I am an out of state applicant to Clemson. The school is extremely high on my list, as I have toured and loved it! However, my issue is on the financial side of things. I have calculated the estimated cost of Clemson OOS and came up with around 200,000$. However, this is before any form of merit. From what I understand (rumors from CC) the average applicant who receives merit gets between 7500-15,000 a year. As a student who is paying for the vast majority of my education via student loans, I still feel that 170,000 is too much money. I do not believe I will qualify for aid. Does anybody have thoughts on this, and how I should approach it. I am going for pre-med. Are there any similar schools to Clemson that could be more affordable??? I guess my questions is what should I do, thank you all very much!
TLDR: Is Clemson OOS too expensive for someone on the pre med track?
Thanks for the reply! By zero means will I be attending my in state school as im simply not a fan. I would like to be in the least debt possible but still enjoy a fun college experience. My parents will co sign but Im ultimately responsible for paying it. I will pay it back throughout my life I guess I honestly dont know lol.
Forget Clemson. No school is worth that much debt.
Why are your parents not paying anything towards your education? If they are low income you would get need based aid. If they are well off they are being ridiculous not to contribute.
Thanks for the reply! I dont know if I worded it weird, however, my parents are certainly helping within very reasonable fashion. My parents are great and we both agree I should pay for a majority as it is my decision and its mainly my bill come the end of the day.
My best advice is to just wait until you receive your decision and figure out how much merit-based aid you’ll be receiving until you decide anything. In the meantime, I would say to begin researching other schools in the region that also have good pre-med programs (ex. UofSC, College of Charleston, etc.). Best of luck to you!
You are a little late in the game to be asking these questions.
But, let’s address them full on. Some background first. I am an attorney. My wife is a pediatrician. We both having been practicing for eighteen years. Neither of us had any debt out of undergraduate (I went to graduate school on a Fulbright). All of our student loan debt was related to our professional degrees (law school and medical school). We paid it off last month. Yes…it took eighteen years. Now, there’s some background to that. We had historically low rate (2.25%). We have kids. We make good money and could get a better return on our dollar elsewhere. We finally just decided to be done with it. Still…eighteen years. The lesson? Professional school is not cheap.
If you are serious about medical school (and think about that, it ain’t and won’t be what it is when you start practicing…trust me), then do not borrow money for your undergraduate education because you will for medical school. That means finding the best deal for an undergraduate education. For the next four years you need to focus on your grades and MCAT score (and having some fun).
Ideally, you look to your public in-state schools (but you won’t for unknown reasons). You are past a lot of application deadlines. You have not posted your stats or your budget. So, I am going to take a hip shot here and make one recommendation: University of New Mexico. You can still qualify for the Amigo Scholarship. It is pretty generous for out of state students.
It’s not like Clemson, but have you thought about UAB?
I believe the deadline for OSS scholarships isn’t until May 1st, so you could still apply. They offer generous scholarships. Example 3.5 GPA and 30 ACT is $18k per year making it less than in-state for many.
If you’re pre-med you need to have as little to no debt as possible for undergrad. You’re going to have a decent amount of medical school debt. Clemson, and no other school for that matter, is worth that amount of debt for pre-med. Paying thousands of dollars a month in loan payments will be a noose around your neck for much of your adult life. Clemson is very stingy with OOS merit and much of that is given to early applicants.
I’ll echo what others are recommending here, too. Going into that much debt for undergrad just isn’t a wise business decision. My D19 was (and still is) in love with Clemson, was admitted OOS, however with zero merit. When we did the NPC initially, it showed a $7,500 scholarship estimate, but when all was said and done, it was zero. Separately, she was accepted into a top-notch state school which ends up being roughly half of what it would have cost to attend Clemson. While it’s still the arguable sentimental favorite, just not worth the upcharge, particularly when you’re looking at hefty grad/med school tuition in the future. And, she’s very happy at her current school where she’ll graduate with next-to-zero debt. Good luck to you!
@user8172 Have you already been accepted to Clemson and notified that you will be receiving a merit scholarship? When my oldest applied four years ago, he was accepted in November and awarded what was then the highest merit award of 15,000 a year. My understanding is that the larger merit awards usually go to the students that are accepted early.
My son ultimately chose Auburn over Clemson. The schools are very similar and are often referred to as sister schools. Both are large southern land grant schools, similar campuses, big sports schools and even have the same mascot. Auburn out of state is about 7k a year less than Clemson and has automatic merit scholarships based on grades and test scores. For us, Auburn came out about 10 k a year less. Depending on what Clemson offers you, Auburn could be a much less expensive alternative for you.
I would also suggest looking into the University of Alabama. They are extremely generous with out of state merit aid. I believe their highest automatic award is 28k a year.
You still have time to get applications in to both of these schools.
Going OOS is triple the cost, and financial aid is designed around in-state residents. It basically means your parents are on the hook for $170,000 for the privilege of going to Clemson. There are scholarships if you really want to go out of state. Univ of Alabama and Univ of Arizona are two excellent options if you have top grades/scores. Alabama might be past the scholarship deadline, though.
If you’re REALLY serious about medical school, you should seriously think about in-state. State medical schools favor state residents, making it your single best option of getting in. Plus, if you decide against medicine (most kids do), then you’re in a place that’s affordable.