Okay, so I live in Texas and have been accepted into UC Davis, UCSD, and I’m about to hear back from UCSB. I also was accepted into the University of Arkansas and rejected from the University of Texas at Austin. As you can tell, I’m trying to go far away out of state. I filed my FAFSA late, so I don’t believe I received any money from any of the schools. As we all know, out of state tuition is ridiculously high, especially for California schools. Arkansas is a strong consideration, but the tuition is still a bit high, but definitely not as high as California. All of my friends say I shouldn’t go to Arkansas though because they know how bad I’ve always wanted to go to California. My dream colleges are all in California too, so it definitely sucks I might have to settle for less when I worked so hard to get accepted into the schools. Loans are the only way I can go out of state, but I don’t know if I should take them because of how pricey they would be to pay back. I got accepted for and am majoring in general biology/biological sciences and plan on becoming a doctor. I want to try and bank on myself to become wealthy enough to pay it all back, but my parents disagree. If I don’t take loans out, I’m probably going to have to attend a local university/community college and I REALLY do NOT want to do that. Could I get opinions on what I should do please? Any advice helps.
Gap year and apply to full need meeting schools in cali, like occidental college
Do private and not public, otherwise your credit will all be gone and finding a bank to give you a loan for med school will be near impossible.
Undergrad debt kills dreams of docs, so don’t do it.
I second this. If you really, really want to go out of state, take a gap year.
Otherwise, I think you can still apply to St Edward’s or Texas Lutheran. (St Edward’s in particular
is good for premeds). Or apply to schools elsewhere.
What are you looking for? Less heat? More liberal? Secular? Music scene? LGBTQ life? No “guns on campus” laws?
However, forget about California is you’re serious about being a doctor, because it’s much more competitive there for instate residents than in many other states, and it’s basically impossible for most others. THere are lots of states where you could try to study though.
What are your stats?
What’s your budget (parents’ out of pocket contribution - just from savings and income)?
The University of Texas at Dallas is actually a very good school and the application deadline isn’t until July 1. I would check into it.
^Please do this.
The UCs are nearly/above $50,000 per year for out-of-state students. They have stopped financial aid for non-residents. Do you really think $200,000 of undergrad debt is a smart idea? I doubt your parents will be approved for such large loans.
What if you hate pre-med. and fall in love with an average-paying profession?
Thank you for replying! But could you tell me what the pros of taking a gap year are? Like, how would it help? I really want to go out of state because I just want something different; a change in scenery. I’m tired of the weather, the conservative people, and just everything in general. If that’s true about California and becoming a doctor, I’m not against going to another state, it’s just California is my preference. Arkansas, New York, anywhere but Texas. The only Texas school I would want to go to is UT Austin, but I was rejected from there. My stats are far from impressive: I made a 1900 on my SAT with a 1250 composite score and have a 3.91 GPA. My budget it relatively low considering I have an older sister in college that my parents are paying for.
And the University of Texas at Dallas is kind of close to home, but I’ll definitely check it out!
The UCs don’t give any financial aid to OOS students. The majority of money comes directly from the schools and as an OOS student, who applied to a state public university, you won’t qualify for any state money.
If you’ve used FAFSA to qualify for federal monies, you can take out a loan of $5500 for freshman year, or $2750 per semester. If you get PELL, that’s only a few thousand, so the federal money won’t cut down your UC fees of $55,000 per year for the UCs.
If you had to apply for financial aid, your parents may not qualify for the large parent plus loans for your undergrad.
Medical school will cost, at least $300,000. Reality check: My dd is graduating from Davis this year with 1000 bio majors who all seem to want to be doctors. That’s at one UC. We have nine UC’s plus the CSUs and privates.
Your friends won’t be paying your school.
I got offered the Parent Plus Loan that offers me $50,000 a year, but isn’t that something they offer to everyone? I appreciate the reality check, but at the same time, I’ve tried living realistically for most of my life, and most of the time that ends in me settling for something I don’t want/like. This is the first time I’ve tried branching out and gone after something I really want. It’s an idiotic notion, but I’m taking a chance. And, like I said before, Arkansas is still a consideration, but that’s preferably not where I want to graduate. I could always attend Arkansas and transfer to UT Austin or another school? Maybe I could take loans out to attend Arkansas and not be so much in debt versus California? Thoughts on that idea instead?
Transfers are offered little, if any aid.
You’ve already made up your mind to go to California for school at a cost of $220k. The UCs are extremely tough and competitive, since every other student wants to be a doctor, you will have it really tough.
Parent plus loans are given to the parents.
They sign the loan and they get stuck with the repayments if you don’t pay back the loan. Depending on your loan, some payments are billed while you are in school as an undergrad.
Where will you get loans to pay $300k for med school?
That’s over $½ million to get your education. You won’t recoup that money for decades and you will have to repay a boatload of money each month along with your malpractice insurance. @mom2collegekids has a son in med school and can tell you how that will work.
@newjerseygirl98 is absolutely correct; transfers get limited funding.
gap year pro, saving 200k in loans.
