<p>I'm a high school senior and I have 10 days to figure out where I'm going :/. I'm planning on going on a premed track and go to medical school immediately after undergrad and eventually being a doctor. I'm stuck between Emory and 3 CA schools.</p>
<p>I visited Emory and it didn't really seem to click for me right away. Socially I don't feel like it's a place I'd want to be. The people there didn't seem like they had a lot of fun and their degree was the only thing they were there for. The campus however is beautiful and the academia is obviously great, but I can't really picture myself there. The financial aid however is excellent. They have a program that guarantees that for a family of my income, I would not graduate with any more that 15k in debt.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I really want to go to CA for school, both undergrad and grad. It's where I'd like to start a career and eventually live in. My options are UC Berkeley, UCLA, and USC. Financially, the packages are similar. USC is the cheapest, UCLA is 4k more, and UCB is 2k more than that. However, at any of these schools I'd be paying more in ONE year than I would for my ENTIRE undergrad education at Emory. Socially, I prefer the scene at each of these schools much more. There is a sense of community and togetherness at these schools. The people are friendly and I wouldn't be dreading my 4 years there. The academics are also on or near the same caliber of Emory, and like I said, that is the place I'd like to live and start a career as a doctor.</p>
<p>I feel like if I follow the money and go to Emory, I'd be unhappy and regretful about the decision. But then again, my family is not very well off and financially if I went to Emory, it would be very helpful to my parents. But CA is where my heart is.</p>
<p>What do I do?! And if I choose to CA, which school do I choose (keeping in mind I'm premed)? </p>
<p>^^ that is such a good point. All of those student loans will add up. ugh, i dont want to think about my situation. At least you got merit money, good for you.</p>
<p>This should not be a hard decision at all. Go to Emory. UCs offer very little aid to out-of-state students, and are thus ridiculously expensive if you’re OOS. You’d be looking at up to $100,000 in loans even before you borrow another $150,000 for medical school. Do you really want to be a quarter-million dollars in debt when you start your career?</p>
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<p>But what matters to start your career as a doctor is where you go to medical school, not where you went for your bachelor’s degree. Apply to UCSF, UCLA, USC, etc. medical schools when the time comes.</p>
<p>The standard advice for pre-med students is that you should get your undergrad degree as cheaply as possible because Med School is so hideously expensive. If your parents are ready, willing, and able to pay for the various universities in California, and they expect you to pay for Med School, well then the CA universities are do-able. However, that doesn’t seem to be your case. Run the numbers through this calculator and see what your aid packages and potential debt load looks like: [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Award Letter Requirements - Finaid)</p>
<p>If you want to start your medical career in CA you don’t need to go to college there. In fact you don’t even need to go to Med School there. What you may want to do, is complete your Residencies there. That is about eight years away from now. You have plenty of time to find a good Residency in CA!</p>
<p>College isn’t the “dream” Med School is. Focus on that, and it will be easier to do whatever it is that you have to do to make your undergraduate education affordable - even attending Emory for the simple reason that it is the cheapest offer on the table.</p>
<p>Agree with the advice above. Use some of money you save for some great vacations in California during your undergraduate years, and then come here for med school.</p>
<p>don’t listen to these people. go to a california school – follow your heart! your happiness is more important than getting the best deal. you can always apply for scholarships while you’re in college.</p>
<p>If you know for a fact you’ll be miserable at Emory, then by all means a little bit of money isn’t worth FOUR years of unhappiness! I mean cmon guys, it’s not like she is taking out 260k in loans like some others. If you to to USC, it’ll cost you 56k more. Not that much.</p>
<p>Follow your heart, go to USC. Work in the summer and during school to minimize the debt going in.</p>
<p>If you go to USC and carefully follow residency/financial independence guidelines, you may be able to establish CA residency for medical school and make-up the undergraduate cost differences easily. Too bad you didn’t like Emory but that being the case I would worry more about your happiness than the debt here.</p>
<p>contact USC tomorrow and see if they will match Emory’s offer. If needed, ask both schools for an extension for decisions while USC considers Emory’s offer.</p>
<p>I think UCLA and Berkeley should be off the table. Neither have good pre-med advising.</p>
<p>Right now it should be between USC and Emory…with USC pressured to increase its offer. </p>
<p>How much can you earn over the summer to minimize debt.</p>
<p>If USC doesn’t come close to Emory’s offer, then go to Emory. Emory will be more fun that you think it will. Med school is the goal and being a physician is the DREAM.</p>
<p>Castledreams is naive. It’s not easy to get extra scholarships while in school.</p>
<p>^ Agree with mom2collegekids. Definitely ask USC to match Emory’s offer and fax them all the Emory documents. Let them know this is the only thing keeping you from matriculating.</p>
<p>Did you check the med school admits between Emory and USC? If Emory has a higher percentage of its applicants to med schools get in, then it should be a no-brainer. I agree with ruling out the CA public schools.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of the advice everyone. Like you all said, I’ve ruled out the UCs. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking (and stressing) lately and I’ve came to accept that Emory isn’t all that bad and I really wouldn’t mind going there. It’s just that LA is just… awesome. I’ve been putting a lot of work into making that 18k/year at USC shrink:</p>
<p>I’m in the process of appealing my financial aid at USC and have used Emory as a comparison for more aid. I spoke with a financial advisor at USC and I will probably almost certainly receive more aid after the appeal. USC has given me an extension to the May 1 deadline and I am going to call Emory to ask for the same. And I forgot to mention that I have a really rich grandma. She hates giving my parents money, but loves me; we just had a long talk the other day and she said she’d pay for whatever if needed. So that helps a lot. Also, I’m working 2 jobs this summer. It’s definitely looking like USC will be affordable.</p>
<p>So at this point, I’m leaning pretty well toward USC. Ricegal - Emory 2010: 56% accepted to a medical school (89% w/ 3.6+ GPA, 30+ MCAT). Can’t find anything for USC, but I’ve heard that students who do well and are endorsed by USC get accepted around 75% of the time. (whatever “endorsed” might mean)</p>