<p>O.K… D just heard from an accepted student (with a low EFC) at one of her silent FA schools. It came in $100K more than JHU for this student. No scholarship, all loans. As the student told my D, “they made the decision for me”. Well, yeah. I guess they did.</p>
<p>How do y’all read this? </p>
<p>
Or am I missing something? This is currently on the YSM FA FAQ website.</p>
<p>Honest to God , folks. Sheesh. First Baylor says they give merit scholarships on the website …and they don’t. And now, what appears to be pretty blatant misrepresentation on the YSM site (if the student who pm’ed my kid is telling the truth). </p>
<p>We researched this stuff pretty well and she made decisions to apply based on what was presented as the school policies on FA.</p>
<p>I guess she’ll find out soon enough.</p>
<p>Was her low EFC determined by FAFSA? Her family’s income may be completely changing the calculations.</p>
<p>Well, she “said” JHU and Yale figured her parental contribution about the same. It’s just that JHU gave her grants, Yale gave her all loans (how does that jibe with what they wrote?) . Then I saw more than one JHU student saying all they got from JHU is loans. I dunno.</p>
<p>This may very well be worse (less understandable) than UG where D’s need-based awards varied by, iirc, $16K a year at schools that supposedly used the same(-ish) formulas (Colgate and Yale).</p>
<p>Just so Yale doesn’t feel lonely with my rant here’s what Baylor says on their website :
In fact, no such scholarships were awarded last year and none are planned for this year (according to current accepted students and an MS1 that is a BCM tour-leader and sdn mod). I mean, how long would it take to just edit the website? A minute? Two? IMO, a business would be crucified for this.</p>
<p>DD has decided not to appeal the Spokane placement, she really wanted to be close to family, but upon further research has decided she may be in just the right place for her, 20 M1s in Spokane, so for those important two years of Step 1 prep she will be able to really get to know her profs and class group and take every advantage to master the material. Hopefully it is too small to be cut throat and she will be well prepared. Four years at Berkeley was a long time in the big pond, perhaps it is time to enjoy the small pond for a bit.</p>
<p>First financial package received - and it’s all loans. Pretty much what I expected. The merit scholarship + parents’ generosity are going to save me.</p>
<p>I read (as did son) that the first $20K of need is met with a loan, and then the rest is grant money. If someone receives a package with the $20 K in loans and then the residual in loans I would “assume” EFC is more than the COA. I draw this conclusion from what is written on the FA web page.</p>
<p>Son assumed Y’s FA same as H’s policy. When he was there for the summer for research within a med-program they did explain the FA just like it is stated above. He asked about all the specifics and they did re-iterate same policy, it was then that they (H) said something about possibly reducing the unit loan amount.</p>
<p>And yes, I will (and the kiddos too) scour the specific schools on sdn for dates, amounts, and packages for FA. If Baylor says they have merit and then your sources tell you no, can you or daughter call to find out? Well, I guess you’ll find out soon enough but yes that really does annoy me if they say they do but they just don’t later. It would be enough for some not to apply at all.</p>
<p>Some schools when you look over their FA sites and go through to the scholarships, quite a few are listed. I wonder if they rotate, every third year, only distribute once in a decade or the amounts are in the hundreds rather than the thousands, or tens of thousands. Seems to be very misleading. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t buy a car this way, or mess with credit cards that have funky interest rates, why would something in the $250,000 price range be any different?</p>
<p>I am sure they are gonna love son’s genteel (read abrasive) approach to cost, value and ROI. This will be a looooong year.</p>
<p>He has been spoiled by his undergrad FA, very generous, accomodating and appreciative of his practicality. He really did find his place and is sad to leave.</p>
<p>Didn’t we just do this??? He seems to have a great grasp and knows what he is looking for…maybe cuz’ I’m out of the loop it looks so murky and unwieldy to me.</p>
<p>But from the sounds of your grumblings curm I am not optimistic.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>D got her FA from Baylor. At least she got something but I don’t think it will be near enough to sway her away from Dallas (which had moved ahead, even apples to apples) . She has a final at 5:30 and won’t look at it in depth till after that. </p>
<p>FWIW, if she didn’t have UT-SW as an option their offer would be considered a very good deal on a national scale because of their low tuition and fees starting point. </p>
<p>While recognizing the challenges BCM faces financially, I do believe it is a great school at a value price. D really prefers their 18 month pre-clinical and if anything will keep them in the hunt a while longer, that will be it. </p>
<p>She received a small need-based award, even smaller Federal work study, 2 small 5% loans with favorable terms, the traditional $8.5K Subsidized Stafford, and the rest in Un-Sub Staffords.</p>
<p>Grumbling? lol That’s just my way of communicating. 
In a few years I’ll be down to a series of grunts and clicks. “All-Ball. All-Ball”. </p>
<p>D might not have been competitive for a merit award anyway, it just ticked me off they didn’t bother to change the website. </p>
<p>BCM all in all done is only $42K COA IS, maybe $13K more OOS. In this med school world that is like a big scholarship to everybody.</p>
<p>BTW, MS1 at BCM is $3-4K higher MS1 than MS2-4 because of computer purchase money.</p>
<p>AMCAS opened today according to the sdn bunch. Good luck to all!! Hope we have been of some service, and , if so (and even if not ;)), somebody think about opening a thread for this year’s applicants.</p>
<p>Curm, you have been extremely helpful, and please don’t go anywhere, as I will need to pick your brain next year!</p>
<p>Yeah, yeah. Don’t need no compliments. Start a thread when it’s your kid’s time in the chute. ;)</p>
<p>As to the sdn regulars getting their FA today from a Top 25 school </p>
<p>1) paraphrased Yeah!! More generous than I thought!!</p>
<p>but another said </p>
<p>2) quoting *Regardless, I agree with you - there is no freaking way my parents could come up with the contribution that <school> expects. It is absurd. Then to add insult to injury, they do not come close to meeting the need that they say I have.</school></p>
<p>I am sick of all of this.*</p>
<p>Oh, joy! lol And just think, mine only needs one more piece of data to be done.</p>
<p>Well, careful reading by D suggests that Baylor may have given out a merit scholarship. It looks like a scholarship and she can’t find any repayment terms so…sdn may be FOS. lol. Still think it will not be enough but…at least I feel better about them.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>UTSW also includes computer purchase money for MS1 and has incremental $$ increase for either MS3 or MS4 for clothing</p>
<p>How reliable is the U.S. News & World Report ranking of medical schools as an indication of the quality of the schools? </p>
<p>DS has to choose between 3 schools; the first two are among the top 20 while the 3rd one is among top 35. Would it be a huge mistake for him to choose this 3rd school over the other two?</p>
<p>I don’t know the names of the schools, but is there a big net financial difference? I cannot see there being a dramatic difference in the education at any top 50 school, perhaps int he connections you make vs top 5-10?</p>
<p>It wouldn’t be a huge mistake. What does he like about the schools? If you don’t mind sharing the school names, maybe I or curm’s daughter could offer any insight we might have about the institutions.</p>
<p>My D had a top 35 school (Dartmouth) ranked quite a bit higher than that on her personal scale. She loved it. I don’t think ranking is why it fell off the list.</p>