<p>My son was offered a spot off the waitlist and is anxious to accept, but I keep wondering if Williams is worth $200,000. Currently he has accepted a full ride to an excellent, but considerably less presitigous LAC. We can afford to pay for Williams, but then we will not be able to help with graduate school and he is thinking he might want to go to medical school. Any thoughts on this subject would be appreciated.</p>
<p>My S attends Williams and I would choose it over a full ride somewhere else, even though it is hard for us to afford.</p>
<p>He has just finished his frosh year but I have never seen him so socially comfortable or intellectually stimulated as he was this year. Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions.</p>
<p>My S went in wanting medical school, too.</p>
<p>If he can otherwise save a real bundle for medical school (to which you can't otherwise contribute), and this is a significant possibility, and he is happy where he is, I wouldn't even consider it. (By the way, I'd say the same thing if the school was Harvard.)</p>
<p>(If medical school is a real possibility, he might also benefit from being in a slightly less competitive situation, but I wouldn't take that into account.)</p>
<p>I would not let the possibility of being pre-med swing the entire decision one way or the other.</p>
<p>Well, let's write this another way: You have (you say) $200,000 to spend on your son's education (and no more). You can spend it all on W., or you can spend $100k on very excellent School X, and CHOOSE to spend the other $100k on his education in other ways. It doesn't have to be a year-and-a-half of medical school. It could be two years on the south coast of France learning to paint. It could be five years of volunteer work in Africa in public health. Four trips around the world, learning to become a writer. Unpaid internships anywhere. Start-up for a small business. Two years of law school. Use your imagination.</p>
<p>Under such conditions:</p>
<p>Williams v. Very Excellent School X PLUS $100k in education? As an equation, as a matter of education, it isn't even close. (and you can substitute any school you like for Willaims).</p>
<p>^^^ that's a recipe for four years at Williams (substitute any highly branded college or university) or four years of Very Excellent School X PLUS the rest of your life wondering, "what if..."</p>
<p>Yup, what if he had taken those two years on the coast of southern France....;)</p>
<p>At least, we know in twenty years Williams will still be in touch with him. ;)</p>
<p>Did he not get any financial aid?</p>
<p>rrrsmom, It's a difficult decision for your son and your family. There are so many factors at play: Compared to what? Your overall financial situation? Every family has different needs and priorities. There's a big difference between not turning down a fullride because it's there and not turning it down because you really can't afford the tuition.</p>
<p>Bottom line, $200,000+ is a whole lot of money. For us, Williams was worth it, even with graduate school tuition looming.</p>
<p>rrrsmon: can you indicate what the "full ride" choice is?</p>
<p>I have posted a reply to a similar post. It concerned Cornell vs. a state university. just search my member name and you'll find it. Hope it helps.</p>
<p>did he receive any financial aid? maybe the letter for that comes later as was the case for another school that accepted me off the waitlist. i think it's important to consider that williams is a very renowned institution and later in life will surely help earn back that 200,000 and more. it will also help in getting into a good med school. if you can afford it, i would leave finances out of the equation. after going to williams, he might also gain access to other methods to help pay for grad school. coming out of williams he might already have access to a great job which can help pay for med school or scholarships...</p>
<p>rssmom - here is the text of my other post that I mentioned:</p>
<p>part of this depends on your medical specialty. You might be able to justify the expense if you had visions of being a subspecialist. However, the problem is that the future of our healthcare delivery system is uncertain. Your income will be controlled by either the federal government or by insurance carriers. When students come to me for advice about going to medical school, I try to talk them out of it completely. All the major reasons for wanting to become a physician are essentially gone. I try to talk them out of it and see their reaction - if they HAVE TO become a physician, if its in their bones, if they will never be happy unless they become a doctor, then I advise them to go ahead. It also depends on whether you want a career in academic medicine. If you plan on teaching and doing research at a big name instituition, then your undergraduate and medical school pedigree may count for something. However, if your goal is to be in private practice, then it matters little where you go to medical school and matters little where you go as an undergraduate. I think it is more important to do well in terms of GPA and MCAT. I would also try to shadow a doctor as see what his/her life is like. Private practice is esentially piecework - like working in a sweatshop. The more patients