<p>Thanks for the stats update - good to know.</p>
<p>I had planned to say this before I read about Grandma, but I still think it’s relevant.</p>
<p>
I don’t think so, or at least you don’t have to choose to feel like that. Emory has lots of bright happy kids. And lots of duds. Ignore the duds and find the good ones. </p>
<p>You don’t have much money, and you don’t need to start life in huge debt. Emory’s a great school. IMO: Go to Emory and have an awesome time!</p>
<p>‘Endorsed’ probably means USC’s stamp of approval of someone as a viable med-student applicant, which means there’s some ‘weeding out’ factors. </p>
<p>If student doesn’t have the right grades, say, 3.5 or above, or later achieve good scores on the MCAT, USC won’t endorse the student, which is strange because USC doesn’t have control over what students are accepted to med school other than its own. In other words, USC is montoring apps to increase rates of acceptance (and thereby report a 75% acceptance rate to the public).</p>
<p>It doesn’t look like Emory tries to monitor the pre-med applicants to med school, so 56% is very good. These would be comparable to UCLA and Cal, re, the info both schools have on their students applying to med school (which is limited wrt numbers who release this AAMC info). But both CA public schools have > 700 applicants to med school/year, so there’s obviously no ‘endorsing.’ </p>
<p>‘Endorsing’ could explain why USC has only around 225 apps to med school / year. Let’s subtract out 1/4 applicants, a national trend towards reapplication toward med school -> 169 applicants in a particular graduating class for USC (there are also some other reducing factors but I won’t include them). If 75% of 169 applicants are typically accepted, then USC would produce ~ 127 MDs from each particular class, still not remotely comparable to UCLA or Cal.</p>
<p>Btw, having ‘low’ grades doesn’t mean the student won’t eventually get into med school, but he/she will have to pad his/her ‘resume’ by going for a post-bac degree in, say, public health or life sciences. I’ve heard of someone who graduated UCLA with a 2.7 who eventually became an MD. Bedside manner is key instead of being a ‘robot’ kid who can punch out good grades and scores but has no personality…</p>
<p>Sunny, since you said, cost of attendance for UCLA and Cal would be ~ 22 and 24K, could you break down these costs on a tuition and R&B basis? </p>
<p>Non-resident tuition is ~$32-33K. I’m not comprehending where the difference of ~ $10K is. And both would be ~ $15K in R&B. </p>
<p>I couldn’t see USC matching Emory in pre-med if it is between those two…jmo.</p>
<p>… if you didn’t want to go to Emory and wanted CA with possible < cost if USC doesn’t come through, would be (and this would be radical):</p>
<p>Consider ditching them all on the first pass through and come to the leftcoast for community college.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I thought I saw that you were an Int’l, but there are certain cc’s in CA that cater to Int’ls, Foothill in Los Altos Hills, and Santa Monica College in SM.</p>
<p>Not sure why Foothill has so many, but we know the Int’ls at SMC want a side door to UCLA and they flock to the school from all around the globe.</p>
<p>If you have relatives in CA, that would be even better, so you wouldn’t have to worry about room & board. And there is a decent to good cc in every community.</p>
<p>Cost would be more for non-residents at cc, but it wouldn’t be exhorbitant, ~$500 or so for a semester?</p>
<p>Classes would be harder to come by at cc, but if you enter an honors xfer program, say, at SMC, you might have priority enrollment, and you could have ins to UCLA if you maintained a certain gpa. And since you’re premed, we know you’ll easily maintain a near perfect gpa, as cc is more ‘relaxed.’</p>
<p>There are some really incredible cc’s in CA in addition to the two I listed above: SBCC which is like UCSB on the beach, but much better. A lot of good cc’s in SD and OC. DeAnza in Cupertino, I think it is. </p>
<p>Most people want to have teh full college experience, so they write off cc, but if cost is highly important to you, this will give you another option.</p>
<p>Just some thoughts…</p>
<p>For anybody that cares… the financial appeal I submitted to USC got the family contribution down to just 4k, surprisingly. I committed there yesterday (and no, not based solely off the financial situation. My decision was a careful and much thought-over one.) I’ll have that paid off by the end of the summer :D.</p>
<p>Thank you all very much for your support and advice and what not. I appreciate it!!</p>
<p>Whoo-hooo!!! Congratulations Sunny! And congrats to all of you on this thread who were advising Sunny - this is one of the feel-good CC stories of the admissions season. :)</p>
<p>This is great news!</p>
<p>Congrats on getting into your dream school at an abslutely dreamy cost :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s your problem, you’re defining happiness on a short-term scale. True happiness isn’t achieved by acts of instant gratification. Sure you may be happy at college, but after you graduate with tons of debt and pressure to pay even more money for medical school, will you really be happy then?</p>
<p>Never follow your heart. Follow your brain. The purpose of your heart is to pump blood throughout the body. The purpose of your brain is to allow you analyze logic and emotions to make clear decisions in life.</p>
<p>But I dissent. Congratulations on your awesome financial package to USC! My college dream is at California too. I’ll be applying to USC, and also to Stanford (I’ll be happy if they don’t laugh at my application).</p>