@thumper1 , sorry, I didn’t know any rules about gap years. Just trying to think outside of box or limited amount of money.
@GaBassin, after CV or Chancellor in D’s case, your COA for Vandy is about $18k, not $22k. D’s host at visit was a GA resident who got GT stamps but chose to attend Vandy. We were willing to full pay, but she decided on Vandy instead of MIT and U Chicago. She is CS on premed track, and never regrets her decision. Vandy might be your compromise decision. A lot of premed there are the scholarship winners.
You are obviously a young person with a bright future. I feel for you on your tough decision, but given your choices, you probably wouldn’t go wrong with any of them. Best of luck! Hope you go to Vandy though!
Foundation Fellows at the University of Georgia is a serious honor with similar benefits as Stamps Scholarships.
OP: You have three great options for a tuition free college education & Harvard. Not bad. It is fair to say, that regardless of your final decision, you won !
Congratulations on all your great acceptances and awards!
If GT hasn’t given you the opportunity to talk to a current Stamps Scholar about what it’s like being a Stamps Scholar on campus, then I would suggest you ask them to put you in contact with someone. Don’t overlook that $12,000 fund and what you can do with it. It can help you fund undergraduate research, or pay for your housing if you get an unpaid internship over the summer. Basically, it can help you substantially with building your resume for med school admissions. If you go to Harvard, you will have to get paying jobs each summer in order to fund your education - and those may or may not be in a career-related field. That fund also comes in handy if you wish to study abroad.
Since you mentioned the international trip before starting school, I’m going to assume that’s with the other Stamps scholars. You will get the opportunity to make friendships with them before starting school, which eases the transition when starting college. You’ll walk onto campus on Day 1 knowing you have friends. And you’ll have time to do things with those friends, since none of you will have to have campus jobs.
You’ll also likely get on the invitation list for when different speakers come to campus, or emailed opportunities to apply for different scholarships/grants/programs, etc. As someone else mentioned, the university likes to see their Stamps scholars succeed, and they do help.
I know you said it’s a tough decision, and I understand that. Harvard is Harvard, but there are so many wonderful thigns that come with the Stamps Scholarship, that I can’t see turning it down.
I don’t think either of those are better than your two other options. Premed at vandy is a grind and you’d still have a lot of debt. UGA isn’t better than GT especially with Stamps.
Did I overlook what your major will be? If you’re serious about going to med school and it’s not some romantic vision, then please choose a major that you’ll LOVE and do extremely well in. Doesn’t matter what it is…history, English, music, whatever…and include the premed prereqs. If you don’t love love love bio or chem, don’t major in either one.
“If you’re serious about going to med school and it’s not some romantic vision, then please choose a major that you’ll LOVE and do extremely well in. Doesn’t matter what it is…history, English, music, whatever…and include the premed prereqs. If you don’t love love love bio or chem, don’t major in either one.”
Can’t agree more. The exact same advice I gave to my son who’s going to major in music while fulfilling pre-med requirements.
Here’s something else to consider if you really want to attend Harvard over all your other choices:
If you’re truly a STEM kid, and love neuroscience, to eliminate all med school debt, you could apply to MD/PhD programs. It will take you a couple of more years to complete your education, but you would go to med school for free.
If you decide you’d rather attend law school, if you have the high GPA (which would also be necessary for med school) and perform well on your LSAT (which presumably you would given you did on your high school standardized tests), you’ll likely get huge merit awards from T14 law schools outside of H,Y, P. For instance, Columbia Law is known for giving hefty merit to attract the best students, and it has excellent career placement.
This student is premed, not prelaw. What difference does it make what the quality of humanities or social sciences are for a premed? I mean, it’s GT, not some podunk school. The psych and socio 100 level classes will surely be adequate as mcat prep. And really, what difference would the quality make in regards to a neuro major if the student is premed? Seriously, the classes could be total basket-weaving and it wouldn’t matter as a premed. And of course, being GT, they wouldn’t be.
I’m not sure what the fit is that you’re concerned about.
The op did express concern about the neuro major ranking, but again why would that matter at all as a premed. If a premed majored in English would it matter at all if the dept ranking was 1, 10, 100 or unranked? No. Not a bit. And med schools don’t know or care about how a major ranks at an undergrad.
Short answer…no. Harvard won’t help you with that kind of debt. Furthermore, some of your medical school may require you take out private loans using your own credit history. You could get turned down if you already have $80k in debt. That would jeopardize your career. If you’re getting a full ride, take it and run. You’re going to be far better off going to medical school debt free.
Have Mom and Dad save their $15K/year for your grad school. With the offer you have in hand, you’ll also be able to save all your summer earnings and other earning opportunities to help defray grad school costs. I can imagine how difficult it is to say NO to an ivy school but its the mature thing to do. Look at your long term goals and how you can best reach them. Lets not forget about the stress caused by financial hardship which is what Harvard will bring you. Do you really want to worry about every penny you spend the next four years or do you want to enjoy these years while getting a fantastic, albeit non-IVY, education? And Congratulations!!! for some awesome choices.
