Hi .
If my daughter get in bsmd hofstra with 33k merit scholarship. Cost of attendnce are 77k.
They dont give any need based grant.
In this case, does hofstra worth it? If i do parent loan?
It’s never good to have to take out a parent loan?
Nothing wrong with Hofstra…but loans are bad and if you are going over the $5500 a year…look at - how will that impact you? How will you pay it back? What kind of outcome can your student expect and can it help pay back the loan?
If it’s small, perhaps it’s not horrible.
But what’s the future? Grad school - more loans? Low pay job? Quality of living.
Do you have an affordable option - unless you can easily handle a loan, there is no reason to do this. For most/all students, there is an affordable option out there even if it’s not the most desirable.
And don’t forget, tuition rises - but merit doesn’t. And college costs more than they say anyway.
Hofstra is fine - but overpaying for it (vs. your means) isn’t.
Good luck and congrats on her acceptance.
Edit - thanks @twogirls - couldn’t find the original. It wasn’t the first message - I checked that. BS/MD programs are different and yeah that’s really a lot of debt but I understand if there’s a guarantee of med school - but I read about doctors ad nauseum upset they took that path due to the financial wreckage.
3 Likes
I did not read through this again. It seems your original post was about your son, and now you are asking about your daughter?
You are asking if the Hofstra bs/md program is “worth it” if your daughter is accepted. My advice is to create a new post under bs/md programs.
Putting finances aside for a minute, it is impossible for me to tell you whether a specific program is “worth it.” Everybody comes with their own background, finances, interests, etc. What is “worth it” to one might not be “worth it” to another.
I would not take out loans for an undergraduate degree at Hofstra. I would find a college that is affordable without loans, other than what the student is permitted.
Medical school requires big loans for most people. Taking out loans for undergrad is a mistake, IMO.
3 Likes
Are you saying that you would have to take out $44k in loans for 4 years of undergrad (the BS piece, I think Hofstra only offers 4+4 program)? So a minimum of $176k (tuition/room and board increases will likely happen over the 4 ug years)? If that’s what you are asking, no you can’t do that…that is way too much money for parents to take on. And your student will still have to take out 100% loans for the 4 years of the MD piece.
5 Likes
Yes. Correct. Hofstra 4+4 program is really temping but parents loan also budern
From what I’ve seen, students who are accepted to BS/MD programs are quite likely to be accepted to med school even if they’ve chosen a different college due to cost. There’s something about them already that med schools like (experience or whatever).
I’d be looking at less expensive undergrad options.
6 Likes
Yes, that loan payment will be a burden for many families (obviously I don’t know your financial situation). Current interest rate of parent plus loans is 7.54%, with a 4.228% fee. Repayment is expected to begin immediately (you can take a deferment while the student’s in school, but interest will still accrue during that time).
Anywhoo, a $176K loan at 7.54% payable over 10 years is $2,092 per month (ignoring the 4.228% vig which costs you another $7.5K). Can your family pay on that loan every month?
ETA: loan payment calculator Mapping Your Future: Student loan repayment calculator
8 Likes
Great post, love the link to the student loan repayment calculator. I wonder if a pinned thread with links to helpful calculators, websites, etc would be a good idea - especially in the financial aid section.
8 Likes
Wow your post very helpful. What if i pay only interest and let her pay after medical school?
Is that only allow 10years?
what makes you think she’ll be able to pay it? There’s low paid residency and many doctors today are low paid because they are employees like anyone else and not individual practitioners anymore.
It’s a horrible idea - especially if you’re saying $44K a year - and that’s for four years - what’s the other four years?
Just terrible. Find a less costly option for undergrad. Please.
2 Likes
Thanks for advice. It helps i can do other college
The interest payment on $176K is about $1K/month. That’s playing loose and fast though, as you won’t always have $176K until you take out the 4th year of loans.
You also can’t legally compel your D to make those payments once she is done with school (unless she co-signs the loan, but parent plus loans don’t need a co-signer). And what if she doesn’t make enough money to do that?
Let’s run some numbers. Your D won’t be out of school/residency for 11 years…4 years undergrad, 4 years med school assume 3 years residency for primary care (the type of doc she’s statistically most likely to become).
She will likely have med school loans of at least $300K (assuming she doesn’t take more loans during 3 years residency when she makes squat). So let’s say total loans of $476K ($300K + $176K).
