<p>My daughter is accepted to BU with $20K scholarship to BU, $25K scholarship to NEU, and to UCD and UCSB with in-state tuition. As of now she thinks about majoring in biology … or anything else, bio-related, with possible medical school in the future (not sure about that).</p>
<p>Are there any reasons (which I don’t see ;)) to consider those 2 Boston options (other than city of Boston itself ;)) over the UCs? What would you consider the most feasible choice out of those 4 options?</p>
<p><a href=“Premed Resources Thread - Start Here First - Pre-Med Topics - College Confidential Forums”>Premed Resources Thread - Start Here First - Pre-Med Topics - College Confidential Forums;
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1122176-bluedevilmikes-ten-step-guide-picking-premed-school.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1122176-bluedevilmikes-ten-step-guide-picking-premed-school.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1484178-if-you-high-school-please-read-before-posting.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1484178-if-you-high-school-please-read-before-posting.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/214387-what-should-premed-major.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/214387-what-should-premed-major.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1331981-new-pre-med-students.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1331981-new-pre-med-students.html</a></p>
<p>Please read these possible pre-med threads. They will shed some light on your daughter’s situation and possible choices, specifically for those considering medical school.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Myau, knowing the amount of the scholarship doesn’t help anyone advise you.</p>
<p>What will your contribution be and can you afford it?</p>
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<p>Our contribution would be: full COA - (“minus”) Scholarship in both (and any private school) cases. That is, NEU would cost us about 3-5K more than UC, BU - about extra 10K compared to UCs.</p>
<p>At any given moment (for the last few years) we consider our financial situation such as that we somewhat can afford UCs , with anything more than that would be a stretch. Certainly, we can’t afford the full COA of any private institution (so, NYU, which also accepted our D, but without any grants, is now out of question). </p>
<p>In any given case of any merit scholarship we should decide whether the institution is worth a few extra $Ks (compared to UCs’ cost). Are there any circumstances which would make NEU and BU worth considering for the student accepted to UCD and UCSB?</p>
<p>I have degrees from BU, Northeastern, and one of the UCs. I have taught at another UC. The UCs have terrific biology programs almost uniformly. The only reason for Boston would be that there are a lot of biotech companies and pharmaceutical companies, plus hospitals in the area. Hospitals are especially close to BU and Northeastern. Of the two, BU has more research and a med school. Northeastern has the coop program, but for bio I would still lean BU, if she is coming to Boston.</p>
<p>A few extra dollars factoring in transportation? Or a few extra dollars PLUS transportation?</p>
<p>If you can pay for it without blinking it’s worth a conversation. If it’s a serious stretch- what does your daughter think the relative advantages of BU/NEU are???</p>
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<p>The latter one.</p>
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<p>It looks like her main reason for still considering Boston area schools is Boston, MA, itself. 
