<p>The deadline to put in your intent to register is in a little over a week and I still don't know what college I should go to. My top two choices right now are the University of California, San Diego and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. This decision is hard for me because of money issues. Minnesota is about $28,000 for me, a non-resident, and UCSD is about $54,000 for me. UCSD has been my dream school especially since I plan on majoring in biology and later going to medical school.
I know UCSD has a great undergraduate program and an excellent Medical school but it's really expensive. In my preliminary financial award notification from UCSD I could potentially recieve $9,000 in scholarships and $6,000 in work study and federal loan programs. I could also potentially get other scholarships. My parents have agreed to pay for up to $20,000 so I'm short $15,000 right now and the scholarship notifications won't come in until after May 1st.
I've heard that Minnesota also has a decent undergrad program and a decent medical school with connections to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Minnesota has not given me any scholarships that I know of and I don't know anyway of finding that out. If I go there I need to come up with $8,000 which I still don't know how I'm going to get.
I don't know what to do because UCSD is my absolute dream school and I've worked pretty hard to get there but Minnesota is more affordable. Can anyone please help me decide?</p>
<p>Minnesota. Save your money for Med School. UCSD is a good university, but it is not worth twice as much money as Minnesota.</p>
<p>You don’t say where your from but I would also keep in mind how much you’ll have to pay for travel to school. Being closer to home is nice doing holidays and for long weekends where Mom can do your laundry and give you a good meal.</p>
<p>You really need to think about how much student loans your willing to have. After undergrad school you have four more years of med school (more loans) then 3 or more years of resident work where you will get peanuts for very long hours.</p>
<p>My DH is a pediatrician and we are finally paying off his loans now that we’re in are mid 40’s. I know a lot of people think we’re rich but most don’t know of all the years of penny pinching we lived thru. The funny thing is now we about to go thru the whole process for our three kids. The number one thing we’re trying to do is make sure they can get thru the first four years debt free. Our parents we not able to help with our college expenses but thats ok because we know everything we now have is thru our hard work and thats a great feeling.</p>
<p>Whoops, just read that you are short 8k for Minnesota. You may not even be able to afford that. Do you have any place at all that fits within the 20k budget your parents are covering? If you aren’t an international student, you may be able to cover the costs at Minnesota with a Stafford Loan, a summer job, and a part-time job during the school year.</p>
<p>The fact that you attend somewhere undergrad doesn’t mean you necessarily have an advantage in getting into the medical schools, especially when looking at state medical schools that have strong in-state resident preferences.</p>
<p>UCSD had around 3,500 instate applicants and 3,600 out of state applicants for 125 spaces in their med school class. Only 12 of those spaces went to non-Cal residents (and I’m betting those were URMs or others with unique relationships to the school).</p>
<p>University of Minnesota’s med school had around 1,200 in state applicants and 3,150 out of state applicants for 229 seats. Of that, 48 went to out of state residents (and they had to demonstrate ties to Minnesota).</p>
<p>What state are you from? That is the state where you are most likely to get admission - unless it’s California. The number of seats in CA overall is so small that most pre-meds end up having to go out of state and paying full freight.</p>
<p>Sorry I forgot to say I’m from Hawaii. I got into the University of Hawaii, Manoa but I don’t really want to stay here. I used to volunteer at a clinic with a bunch of the residents from the John A Burns School of Medicine here in Hawaii and they said UH is a good medical school but if I could I should go to UCSD of Minnesota. I think I’ll be able to afford Minnesota b/c the I’m pretty sure I’ll get the scholarships I applied for but I won’t find out until after May 1st. Thanks for all the input though I think I have a better idea of what to do.</p>