case that most parents can still pay for it and he is the only one in his class who will apply for the huge loan.</p>

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<p>It really only becomes an issue with institutional aid. At many med schools , and for many students, there is no institutional aid (very few grants, maybe some institutional loans). Those generous schools that do provide institutional funds can spend their money as they see fit. They choose to spend it on those who, in their opinion and sole discretion, have less parental resources to draw upon. Whether those resources are actually available to the student or not does not enter into the financial aid picture. Limited funds create limits on their largesse.</p>

<p>Fight the system and complain to all, but …be sure you understand where you fit financially BEFORE you apply. A well-crafted app list has to consider affordability and “expected parent contributions that you know aren’t going to materialize” should be a BIG deciding factor. It certainly was for my D.</p>

<p>Most schools are quite up-front that the primary responsibility to pay falls upon a student and his/her family. I’ll post some links or quotes.</p>

<p>Here’s Harvard

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<p>We’ve been lucky that my son’s school (FA) has made undergrad possible/reasonable. I’m just surprised at how UVA determines their aid. I understand that they are free to offer aid however they see fit. I realize some schools offer no grants, just loans. I guess I just expected them to deal with the student - offering loans and/or possibly some grants. I’m just surprised that UVA expects LOW income parents to contribute $11,000 ($44,000+) and MODERATE income parents to contribute $18,000/yr ($72,000+). In my neck of the woods, COA is quite high so LOW/MODERATE income certainly wouldn’t allow an extra $18,000/yr. I know, I know, we can move. But my DH has been downsized twice and he’s trying to get that pension (if he can just stay at one place long enough).</p>

<p>Uhhh…I think y’all are looking at this wrong. In example B</p>

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The ENTIRE COA is covered WITHOUT parental contribution, by maxing out the fed loans . The $18K expected parental contribution only affects the institutional aid. The Fed $ is still there for the student. </p>

<p>IMO, and from looking at FA at many med schools, UVa has one of the better FA policies in that they give some students some free money. Many don’t even do that. </p>

<p>Let me say again, the student in example B CAN attend UVa without $1 of parental money and meet costs of attendance without resorting to Grad Plus loans. Now the student in example C? Yeah, he’s toast.</p>

<p>Update letters.</p>

<p>Well, my D threw a rather funky/risky :eek: but “unique” Hail Mary to the big dog schools (otherwise known as the “ignore” or “nothing but crickets” schools). These are 5 schools where her MCAT is 2-3 points below the average matriculant. </p>

<p>The results so far have been :</p>

<p>2 perfunctory responses from underlings
1 (very?) complimentary response from a Dean of Admissions
1 response that falls somewhere in the middle
1 no response (of course, that school really seems to NOT want updates pre-invite)</p>

<p>Since then , about two weeks ago (?) , she has been rejected by 1 of the schools (a “perfunctory response”) and no invites from the others.</p>

<p>Friday she sent a much more traditional (but still quite personalized) email update to a school she believes will be sending post-hold acceptances this week (maybe today). She’s hoping the timing works out in her favor. </p>

<p>She is still debating the timing of three more wait-list/hold updates as it seems to her that if the decision to accept her is still months away , an email today will be “too early” to be effective. Who knows? She doesn’t have anything earth-shattering to report (and nothing at that level pending) and won’t be sending a “letter of intent to enroll if accepted” as she doesn’t have a top choice school.</p>

<p>Some students seem to think periodic updates through-out the process to keep your file in front of the reviewers is best. My D is not so sure where the line for “pestering the adcom” is, but doesn’t want to cross it, so she’ll probably just send one and maybe a Hail Mary at the end. </p>

<p>Anybody else doing anything at this stage? </p>

<p>Oops, almost forgot. She got an interview invite (from an OOS private that she tried to withdraw from) and turned it down. It was a school she would have been happy to attend but her other acceptances made it highly unlikely she would have attended . She might as well clear the decks for another kid.</p>

<p>Well, the Hail Mary throw paid off with an interview invite to one of the “ignore” schools (the one with the appreciative Dean).</p>

<p>Congrats on the invite. At least twice in my professional life, sending out “updates” to places where I was still hanging resulted in job offers. I know the med school application process is much more calculated, but some places may be looking for the type of person who doesn’t just sit back and wait…</p>

<p>Anybody here have any ideas what a kid can do the summer before medical school to make money? Internships are probably out of the question as is staying at the undergraduate institution and working.</p>

<p>Teaching for MCAT prep courses.</p>

<p>Got invited to interview for a full tuition scholarship at one of my state schools. Good stuff.</p>

<p>Congrats! Do your best at that interview!</p>

<p>Great stuff , Steeler.</p>

<p>Steeler, any “culling” going on with your list? narrowing the choices any? My D is struggling to let go of schools, while at the same time , wants to know where she’s going to be in the fall. Both strong “pulls” but in opposite directions. In the mean time senioritis is in full swing with her doing her best to have her last semester consist of as little stress/work as possible , i.e. petitioning to have already taken classes count as requirements so she can switch “Intro to Absolutely Nothing”. She has already weaseled herself into a “fresh/soph only” History class. (And once she did, 3 of her accomplished senior peers followed suit) . For this kid, that is a real change. I didn’t know her gearbox had a "neutral’. ;)</p>

<p>Good for her.</p>

<p>It’s a nice way to end a career in undergrad. Gives you time to enjoy the things you loved about your life there for the last four years. Other than my research, I took essentially nothing but dance classes my last semester.</p>

<p>Well, one of her “boutique” programs gave my data point the boot today. Interestingly (at least to me) it was the only program where she had an “in” and , on paper, she was a good academic, stats, and interest fit. Moral? Even if your best friend’s dad is “the dude” at that school (and you’ve met him several times), don’t count on that getting you…uhhh… anything at all.</p>

<p>(I don’t know how good a social fit she was for the program anyway. The students accepted so far have been primarily non-traditional. She does want some social outlets in school and a high percentage of married folk is not that conducive to that. And this is a program where the small group dynamics would be critical. Maybe a good thing to be booted. It would have been hard to turn down. )</p>

<p>No culling as of yet. Once March/April rolls around and I know where I stand as far as acceptances/waitlists/rejections go, I’ll use financial aid to start dropping schools. There are schools where I don’t see myself going over UVa, but I’ll still sit tight and see where it plays out.</p>

<p>Maybe it’s the memory of the application fees, but I’m really averse to withdrawing from anywhere, haha.</p>

<p>DS hasn’t done any narrowing down either. He is waiting till March/April to take a look at the financial side and then he will make a decision. He wants to go back to one of his schools and look at it again too. </p>

<p>DS still is waiting to hear from 2 schools regarding their decisions. Plus he is on the wait list for his top choice and if he gets in there- well that will change everything. </p>

<p>Right now he cannot even decide which one he would go to if money didn’t matter. Each school has its’ strengths and it is hard to decide.</p>