She can take out med school loans at a lower rate than the parent plus loans, so let’s assume a 6% blended loan rate. That requires a $5,284 payment per month over 10 years (playing loose and fast with timing of the loans, as they all won’t be taken out at the same time, plus she could likely extend the payment time to greater than 10 years even though that means more $ paid to interest). That $5K per month is not doable IMO on an average primary care salary of about $250K.
This level of debt and monthly payment will impact her ability to access other debt for a house, or car. It may also impact other things, like quality of life, and even who would consider dating/marrying her. Seriously.
Does she have more affordable undergrad options? I get the allure of a BSMD program and she must be a great student to have been accepted. But she will have enough debt for med school, and really should try to limit debt in undergrad.
10 Likes
One other thing to note-- if your daughter opts to consolidate undergrad + med school loans into one loan upon completing med school, she will no longer be eligible for several of the federal government repayment options for physicians-- like PSLF and other loan forgiveness programs.
Edited to add; Zucker SOM COA is very close to $100K/year right now. I can almost guarantee it will be higher 4 years from now when your daughter starts med school.
She will have $500K in debt (not counting any interest accrual) when she finishes med school. She will then spend at least 3 years of residency earning the low to mid $50K range. This may be enough to live on a low COL area or maybe even a high COL area if she frugal, has roommates, uses public transit etc. But even if she ends up in a lower COL area, she still won’t be able to pay down her loans during residency. She may not even be able to meet her interest payments.
D1 and D2 both said the best gift I gave them was no undergrad debt so they were able to choose specialties that appealed to them, and not have to worry about choosing a specialty where they could pay off their debt.
I will also note that 1/3 to 1/2 of BS/MD students do not go on to med school for one reason or another, mostly because they change their mind about medicine as a career.
10 Likes
She should attend her cheapest, best option for undergrad. She’s probably going to get into med school, if she gets into a BSMD program. Meanwhile, she’ll save money on undergrad, and keep open the possibility of a tuition-subsidized med school seat.
3 Likes
Thx all advices
1 Like
My opinion is you need to find an affordable undergraduate option. IF (and I mean IF) your student gets accepted to medical school, the costs will be paid most like in loans, loans and more loans.
Having a lot of undergrad debt should not be an option when a student is planning to attend medical school.
The loans, if this student attends the Hofstra BS/MD program will likely exceed half a MILLION dollars.
So, your daughter has not been admitted? Am I reading this correctly? In which case, this is a very hypothetical situation. Bottom line is whether you can afford to pay $2000 per month to pay her undergrad COA or not? That’s what the fine print of Parent Plus says…it is your loan, not hers.
1 Like
If you want her to pay back the loan it’ll be 20 years after you took them, at best, during which you’ll still be paying interest. (Because she’ll have to repay her own med school loans). It’s just unaffordable.
Her best bet is to find a college where she can thrive and learn a lot without any loan (certainly no parental loan and student loans only if necessary ie., 5.5K.)
Good options involve colleges such as Juniata (or similar: Ursinus, Muhlenberg, DIckinson, etc.) or your in-state public universities.
1 Like
This is an interesting discussion, my C also most likely will get Hosftra BS/MD she already has interview invitation. Looks like tution/boarding and all expensing after financial aid comes to around ~40K per year. So its 160K for 4 years, one thing to consider is if she goes to any good undergrade school like UNC or Boston or UCLA undergraduate tution is ~75/80K per year and there is NO GUARANTEE of them getting into med school. Yes you can get into cheaper instate undergraduate school and most likely will be ~20K per year but IMHo your chances further diminish to getinto med school if you are ORM its even harder. Considering all that 40K per year undergraduate with confirmed Zucker Med School seat if she clears all GPA and minimum MCAT is not that bad. Avg MCAT for 2023 at Zucker is 519 so its a very compettive med school to get into… Its also part of a very big Northwell Health System in NY and almost guarantees residency match in there NY hospitals. Just my 2 cents…
They key question to ask is how dedicated and serious is your C to become a Dr? If the answer is Yes then BSMD is the best path for them…
You need to verify this. An “almost guarantee” isn’t worth much. The Northwell system does not override each individual hospital’s autonomy in the residency match process.
2 Likes