you see, the more you make. Medicine has become too much a business and less a professional calling these days. I spent 5 years as a philosophy/psychology double major at a state university in NY. I receieved a master's degree in psychology. I then returned to take some undergraduate courses that I needed to apply to medical school while working part time jobs in the medical field. One of my best friends from medical school graduated from Cornell. We both ended up at the same osteopathic medical school. We are both board certified family practitioners. I concentrate on alternative therapeutics and he is conventional. I am 55 years old and I am still paying off the last bit of my medical school loans. My son will attend college in September and after I pay off the last of my loans, I will start to set aside money for his studies. I make less than my friend since my chosen approach is to spend more time with patients by practicing holistic medicine. I financed my entire education with student loans as my parents never finished elementary school. I have wanted to be a physician since I was 7 years old and I always comforted myself by telling myself that I was "following my bliss". Now I advise people to follow their bliss but to consult a financial planner as well! Ultimately, your patients are most concerned with whether you can help them, not where you went to school. They select you these days based mostly on their insurance coverage and not where you went to school. Wherever you go as an undergraduate expand your intellectual horizons beyond your pre-medical studies- college is not a technical school, medical school is! I don't regret my path in life - but if I could I would redo the way I borrowed to achieve my lifetime goal. I hope this helps.</p>
<p>And then there is the very real possibility that he may not want to go to medical school after all. I think at least 50% of the people who go into college thinking they want to be pre-med end up doing something else. Part of it may be the notorious "weeding out" that happens almost everywhere, but at a place like Williams it is often because they stumble upon something that interests them passionately (and those sorts of life-changing opportunities are quite common at the very top liberal arts colleges).</p>
<p>With the exception of medical school (and law school, but that is much less expensive and, if he does well at Williams, he can get residency in a state with a great law school and afford the in-state tuition ticket on loans that he can repay fairly quickly as an associate in a big firm), just about everything mentioned above as alternatives for ways you could "invest" the money in your son if he didn't use it for Williams could be available, in slightly different forms, through Williams at little or no additional cost to you. Williams is very generous in funding unpaid internships, summer travel and even has some post-graduate travel fellowships. </p>
<p>He may also be able to win outside merit grants (for Williams and for whatever he does after graduation).</p>
<p>In my mind, it would largely come down to how set I thought he was about the pre-med. And even then a top liberal arts education is extremely valuable in its own right, in terms of personal growth and satisfaction.</p>
<p>And congratulations to him on his Williams acceptance. It is a wonderful place.</p>
<p>This has been such an agonizing decision. My son loves Williams but also loves the idea of having funds for medical school or other future studies. He feels like if he turns down a full ride, he can never get that back, but would be able to transfer into a different college and pay full tuition if this full ride option does not turn out well. Someone asked if financial aid is in the picture. MY family income is too high for aid, but not high enough where $200,000 is no big deal. Anyway, thanks for all your thoughts, he is still struggling to make a decision.</p>
<p>Has he called Williams and talked this over with the Dean of Admission or one of the other senior admission people? It might help. It will not be the first time they've tried to puzzle this issue out with an applicant. The Admission people I know are very honest. </p>
<p>He could send an email to his contact or to Dean Nesbitt, spelling out the problem and asking to set up a call (either with you included or without you, according to his choice and what the Admission person recommended). Having a chance to talk about this one-on-one without you could be good, but he is the best person to judge that for himself.</p>
<p>Things he might include in that discussion would be the availability of in-term and summer research jobs that could ease some of the burden, various funds Williams has to finance summer programs and internships, other opportunities he might have at Williams (including being trained as an EMT, and volunteering in Williamstown during the term) and what his medical school/graduate school admissions picture is likely to be coming out of Williams vs. coming out of the other school (and by the way does the other school have a top-notch medical school and prefer its own graduates -- this could be a big factor).</p>
<p>Good luck. What a wonderful thing to have this choice, but what a difficult sitution for an 18-year old.</p>