Apply to any lac in california. Occidental is amazing and in la. Offers full need met. 25 or so thousand in debt out of undergrad is what they have to offer.
My advice: do not burden your life with debt from college. Like others, you are likely to change your mind regarding med school in the next couple of years or your grades/MCAT scores will make that decision for you. You will rue the day you decided to attend a UC and graduate drowning in debt.
Go instate (probably not too late to apply to some colleges) or take a gap year and apply to colleges with an eye toward low cost of attendance.
Since you’d qualify for financial aid, retake the SAT or ACT (and prep well), take a gap year working or going abroad (high school abroad through nacel, YFU, AFS, etc is great for colleges) and apply to colleges outside of TX that have good financial aid for Fall 2017. Start with 100% need colleges:
http://www.thecollegesolution.com/schools-that-meet-100-of-financial-need-2/
Occidental is indeed one you can aim for. Pitzer is another one. These two meet 100% need.
You could try Chapman or LMU, URedlands, Whittier, depending on your financial need (run the NPC). Those only meet need for students they want.
You could add lots of other colleges from the link above. Most are outside of TX.
If you want a liberal, “different” college still accepting applications, apply to Hendrix. Very supportive for premeds.
Go into CommonApp and enter Ap1 as a deadline and see what colleges are still taking applications. If none are of interest, or if you apply and they’re unaffordable, take a gap year. (That’s keeping in mind the fact you really want to get out of Texas. If you’re okay staying, you can use the good advice in posts above 
)
Gap years are better if you need financial aid, because you’ll still qualify for freshman aid - transfers get lousy aid.
If you up your score a bit, you’d qualify for lots of financial aid at many OOS colleges if you apply there by Dec 1st 2016.
Listen to MYOS. That’s very good advice.
What you may not understand, borrowing money really limits you, even while you’re in college. The limitations start your freshman year. There is a mental and emotional cost to taking out loans no one ever mentions. You have to consider every option in terms of “what will this do/add to my debt?” Borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars is insane.
Take a gap year. Do practice SAT or ACT exams. Pick the one that best suits you. Take more practice tests. Get a job.
Research private colleges on the west coast (and elsewhere) that will give you merit aid for your grades and test scores. I second Hendrix, outside Little Rock, Arkansas.
You can’t afford CA public schools.
If you want to go OOS, take a gap year, retake the SAT and/or ACT to try to boost your scores so you can qualify for merit aid.
YOU can only borrow $5500 as a freshman, $6500 as a soph, and $7500/year as a junior and senior. The only way for you to get another ~$45k/year is if your parents cosign loans for you, and if you can’t repay them, they’ll have to do it. It doesn’t sound like they’re willing to do that.
How much are your parents saying that they’ll pay? If you work summers, you could probably earn ~$3k/year. Did your sister qualify for Pell? If so, you should qualify too. The Pell grant is a federal entitlement; if you qualify and if your app is in by the deadline (June 1st, I think), you get it, but that’s only $0 to ~$5k max.
Your parents are right. You’re speaking from the vantage point of someone who hasn’t yet had to work to pay back the standard $27k student loan; you’re talking about 10x that for undergrad plus another $300k for med school. What happens if you change majors? If your GPA and/or MCAT aren’t competitive? Why would you ask your parents to cosign over a quarter of a million dollars in loans when you have a college within commuting distance of your house?
If you want to be a doctor, your best bet is to find a school where you can graduate with low or no debt. If you can’t find an affordable OOS college, commute to your local 4-year public. And quit taking advice from your friends. They aren’t paying your tuition.
A gap year honestly wasn’t really on my list of considerations. Taking a year off from school and being a year behind doesn’t really sound appealing, but I’ll consider it now. So maybe I’m being unrealistic with California schools and taking out loans for them. The more realistic and financially sound decision I’m leaning towards is attending Arkansas my freshman year and transferring to UT Austin my sophomore year. I’m pretty sure my parents can afford to pay for me to attend UT my sophomore year because at that point my sister would have graduated college, so I wouldn’t have to worry about receiving too much financial aid as a transfer. I have also received 30 credit hours through community college classes offered at my high school, so if that helps anything. My parent’s preferred path I should take is completing the CAP program that UT offered me and transfer to UT my sophomore year. If I followed that path though, I’d be stuck at home for another year and that’s something I definitely do not want.
Why attend Arkansas if you’re going to transfer sophomore year? That just sounds odd to me.
Do you qualify for any scholarships at your state schools? You lose those if you go to Arkansas first.
Why not look into Hendrix ?
Have you visited University of Arkansas yet to see if it is a good fit? If not, you ought to attend one of the admitted students events.
“My parent’s preferred path I should take is completing the CAP program that UT offered me and transfer to UT my sophomore year. If I followed that path though, I’d be stuck at home for another year and that’s something I definitely do not want.”
Aren’t there several schools to choose from? Texas is a big state and one part doesn’t always feel like another part. Arlington is different than San Antonio which is different than Tyler and so on.
I think you should consider the CAP program. Even if you do stay at home, you may benefit from another year of maturing.