<p>First off just let me say that this is my first post here, so I apologize if this is not in the right category (didn't know for sure where to put it?)! Anyway though, I am an upcoming junior looking into pursuing a medical career. I have worked extremely hard the past two years in school and with both a part-time job and many ECs in hope to attend a prestigious college, but now I am having second thoughts as to whether I should be applying to these high price tag tuition schools in the near future.</p>
<p>After under-graduate school, I know a good medical school can easily put me in over 500,000 dollars worth of debt. I am simply unsure whether going to the high price undergraduate school is going to be worth all the more debt in the end. I am looking for guidance as neither of my parents went to college and I don't have mentor I can talk to.</p>
<p>Another thing that is worrying me is that my parents make 100,000+ together, but will probably only be able to pay for my books. Will I still be able to receive financial aid/grants if my parents make a six figure income? I know it must be possible, but it worries me. </p>
<p>So, anyway, if I am accepted to one of my absolute dream under-graduate schools, is it "worth it"? I don't know how to put it as "worth it" doesn't seem right. I know having attended that college will help my chances of acceptance to medical school (and good grades of course), but is this all that huge, pricey school will help with?</p>
<p>With that income, you parents certainly can pay more than books (2,000 a year max) if they wanted to. You will not be eligible for need based at many places. Some you will be but only after your parents pay their good amount of expected contribution (20 or 30k a year). You need schools that give large merit aid. If you want to try for full ride schools, go to the Financial Aid forum and read the threads pinned to the top. Here is the automatic aid list parents here have compiled:
<a href=“http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/”>http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/</a></p>
<p>Whoa, no it shouldn’t! I would say the cost of attendance at most medical schools is probably between $40K and $70K a year, so the debt can be anywhere from $160K to $280K - but shouldn’t be anywhere near $500K. That’s ridiculous!</p>
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<p>Well, no and yes. You won’t be eligible for extra financial aid because your parents made the decision to only pay for your books - because they could, theoretically, afford to pay for more; they have chosen instead to spend their money on other things. However, there are some very expensive schools that do offer limited financial aid to families that make over $100K. It just depends on where you plan to apply - and how much more than $100K your parents make.</p>
<p>To answer your first question:</p>
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<p>Applying is different from attending. Many very expensive schools have extensive financial aid programs - universities like Yale, Harvard, and Columbia meet 100% of every admitted student’s financial aid. I played with Yale’s net price calculator and created a family of four with one college-bound student, parents who made $125,000 a year but had no assets, and a student who didn’t work. Yale returned that they would give $50,711 in aid in the form of a Yale Scholarship (their need-based grant); the net price becomes just under $11,000/year. I then upped it to $175,000 and the net price became just under $25,000 - which would be less than the total CoA at most public universities. So you can see that a $100K+ family can still get significant financial aid at very wealthy schools. (However, be careful - I used no assets for simplicity, but if your family has significant assets or cash in the bank, or something else complicated, you might get different results.)</p>
<p>But many schools do not meet full financial need, and/or would consider a family that made six-figures outside of their scope of financial aid. For example, if you applied to NYU, there’s no guarantee that you’d get any aid or how much.</p>
<p>However, you don’t need to go to an expensive or prestigious college or university to be successful. These top colleges do have their benefits - well-connected student networks, the best recruiting, awesome resources, great access to all sorts of things on campus. But there are many public universities that have equivalent resources - your home state’s flagship might, for example. And even if you went to a different kind of place, people go to medical school from all kinds of undergrads. The most important thing for you in undergrad is completing the pre-med prereqs (which you can do anywhere) and minimizing your debt, because you do not want to add much onto the ~$200K you will borrow for medical school.</p>
<p>Also, food for thought: the pre-med environment at some of these top schools is often crazy competitive. I go to one of these places as a graduate student and I work with undergrads, and the pre-meds tend to be super-stressed out and very accomplished. You will be a big fish in a big, big pond - and you’ll have to compete with your peers there to stand out. Many students thrive in that environment, but others would prefer to be a big fish in a smaller pond.</p>
<p>Yes, I understand that it is expected for parents with this income to pay more, but for one, it is not possible with their situation (especially 20-30k a year as I have three siblings) and they have simply said they will not be helping with tuition. This is my dilemma, obviously. Thank you though.</p>
<p>Thank you for the very extensive reply, Julliet!</p>
<p>As for the price point, I am including everything, not simply tuition, for both under-grad school and for medical school. If under-grad school would be, let’s say, 30k a year and med school be 60k, that would already be 360k without anything else. Room and board (if living on campus), meals, transportation are all other things that cost more and more. I believe that was my fault in the wording. Sorry about that!</p>
<p>Thank you SO much! I will definitely be taking that advice to heart.</p>
