You’ll hear most people recommend going for cheapest undergrad program so you can save money for medical school. It sounds like a good economical strategy but let’s not forget that every pre-Med student is not going to end up in a medical school. At 17, major is a romantic fantasy, you only learn later if this is really your calling or not. A big percentage finds other majors or careers interest them even more and many won’t qualify for admissions.
When selecting undergrad school, always pick one which can provide you best education, good college life experience and variety of opportunities. This is your one chance at undergrad education and you’ll always be known as an alumnus of your undergrad school. It better be a good tribe. Don’t undermine value of money but go for quality of degree, not go looking for “deal” when it comes to your education.
I think you’re misconstruing the advice that’s given here in this forum and elsewhere. It’s not a flat “go to the cheapest school possible.” It’s more pick the school the offers the best combination of fit, opportunity and cost-- which is exactly what you suggest.
The refrain you’ll hear here is that most expensive don’t mean better, and that attending a pricey private colleges doesn’t boost your chances for a med school admission.
My son went to college for a very low net cost ( he was awarded free tuition plus $4500 per year), but that was NOT the cheapest option. He could have gone to another school for totally free. He chose a school that was more than good enough for premed OR a change in career path.
The point is really about situations where people are thinking…should I go to UCDavis with my Cal grant and other aid and pay $10k per year…or should I go to USC where my family or I would have to pay (or borrow!!!) $35k per year?
If the student chooses lower cost UCDavis and doesn’t go to med school, he’s not cutting himself off from having another successful career path.
I think pay vs borrow is a pretty important distinction actually. If a student liked USC more for whatever reason and going there vs. going to UCDavis is 25k/year of money that was saved for college I think it’s a much more reasonable decision than if if that’s 25k/yr in loans. Med school may or may not happen for a myriad of reasons so I don’t know that it’s wise to “save up for med school” in exchange for going to a school you don’t want to go to as being unhappy with the school you’re at is a good way to decrease your chances of medical school. If you took finances out of the equation and it’s still essentially a coin flip between 2 schools then I think it’s def worth considering the cost savings on med school.
I agree with other comments. The point is not to go to the cheapest undergrad school. The point is to take cost in consideration as one important factor. Selecting a university in most cases has to be a tradeoff between the academic level of the school, the cost of the school, the quality of the program in the intended major(s), the distance from home, and multiple other factors. Life is full of tradeoffs, big ones and little ones. The choice of university might be the first big one that students need to make.
Neither of my daughters went to the cheapest university that they got admitted to. Neither went to the most expensive university they could have gotten into nor paid anything close to $70,000 per year. They both found schools that were academically very strong, that had a good program in their major, that they liked, and that fit the budget.
There are hundreds of very good universities in the US. For any student who has a realistic chance of going on to medical school, there should in most cases be an option which is both academically very good and also much more affordable than the $70,000+ numbers that we see at the most expensive schools.
If the point of the original post is that cost is not the only factor to consider, then yes I agree.
If the point is that we might want to be a bit careful when we make comments to keep things in balance, I think that I agree with this also.