I agree with your parents about going where you get the merit. $16K will cover room/board and other expenses. IF you want to get into med school you will pay attention to what @mom2collegekids says - her own son is a 4th year med school student and she has helped numerous students/parents understand the process for US med schools.
Drinking the Kool-aid on how wonderful some of the exclusive UG schools will not hit your LT goal. Your parents understand this.
Save the school loans for med school - if you are smart enough to navigate this first hurdle of getting to a school which you can afford (based on your parents guidelines). There is a lot to doing well in UG, and doing many things right to compete against students wanting to get into medical school.
And being critical of how Coach Saban at UA’s salary is out of line - it absolutely is not. The economic impact for the State and for UA is very positive (UA is one of the few div I programs with positive cash flow and provides millions in academic scholarships and improvements to university facilities, including alum who also contribute heavily).
UA is the fastest growing flagship in the US for many reasons. If you visited, you might understand.
Many OOS students come w/o scholarships, and many come with scholarships - more OOS freshman than in-state – in part because there are other Universities in the state that are more affordable for some students.
“I don’t want to go so far from home”. Ha, what a reason. Is that going to be a limiting factor for med school?
Somehow you may not think there is a pool of high stat students at UA, or the honor programs to be a key factor for students coming. Again, ha.
DD has the Presidential Scholarship (full tuition) and $2500/year engineering (and also band scholarship and is in Million Dollar Band - this is her third year). She is in the STEM MBA honors program. She has completed two engineering internships and is a junior. One extra academic year will have her complete with MBA. No one can guarantee the EC would work out so well for DD, but participating/traveling to two successful SEC Championships for UA, two post-season Bowl games - being in top 4 teams both years, and a National Championship win…and we have two more years to go. It definitely makes the fall semester full of excitement. Oh, she works hard - has close to 18 hours this term, one humanity, her STEM MBA course, and the rest upper division engineering.
Parents at UA network too. Getting to be like ND, TAMU on having alum or parents located across the country.
I do understand how Wall Street connections may work for Wall St. But that isn’t the direction you are going. And being a TAMU alum, I know they have some Wall Street connections too.
However exclusive law firms look to the top students from top programs across the country. Important to be in the top 10% in a fairly top law program (oh, and UA’s law school is also well rated).
Nephew and another from his well rated law school (they are both #1 and #2 in the class) have just interned in a top 3 global law firm in NY before their 3rd year of law school - and if they want to work there, they will have a job.
Bright students can make their opportunities at a number of schools. Being smart about the $$ can help you a lot.