If you want to go to Med School, you should be focused on keeping your debt as low as possible while keeping your grades up. Chicago is fantastic, but if it means you’d be graduating with over 15k in debt at graduation, you should definitely consider Northeastern.
Consider that the undergraduate debt that you take on will be accruing interest while you are in med school, so that debt will continue to grow, and grow, and grow until you finally graduate and can start paying it off. If you do a residency, it will continue to grow, and grow, and grow until you finish your residency and can start paying it off.
Be careful how much you take out in student loans. If you really want to go to Chicago, see if you can have family cover some of the costs instead of lenders. Loans will be your enemy when it comes time to repay them, especially if you go to med school.
You know what? You seriously only have one life. I say run for it and make yourself happy. None of this will matter when you’re taking a dirt nap. Enjoy your life. Make yourself happy. Live the life you’ve always wanted to live. Explore. Reach. Soar. Chicago is your home and you know it. It’s just waiting for you to let go of your fears and fly. Welcome to UChicago.
^You only have one life, but so do your parents, who I doubt want to spend the next eight years drowning in debt from expensive undergrad and then medical school (you, OP, can take out some loans, but most of them will be taken by your parents).
I agree with what was mentioned early, make sure you really LOVE Chicago if you plan to sell your soul for the education lol. I was impressed by their relatable quirky mailings too until I realized it was all just marketing. I had a really great English teacher senior year, and he told our class “Don’t have a dream school. Have a dream life, and I promise multiple schools that can get you there.” Admittedly he didn’t come up with that, but I think it’s something high schoolers need to hear more often. We get so fixated on certain schools when plenty will make us just as happy if not happier. For example, I thought my dream school was Duke for the longest time and after I visited I had almost no interest whatsoever.
I attend NU, and I think it’s a great school, especially if you’re in the Scholars program. Not only is the full tuition a huge sell, you really get a lot of one-on-one attention and special opportunities. (My roommate and suitemate are in the program). OH, and in the Honors program at NU (which all Scholars are in), you get to share a bathroom with 3 other people instead of your whole floor- huge, huge bonus you have no idea.
Overall, if you’re planning to go to med school, pick NU to save money, even if your ideal program will pay for your med school. Just in case you change or major, or go to Chicago and don’t get into that program. Your choice ultimately but I think saving the money is the best bet. NU isn’t UChicago, but it’s still a pretty darn good school.
I think people may be overestimating the gap between the two schools in regard to research opportunities for undergrads (especially top undergrads at NU compared to average at U. Chicago). The Goldwater Scholarship is the most prestigious undergrad award given in the sciences. Here are comparisons for Northeastern, Chicago, and I threw in BU (who NU is tied with in USNews rankings) for comparisons sake:
Goldwater Winners by Year
2014: Chicago, 2 Northeastern, 3 BU, 0
2013: Chicago, 3 Northeastern, 1 BU, 0
2012: Chicago, 1 Northeastern, 1 BU, 1
2011: Chicago, 2 Northeastern, 1 BU, 0
2010: Chicago, 3 Northeastern, 2 BU, 0
swimchris, awards like Goldwater, Rhodes, Marshall, Truman etc… are very prestigious, but they should not be used as a data point to determine the quality of a university. For example Kansas State University and Montana State University have produced more Goldwater recipients than MIT or Yale. Do you believe that KSU or MSU are comparable to MIT or Yale in the sciences?
@Alexandre I think my argument is that that the availability to do high quality research exists at both schools, not comparing the quality of the institution as a whole. Earlier posts suggested that U. of Chicago was worth paying $200K due to the increased opportunities to do research in order to get into med school. I would challenge the notion that there is a large difference in opportunity for someone in the University Scholar program (which is structured after Jefferson Scholars at UVA) versus being middle of the pack at University of Chicago.
I also think that the amount of quality research going on at a school is somewhat removed from perceived quality of the institution overall. For example K-State, which does not have a medical school, pulls in more research dollars than Tufts (which does) and Notre Dame (which does not). Harvard falls below WUTSL, most of the Big 10, UC-Davis.
If UChicago really likes you, they WILL offer you some sort of financial aid if you mention that from Northeastern. Northeastern is not honestly a bad school, esp with the Boston connection and its influential alumni network. UChicago is less well known for Med, more of Business/Econ related fields, so it will be worse in terms of alumni and future work aspirations. However, there’s their prestige.
Do visit and make a lot of connections with UChic, beg/ask for their aid.
@alafae - how are you so confident that Chicago will pull money out of thin air? My friend who turned down Chicago for northeastern said they really wanted him, but they have a pretty low cap on merit aid. After that, it’s all need-based aid, asset neither side has much control over that at this point.
My friend said ‘no’ to a full-tuition offer to come to my small LAC. She has issues with $$, and they are affecting her post-graduation plans. Judging from her experience, I think you should just take up the Northeastern offer.
OP, only you can decide whether $240k is too high of a premium to pay to attend UChicago. There are arguments both for and against but money cannot be the only decider. Despite a high cost of living, lots of folks do choose to live in the Bay area or NYC. Are they all stupid?
@nanotechnology, she said the UofC would offer money, which they may, not the amount. BTW, the alumni network doesn’t really matter for medicine, but in any case, I’d take the UofC’s over NEU’s in anything, all else being equal (which they aren’t in this case).
Hey guys, I still haven’t decided between UChicago and NU, but there have been some updates. UChicago did not offer me any need based aid even though my EFC was 20, but they did offer me a 30k/year merit scholarship. Also, I got a full tuition scholarship from Loyola Chicago and am a semifinalist in the Robertson Scholarship…tx for ur input
It all comes down to what is affordable in this case. If you are taking out the remainder in loans for U. of Chicago ($80K), run some calculators to see what the loan payments might be. As for Loyola Chicago vs Northeastern, I believe Loyola has a acceptance rate over 90% (ranked #106) while Northeastern’s is in 31.9% (ranked 42). There is about a 250 point average SAT difference.