<p>OP, Juillet is helpful in pointing out the meets-needs schools. Let me also point out the full tuition/ride schools. Take a look at the threads at the top of the page in the Financial Aid forum in the column on the left of this page. Look for the one that says automatic full tuition/ride scholarship and the one that says competitive full tuition/ride scholarship. Those threads may be of help to you if you have the resumé. If you can get full tuition somewhere, you can probably scrape together with loans, work study, summer jobs, and handouts the 10-13K/yr in other costs that you’ll have.</p>
<p>Look above for the answer to your first question, mom2collegekids. I worded the original post wrong.</p>
<p>So you are saying that attending a school with a super high acceptance rate that is generally quite easy is going to be looked at as just the same as somewhere like, say, Berkley or even an Ivy? Info is from my school counselor and research.</p>
<p>I live in Pennsylvania. GPA combined from both years is 3.9~.</p>
<p>It’s the LAST school you attend that will “count” the most. Therefore, the med school you graduate from will probably matter more than the undergrad school you graduate from. </p>
<p>That said, there is also no certainty that you will go to med school. I started out as a pre-med, did a hospital visitation program freshman year & realized I’d being dealing w sick/dying/whining people everyday, and ended up doing something totally different with my life. Therefore, the undergrad school you pick should be one you will be satisfied to graduate from should it be your LAST school, but it does not have to be a “dream school”. </p>
<p>“Expensive” undergraduate school doesn’t not have to equate with being costly to you. There is FA aid available for families w up to ~250k income. And depending on how competitive your profile is, there are very desirable schools which give generous merit scholarships independent of your family’s income. </p>
<p>this matters little in medicine. all US MD schools are very good.</p>
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<p>this is really for those attending grad schools, not med schools.</p>
<p>for med school, it doesnt matter where you go for undergrad or med school. </p>
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<p>you are asking the wrong Q. schools that give super FA are still going to expect your famiy to pay their fair share…and that wont work. IF you got into a 65k school, and got super aid of 35k, how would you pay the other 30k???</p>
<p>You need to be seeking schools that will give you HUGE, HUGE merit scholarships for your stats…nearly free rides that cover Tuitiion, room, board, etc.</p>
<p>Obviously, I would have to take out student loans to pay the other 30k. I am looking for a way to take out the LEAST money in student loans.</p>
<p>So you are also saying that basically any school I attend will not matter at all? I am very confused since some people are saying that the last school matters and some say that none matter?</p>
<p>OP, you cannot take out 30K in loans each year. The limit is 5500 the first year and a 4yr total of about 27K.</p>
<p>That’s why the full tuition scholarships matter greatly. You’ve already qualified for one at UAlabama and its state sister schools. Another you’re qualified for is at UMississippi, as I recall. You might think those schools are not where you want to go, but they are opportunities you have by virtue of your great stats. You can go to college, in other words, because after tuition is paid your costs will be about 13K. You can find a way thru loans and work and what have you to come up with that much each year. Some schools offer full RIDE scholarships where students go to school for a couple thousand each year.</p>
<p>Look at the column on the left of this page. Find Financial Aid. Click on it. Look at the threads at the top of that page that mention automatic and competitive full tuition/ride scholarships. Check them out.</p>
<p>Some but not all of these schools (for example, Tulane, Pitt, URichmond) will have high admissions rates, but the med schools won’t care a lick. They want the applicants with the best GPAs, MCATs, letters of rec, and research experience. Fortunately for you, you have the stats that they want. Get over the elite hump and go to a school you can afford.</p>
<p>“Get over the elite hump and go to a school you can afford.”
Thank you for that. I have said multiple that I am quite uneducated in this and was looking for kind advice.</p>
<p>I did not know I could only take our 5.5k a year. How is it even possible for people to end up with so much student debt if that can only total about 27k? How do you hear about people with more than that? Very confused.</p>
<p>I appreciate all the nice people on here. Hopefully I will be able to find a school I both will enjoy and offers what I am looking for.</p>
<p>Merit money schools have the potential to give grant you money in excess of your family’s financial need, but it is very competitive. To maximize your chances of merit money, target schools where your stats will put you squarely above the 75%percentile of that school’s admitted students. </p>
<p>Here is a list of schools which give merit money. There are separate lists for universities & LACs. Look at the columns for:
<p>I was afraid that it might be too un-kind, OP. the elite hump is something most people suffer from.</p>
<p>You can borrow more, but a family member has to co-sign it. If you can find someone who can and will do that, they are in effect taking on the debt as their own. This is very generous and trusting of them, but you will still consider that your own debt. That is how people have come to say they have more than 27K in college debt. It is an expensive situation fraught with peril and post-graduation financial difficulties. Don’t do it when you have so many alternatives.</p>
<p>Some people end up with a lot of student debt because they have naive parents who co-sign the loans (if they qualify). thankfully, most parents wont cosign because they know how risky it is, or they cant qualify.</p>
<p>I highly doubt your parents would co-sign because they have 4 kids, and doing so for each child would be impossible…they couldnt qualify for all that debt.</p>
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Obviously, I would have to take out student loans to pay the other 30k.
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<p>the fact that you would write the above is scary. Even if you borrowed half that much, it would be way too much.</p>
<p>some people end up with a lot of debt because they borrowed the fed amounts for undergrad, but borrowed large amounts for med/grad/law school (those loans are easier to get because the students already have bs degrees)</p>