^^^Hey! It’s not like D1 ran out and bought a Bentley. She bought a Subaru to replace her 9 year old Civic w/ 165,000+ miles on it.
But LOL! There are/were a number of residents living in her townhouse development (where she lived during med school)–and there were some seriously nice cars! Lots of Beemers and a Mercedes.
Does it make sense to send the fall semester grades to schools that son hasn’t heard from yet? And the schools that he’s on post interview hold? Or at this point it’s too late in the game to make a difference.
Will his fall grades make any substantial difference in his GPA/sGPA? Does he have anything additional he needs to update the school about?
If yes, then it might be; if not, then it won’t make any difference.
[/QUOTE]
Jugulator,
"Re: special mortgage/car programs for young physicians: before jumping into either one, I would encourage young MDs to let their ego swollen heads that developed upon being handed an MD degree to subside before taking on new debt. "- Even if it is not additional debt but simply the only debt? Does not make sense to continue paying thousands for fixing an old car that cost only about $4k. it does make sense to our D., she agrees with your concept. It does not make sense to my H. and me at all. Whatever is done, is done. The cost of the last repairs was about $2,400 while car costs about $4k.
And the same for mortgage. D’s friend actually bought a condo right after graduation. Her residency is 7 years. This condo probably will end up costing her $0 or close to it. She would have spent much more paying the rent. We would have advised D. the same, but D’s residency is only 4 years and she is not sure if she will stay or move after. D. and others still are paying rent, nobody is living for free. I bet that D’s rent is higher than her mortgage payment would be. I have a suspicion that D’s friend did not have a student loan either, cannot tell for sure, but her dad is a plastic surgeon and what a coincidence that she also matched to plastics while her dad is looking forward for her to take over his business.
I had friends in residency in buy houses, and in the right market, it can be the correct choice. It can be hard to figure out in the space between match day and the start of residency though, but my friends definitely had mortgage payments far less than rent on comparably sized apartments. Certainly those in specialties with longer residencies (5-7 years) also have the benefit of market appreciation which can make it smarter as well.
Personally I waited until after fellowship and with my first attending job…able to take on that obligation at much more financially advantageous stage in my life. In the market we’re moving to, we’re getting a lot more home for the money compared to paying rent and we needed things like a yard (and nursery as my wife is pregnant).
Unfortunately, most schools seem to be closing up on interview slots. Check on SDN on those schools your son has not heard from yet.
My advice to a nephew who started one of those 6 year residencies in a very expensive town last year - marry a traveling consultant wife who can pay mortgages. 
Miami: as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to believe that debt is the worst four letter word around. Sometimes it’s a necessary evil to get ahead. I get that. I wasn’t try to dole out specific financial advice to anyone. In a humorous way I was trying to say that just because all these “special programs” are dangled in front of newly minted MDs doesn’t mean one should be going crazy. Debt is still debt. If anything before you rush out to take advantage of these special programs, realize that very few things are an emergency and need your immediate signature. Slow down, don’t confuse your need v new MD image fulfillment. Also realize that the devil is in the details with these special loans and what may look like as special may be more special to lender than to borrower.
One thing to bear in mind is that reliability is a must. As a parent of a girl who might be driving around at odd times during the night if needed, I wouldn’t want to worry about her being stranded by an old car. There is a trade off between a reliable 10 year old lexus vs a new tercel but a car that might need $2400 in repairs is definitely a no no…
^^ Exactly! D1’s old car was giving both me and her pause, especially so because she needed to drive cross-country solo in order to report to her residency program. Additionally her new car has 4 wheel drive–which we both agreed might be needed in New England winters. (Though so far, we’ve had much, much, much more snow than she has…)
D1 and I had a big discussion whether it would be prudent to buy a home in her new location. Ultimately she decided against that since she’s in a high COL area and didn’t know the market well enough to make a wise decision about location.
DS has a 2009 Nissan Altima with relatively low miles (less than 10k a year only), bought used (by us.) I think the reliability of the car is likely OK. I am concerned about two things: 1) NE winter weather (but not this year so far.) 2) Drive too infrequently and most time drive a short distance (I think). The battery could die more easily if the car is not driven frequently enough.
Jagulator,
The unfortunate truth is that most Medical School graduates (and students) lack considerably in understanding of very simple financial concepts. These concepts include the fact that sometime we need to invest a bit more up in front to actually save a considerable amount of money overall. While both my H. and I have an MBA, most people grasp this concept without any business education. However, in case of medical profession, I guess their brain is not wired to think in this direction and again, the age factor is huge. We can say that we understand financial side better, but the fact is that we are simply much older and have been thru a lot. It makes absolutely no financial sense to either pay $2400 for a $4k car or pay rent of $1500 when you can pay actually less for your mortgage. And for a person who is among 16% of all medical school graduates who are without a student loan (Eighty-four percent of graduates from medical school this year reported having student loan debt, and the median amount was $180,000, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.) it makes even much less financial sense. I am not up to giving anybody financial advice either. I am also very old, most likely the oldest parent here. I know that we got ahead in our lives by making sound financial decisions, we are not high earners at all.
That’s just good advice for everybody.
Columbia has a 3 year program for those with PhDs.
So here we are, in January. 2 interviews, 2 acceptances, both of which she is happy with. 4 pre-interview rejections, which were somewhat expected. So 14 still out there in limbo. I know a few of these schools are “silent rejections” and will send out at the end of season. So realistically, there are probably 10 schools just “holding on”. There’s comfort in knowing she’ll go somewhere, but there’s that little bit of excitement and mystery of wondering if one of those will open up! I think there are really 3 left that she would really, really like a crack at. The others are just too far away. I’m wondering if there will be a flurry of activity as the schools get back in session and others make their decisions?
Note: this applies to MD programs only. I don’t know enough about AOA admission policies to comment on how DO programs work.
Unfortunately, probably not. Most schools are done or almost done issuing IIs since most have all ready booked all their interview slots thru the end of February. There may be a few scattered IIs going out if an already-invited student cancels an interview, but nothing wholesale.
Schools are required by AMCAS traffic rules to have accepted enough students to completely fill all available seats by March 15, so interviewing past the end of February does not make sense since it doesn’t leave enough for the adcomm to meet and issue a decision.
edit: I do know of 2 programs (Drexel, OHSU) that continue to interview thru March and into April, but they’re the exception, not the rule.
On which month did your S/D spend the most on taxi? (Or Urb these days?)
I have a gut feeling that the interview seasan is near the end. It seems DS cancelled one trip after another toward the end – at one time, I heard he canceled 75% of his interviews in one city alone. It is hard to tell what his strategy is but we do not say anything.
Correction: It is Uber, not Urb.
Is it “safe” to use Über? It is definitely not something belong to my generation.
What do students do before almost the end of March? Just wait? Or there are still many electives to take in the remaining of the final semester.
DS uses Uber to and from school and airport all the time without any issues. Sometime, he will share a Uber with another student.
D1 went Down Under and took surfing lessons.