I live in Oxford so I can commute to Miami U from home. I will get around $3,000-$4000 in local scholarships as well.
Your ability to commute should have been in your first post. As written, it sounds like you were comparing apples to apples…when comparing college costs. You weren’t.
Your ability to commute should have been in your first post. As written, it sounds like you were comparing apples to apples…when comparing college costs. You weren’t.
But I will add to my reply from above. If you plan to commute to Miami…and your EFC is $15,000…and you already have a $7000 merit award and can take the $5500 Direct Loan, you won’t receive ANY need based grant money from Miami. Tuition and fees only at Miami are about $15,000 a year…and the school has already given you a $7000 merit award. Schools can NOT award need based aid that exceeds the cost of attendance…and that includes your EFC of $15,000 which exceeds the cost of attendance when only tuition and fees are considered.
For local scholarships, make sure they are renewable or you will have trouble later on.
Let’s say you commute to Miami. Tuition and fees are about $15,000. You have $7000 in merit aid…and can take the $5500 Direct Loan. That’s $12500 covered…leaving you $2500 plus your commuting costs, and books and personal expenses. Do you have a job NOW? If so, you should be able to earn enough to cover $2500 of costs over the full year.
Will your parents help at all?
Also I heard that once you start college there are many other scholarships availabe (depending of departments).
Also does Miami Honor program give extra scholarships
There are SOME departmental scholarships…not MANY. You have no idea whether you will be in contention for those competitive awards or not. So…don’t count on them.
@thumper1 if it is emergency my parents will probably lend me about $0-5000
Then you need a job NOW. You will have to purchase books…and unless you can walk to the Miami campus, you will need to factor in commuting costs. Check to see if you have lab fees with any of your courses. Some schools charge these.
Do you realize that there will be lots of other students at Miami who have higher stats than you and will be premed? They will all be gunning for As in bio, chem and ochem, Calc and physics to have med school worthy GPAs.
There will be lots of competition. And only so many As given out.
And many of these students will not have to commute.
How are your grades in math and science now?
Are you taking Honors or AP in those subjects?
Why not go to a good but less competitive school like YSU or Wright State (I believe WSU has a good nursing program so they should have shadowing or volunteering opportunities in healthcare)?
You could possibly live on campus because of lower tuition costs and it would be easier for you to work on campus or do research.
Why is your parents’ FAFSA EFC so high, for a family of 3 making $65,000 a year it should be around $10,000, suggesting that they have non retirement assets of $100,000.
Why aren’t they willing to help you pay for college? Could they at least give you any AOTC (education credit) they would qualify for?
How are they imagining that you pay for college with only a $5,500 student loan?
And @WayOutWestMom and @mom2collegekids can correct me if I’m wrong, but the college won’t get you into med school. Your GPA and MCAT score will be the main determining factor for med school admission.
Local scholarships often also have a need based component, or merit component, and if you earn those then they might only be for the first year, and not renewable.
And it is much easier to get scholarships as a high school senior than once you attend college.
@thumper1 Miami U provides shuttle bus for miami Students so I can use that but I HAVE A CAR so commuting isn’t big problem.
@mommdc My gpa is 3.9 unweighted: I am bad at english but I am very good at science and math (my CCP anatomy and physiology grade last semester was 97%).
The reason my parents have huge asset is they are saving money to buy a house (they want to buy it at once so they don’t have to pay interest).
Having a car cost money. Period. Include your car costs in your anticipated expenses. Either that…or sell the cat.
Your parents want to pay cash for a house and are saving that money? Well…that is an asset.
Biology majors are a dime a dozen and require grad school to get a job. Major in something more useful so you have a plan B in case you don’t get into med school or change your mind about being a doctor.
@mommdc right now I am going with general biology but later I might change it if I feel the need for example i might do cellular biology or microbiology or genealogy
I have also been working part time for 3 years so I have like $8,000 saved in my bank account.
PS i don’t spend too much money on unnecessay stuff.
@mommdc is right. Your undergrad does not get into med school; you get you into med school. Your undergrad is almost irrelevant when it comes to med school admission. Your GPA, MCAT scores, LORs, ECs and personal statement are all much more important than where you go to undergrad. (Want to see what actual med school admission officers say about what’s important–see p. 5 https://www.aamc.org/download/462316/data/mcatguide.pdf)
As I’m sure you know med school is expensive and you need to minimize your debt. You can do this by going to a less expensive school or by going to a college that gives you lots of merit and/or need aid so you don’t need to take out loans above the federal student limit in undergrad. Applying to med school is also hideously expensive–one round of applications can easily cost $10K. You need to be able to save for that. There are no loans you can get to pay for med school applications.
And you do need to have a Plan B. 75% of freshman pre-meds never even apply to medical school. Of those who persist and actually do apply, 60% do not receive any acceptances. Every premed needs a Plan B. (For the record, both my Ds–who both did end up going to med school-- each had Plan B.)
A bio major is fine IF you are willing to make the effort to add courses that will make you more employable upon graduation–additional math classes, some computer programming & software skills, maybe some business or education courses. You also need to open to considering other healthcare/healthcare-related professions–podiatry, nursing, respiratory therapist, medical social work, dietetics, public health, etc. See [Explore Health Careers](https://explorehealthcareers.org) for some ideas.
One more thing. If you are weak in English language skills, this is one area you will need to work on improving if you want to be a successful med school applicant. Future doctors need to have excellent reading, writing and oral communication skills.
The MCAT requires test takers have a high level of reading fluency and a broad vocabulary to score well on it. (People think the MCAT is a science test; it isn’t. It’s a test of how well you can read, understand, analyze & interpret novel materials that may or may not be related to science.)
Your med school application will be judged on how well you are able to present yourself through your writing (personal statement). All med school applicants have good science grades–that’s a given–what you’re being judged on during the admission process are your communication skills.
I do have plan B. Become physican assisntant or go to graduate school for masters in biology related field and do research.
PA school requires different pre-reqs and different ECs than med school. All PA programs require several hundred hours of paid patient contact work to be considered for admission; some require as many as a 1000 hours. PA school admission is just as competitive as medical school admission.
A MS in bio is pretty worthless. If you want to do research, you’ll need a PhD. But only 15% of bio PhDs find an academic (research) job within 6 years of completing their PhD. (https://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/47732/title/Addressing-Biomedical-Science-s-PhD-Problem/) The job market for bio PhDs is terrible and has been for the last 30 years. Most end up working in non-research positions in unrelated industries.
I think i will probably come up with plan b as I continue college. I mean if I can’t keep up my grades or get high mcat score then med school is out of question but if I have high GPA and high mcat score then I will continue likely go to med school.