<p>My son has has narrowed his choices down to two (pre-med):
Nebraska and Creighton
Here are the reasons for each, tell me what your thoughts are:</p>
<p>Nebraska
- total cost/scholarship (18k/5k+Stafford Loan)
- he won't need to work during school year
- slightly inferior education
- better sports/clubs etc
- could room with his best friend</p>
<p>Creighton
- total cost/scholarship (44k/18k+Stafford Loan) - this is actually higher than their top academic scholarship (downside, he will need to work 1-2 jobs)
- better campus / nicer dorms
- better research opportunities? superior education slightly?
- would room with stranger</p>
<p>Creighton will be a strain for our family, but is it worth the better education? How big is the difference? What are your thoughts?</p>
<p>For pre-med, save as much money as you can in the undergrad school. </p>
<p>I would go for Nebraska where he doesn’t have to work 1-2 jobs and it won’t be a strain on the family finances. For pre-med, he needs a high GPA plus time shadowing/volunteering at the hospitals. It will be tough to do that if he has to work those extra jobs.</p>
<p>Nebraska. GPA is very important for med school admissions, and working a couple jobs during the school year is not a good way to achieve the high GPA required. The education he’ll get at Nebraska will be fine. Save as much money as possible for med school.</p>
<p>Go to Nebraska. Ditto what everyone else says. Get a great GPA, volunteer in a health related field and kick butt on the MCAT. The go to brand name med school.</p>
<p>Nebraska is a maor research school doing over $300,000,000 in funded research each year. Creighton is no where even close to that amount, less than $40,000,000 per year. The research opportunities at UN-L for a strong student will be superior to those at Creigton.</p>
<p>For most majors, the education quality difference will be non-existent. Maybe a History major at Creighton might be better because of smaller class sizes. In the sciences, doubtful there will be any difference in ultimate learning outcomes.</p>
<p>Even if he was not considering med school, ,with the price difference, it would be hard to justify Creighton and spending $50,000 more over 4 years. Creighton is a fine school but worth that much more than UN-L especially for a strong student? Doubtful.</p>
<p>What if he decides to do a study abroad during the summer…can you afford that and also not have him work during that time period?</p>
<p>Nebraska in a heartbeat. I’d venture to guess that the educational difference is negligible for a strong student in the sciences. The rooming situation doesn’t even come into it for me: I think that meeting and living with strangers is part of the college experience. The big difference is having to hold down jobs during the school year, plus the financial strain on your family. I strongly doubt that Creighton is worth the extra money, especially for a probable pre-med: average undergrad loans at graduation $36K? Way too high.</p>
<p>Nebraska all the way.
If he chose Creighton you don’t even know if he could find a couple of jobs that pay well enough to cover his needs and mesh with his academic schedule. He needs some free time to be a college kid too. Working a lot of hours and taking a full courseload won’t leave him w/ a lot of free time for any extracurriculars. He could grow to resent his choice.</p>
<p>The ONLY exception to the above advice is the very high placement rate into their own medical school from their UG class at Creighton…now is it worth the extra funds, probably not. I love Creighton. It was on our kids’ list for a long time but in the end they didn’t like the big city setting. I have to agree with others, go with the most affordable option because med school is expensive. I would not, however, suggest that he room with his best friend–sure way to make make them not best friends any longer.</p>
<p>I can add a negative if you want to dull Creighton’s shimmer. Sort of in an iffy part of Omaha. Course, on campus you’d never even notice (and it’s not as bad as it used to be).</p>
<p>Still, UNL. Even if Creighton places higher into its own med school, can your son stay competitive while working two jobs? I wouldn’t risk it for that much debt.</p>