Hi I’ve been accepted into Princeton, Harvard and Washington University of St. Louis. I am kind of unsure of what I want to study but as of now I plan on doing engineering pre-med and then go on to Medical School. My parents and I have always had the agreement that they would take care of undergrad and I would do the rest but they’re older (my dad is 63) and I want them to be able to retire in a reasonable time. I received a full tuition scholarship from WUSTL but have always wanted to go to the east coast and want to get as many internships, opportunities, scholar awards (dream of being rhodes scholar) as possible which I feel like would be considerably easier with the prestige of either Princeton or Harvard. Going to these schools would cost me ~50 k a year minus a one time scholarship of 20k. What should I do? I’m completely torn. I’m very liberal if that affects anything and am kind of nervous about the social atmospheres at Princeton and Harvard.
So the full tuition scholarship is just at $20K for 1 year?
The prestige of Princeton and Harvard will not probably make it considerably easier to get the Rhodes.
I would be reluctant to go to MO if I were very liberal. I would be more nervous about the social atmosphere in the south than in the Northeast. HP students are probably not that scary. Have you gone and talked to them?
If my parents were able to comfortably afford to pay, Id pick my favorite environment/location of the three, which belongs to Harvard. Though I don’t love all of Harvard’s brick, I enjoy the metro area much more than Princeton.
@phospholipase No I’m sorry the 20k scholarship is from an outside source and would be applied to Harvard or Princeton, WUSTL gave me full tuition so I would only have to pay room and board there!
@phospholipase I believe OP was saying that he received a 20K scholarship for one year that he would use towards Princeton or Harvard.
Go to WUSTL for the full tuition, especially if you want to go to medical school. You don’t want either you or your parents to be drowning in that Ivy debt before you’re even in the job market. Congratulations on the accomplishments and I wish you the best of luck in the future!
I am also nervous that HP would be really competitive
WUSTL is definitely the smartest option :). Could you apply the scholarship here too?
IF MONEY ISNT TOO BIG OF A FACTOR, Princeton.
You seem like you’re from St. Louis…??? That might affect your decision.
Anyways, Princeton +1.
Looking at your post, it seems like Brown would be a great option!
Also, StL is in the Midwest, not the South, and like most of the urban/suburban Midwest, mixed politically; not terribly conservative.
WashU is the easy decision if you’re sure that you will go to med school.
You should ask your parents if they would cover some of med school instead if you got a full-tuition award.
After all, money is money.