Hi everyone. I am having trouble deciding between these two schools.
I am seriously considering taking a pre health path in college, either pre med or pre optometry. However, I am not 100% sure I want to be a doctor or optometrist. I’m really not sure what career I’d like to pursue ,and I would not be surprised if I change majors in college.
I’m deciding mainly between GMU and VT if I get accepted. Here the reasons why I would want to attend either college:
GMU
- By commuting to school (I live about 30 minutes away) I will only be paying roughly $10000 a year instead of around $24000 a year. I would be saving around $40k on my undergrad education. If I choose to go through with a bachelor’s in engineering or computer science I might be able to get by without borrowing a lot of money. If I chose to go to medical school, I won’t be neck high in debt like I would be with VT.
- I’ve been told several times to avoid private loans like the plague. I’m not sure I’d be able to do that at VT. At GMU, its entirely possible I could pay most of my tuition through federal loans.
- It seems that the general consensus among pre med students is that it does not matter which college you go to for undergrad. I don’t see the point of doing pre med at Virginia Tech for an extra $10k of debt a year if that is the case.
- My mom is able to provide me with a place to live and food every day. She does not require me to pay her any kind of rent.
VT
- Aside from a pre health profession, I am considering a career in engineering or computer science. I believe that VT is very strong in these areas especially engineering
-I will be able to have the full college experience if I go here. I won’t be living at home and will get to meet new people in dorms - VT is more known than GMU. I don’t think this matters for pre med, but I cannot say the same for anything else like computer science or engineering.
Financially, I am not well off. My parents are divorced. My dad will not support me whatsoever, and I doubt he’ll even help me get a loan. $20k+ a year would be a big burden on my mom and I. I’m well aware that you should go through federal loans, aid, scholarships, etc. before going after private loans. However, I’m pretty certain that even after all of this I will need some amount of private loans to cover the remaining cost of VT. I am not familiar with how this process works and I don’t expect anyone on these forums to be experts on this matter. However, I do know that my mom does not have very good credit because of her divorce a couple years back. I’m sure this further affect my financial situation negatively.I am turning 18 in a couple of months and my dad is no longer required to provide me with health insurance, so there’s some more financial burden that is swaying me from going to Virginia Tech.
I am concerned about going to GMU for computer science because I have heard from a few of my friends that employers tend to favor students from more well known colleges like UVA or Virginia Tech. I am not sure how credible this statement is.
I’d greatly appreciate it if you guys could offer me some advice on this. Is it worth an extra $10k a year for a better name and program?