(as opposed to “boring” Cali suburbs). She set her heart on going to out-of-state (preferably, big city) college, mostly just for the sake of it (her own explanation is “I love Cali, but don’t want to spend ALL my life here”). She wants adventures. </p>
<p>Somewhat more valid considerations, however, include possibly less “cutthroat” (in terms of getting into highly demanded classes, summer research, professors’ attention etc.) atmosphere in private schools compared to UCs … but neither she, nor I have any idea how particularly NEU and BU look/feel like on that matter.</p>
<p>Also, right now she is less than ever sure about her future plans, how will her interest change and what she will want or be able to do with her education after undergrad. So she wants as much flexibility (for the change of major etc.) as possible and thinks that private schools might be better at that, too (again, no idea how flexible those 2 particular Boston schools actually are). She also thinks NEU co-ops could help her try various things at the workplace and better find out what is the most suitable further educational/professional path for her.</p>
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<p>Based on what you mentioned about costs, if she goes to NEU, she would have to take either a federal direct loan or work to earn some money to top up your UC-level contribution. If she goes to BU, she would have to take both the federal direct loan and work to earn some money to top up your UC-level contribution, and even that would be a stretch requiring frugal living to stay within budget. Basically, does she consider being in Boston worth the extra debt and/or work obligation that she would need to take on?</p>
<p>Remember also that medical school is expensive, so that dragging undergraduate debt along may not be the best idea to add to medical school debt.</p>
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<p>We (the parents) are somewhat tempted to say something like “UC tuition is an absolute limit of what we are paying for your undergrad”; but she might count on her co-ops to earn the tuition difference there. How realistic would that be is another question …</p>
<p>She will not get a better bio education at BU or Northeastern than at those UCs. Sure, co-op is nice, but she could do summer internships (or school year research in a lab on campus) at the UCs. </p>
<p>I don’t know about Northeastern, but it is fairly easy to change from one college to another within BU, if it is early in the game, or even later, though then there may be more classes to make up.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is the prestige of the merit awards on her resume. But in the end, I think I would stick with the UCs. They are still a good value.</p>
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<p>Co-op jobs could help, but if she is a biology major, she should not be too optimistic about pay rates.</p>
<p>Co-op jobs might help with the expenses of flying back and forth but are unlikely to make a dent in a large tuition gap. She still needs to eat while she’s on Co-op, right?</p>
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<p>What could they be?</p>
<p>Most students on the Northeastern forum state that coop can cover living expenses for the time on coop. Sometimes with a little bit left to save for next semester expenses. The more highly paid coops (engineering and some business coop i.e. accounting during tax semester).
Other majors have less lucrative coops (especially first coops). Post on the NEU forum for more opinions on this. </p>
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Not sure how helpful this is, but…
You could always ask your daughter to take up part of the cost of the Northeastern or BU tuition and transportation if she chooses either school. It might be a thousand dollars or so, but enough so that she has some skin in the game of this decision.</p>
<p>I know very little about the UCs, but don’t think she’s going to go wrong with any of those decisions. That said, NEU will have her out in four years plus co-op year; BU will have her out in four years; but many state schools have students who go for five years because they can’t get the courses they need. An extra $15k for NEU is cheaper than a fifth year at UC, right?</p>
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If it were my decision, I would say Northeastern: those internship opportunities are amazing and she’ll have the opportunity to graduate with actual work experience and an understanding of what biologists do. </p>
<p>my son is dating a Bio major at NEU. she seems to like it there. a lot of work to start her freshman year but she survived and now looking forward to finals. we live in “Metro West” so she was able to take a break and come home a few weekends. I haven’t heard any horror stories. when he visits they do fun things like go to the North End for dinner, and the ballet which is very close. Can’t beat Boston as a cultural center. I moved to MA from NY in my 20s and I wouldn’t consider moving back even if I do sometimes get the small-town-blues. </p>
<p>When we did the UC tours, at UCD they showed a short movie prior to the tour. The boy in the film said that he came in as a Bio major (pre-med). First quarter freshman year he was doing some sort of internship/shadowing type thing and was inside the operating room during an operation. It was at that moment he realized he didn’t want to do Bio and switched his major to Econ. I think they were illustrating that Davis has 100’s of majors so if you change your mind you are OK. But I also got out of it that even freshmen have job shadowing/internship-type opportunities. I am an alumni (Biochemistry) from UCSB, but I am afraid the party-culture may have gotten out of hand up there, so if it were my kid I might steer towards Davis if you go the UC route. </p>
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<p>How easy/hard to get them - that’s the question …</p>
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<p>How much did it change since your times? And why? How typical (or untypical) was the last Saturday’s mayhem there?</p>
<p>If you can visualize your daughter in this video, by all means encourage her to attend UCSB.
<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube;
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<p>No, I can’t, she can’t visualize herself in it, either.</p>
<p>The question is, whether could one, being a student there, somehow separate him/herself from that kind of things and still have positive college experience - intellectual and social as well?</p>