Harvard is an amazing option (of course), but it doesn’t outweigh your full ride on top of the fundings and extra stipends at an amazing school like Georgia Tech. Yes, its prestige is lesser than Harvard, but I don’t think it’s worth the crazy amount of money that you will have to pay, considering that you have a free and paying, amazing option of Georgia Tech.
Harvard is the student’s “dream” school. The parents sound very sensible but is it “crazy” to spend 40K out of 200K annually for Harvard and the unique educational and networking opportunities it provides? This sounds like a good problem to have.
Thank you for all of the wonderful responses. I have read and considered each one of them carefully. Whenever I have this conversation with others, they speak of Harvard’s “opportunities.” However, it’s always conveyed in a vague manner. Can anyone tell me exactly what Harvard offers that I’d miss out on with Stamps at GT?
@Greymeer, Purdue is every bit as good in Engineering as GT, if ranking differences of 5 or fewer are considered inconsequential. Neither school is known for great things outside of STEM.
Vanderbilt sounds like a great compromise, both financially and academically.
I also agree that the amount of $ needed for Harvard is not worthwhile. If you go to med school, you’ll have a huge pile of debt already. If you end up changing your mind (like many incoming premeds do) you’ll be crippled by the debt with a non-doctor salary.
You’ll thank yourself in the long run when you can invest that money in other pursuits.
One of the “opportunities” that comes with Harvard is bragging rights. You get to say you’re going to Harvard, your parents get to say their child is going to Harvard, and you can name-drop throughout life: “Back when I was a freshman at Harvard…”
You get access to the Harvard alumni network, and access to the companies that come to campus to recruit. (Not that companies don’t also go to other campuses.)
How serious are you about going to med school? Is it a romantic interest or something that you’ve thought long and hard about …and…you’ve seen “the real thing” and it hasn’t changed your mind. I will never forget the text I received from my son saying, “mom, we had to amputate too many legs today.” Really hits you in gut. This is one reason that undergrads need to shadow docs to see that there’s a lot of yucky stuff and a lot of boring stuff.
Ok…so if you are super-serious about med school, then don’t take on debt. (Actually it’s too much debt either way.).
Med school is crazy expensive and not just in regards to tuition. There’s these super-expensive exams, usually housing costs are more expensive, and 4th year travel for residency interviews can break the bank.
Btw…do not fear that turning down Harvard for undergrad means that they won’t consider you for med school. Absolutely not the case. For one thing, the admissions offices are totally separate and they don’t look and see. They don’t care about that. If you’re a qualified med school applicant when the time comes, you’ll be considered based on your app…not a declination for undergrad.
I would guess that Vandy with a scholarship is about the same if not more $ than Harvard with need based aid for this student. And he said that need based aid would go down with his mom’s raise.
I would say, take the Stamps scholarship with all it offers and keep your grad school options open with $0 debt.
I took a quick peek at the undergraduate majors offered at GT. There are comparatively few majors in social sciences, humanities, and foreign languages, but many minors. Just one more data point if a non-STEM major is a possibility.
If the decision is to be weighted towards financial considerations with a known goal of getting into med school, it would be a relatively easy decision. If the cost of a GT education is $0 and Harvard is $40k/year or $160k after 4 years and assuming you would get into the same med school and earn the same amount of money over your lifetime, the $160k you spend on a Harvard education gets very expensive, especially after we factor in interest and opportunity costs over your entire lifetime. On the other hand, we spend money on “want to have” and “nice to have” things all the time. So, if you were my kid, I’d break it down like this:
How certain are you in pursuing medicine? If close to 100%, compare pre med programs/types of majors at GT and H, and the prospects of getting into med school post graduation. If programs and prospects are similar, is the $160k worth the intangible/impossible to quantify “prestige” and “connection” factors? You may even conclude that being a relatively “big fish in a small pond” program will provide a better opportunity and experience than being a “smaller fish in a big pond”. The $160k sounds awful expensive in this scenario. The GT experience may even be superior with no financial differences involved.
If you are uncertain of medicine, what are the academic opportunities (and their quality) comparing the 2 options. Does going to GT severely limit your options and prospects in areas of likely alternative interests? There is no question if you go to H that you will get a superior education with top notch classmates no matter the major. The $160K is now a lot “cheaper” in the grand scheme of things as the advantages of a Harvard degree may be much greater.
Personal anecdote. My brother went to a honors program at one of the top ranked most prestigious public institutions in the country. He knew he wanted to be a doctor from the time he was 8. From there he went on to a top med school and then one of the top residency programs in his specialty. He is very happy and successful financially and professionally. I know he has no regrets about going to the public school, although I will say he may have 1 friend from undergrad that he still keeps in real contact with. I went to Yale and then to Berkeley law school. I finished my education with a lot less debt than my brother because of the financial package I got from Berkeley even as an OOS student at that time (plus you can make pretty good money over the summers as a summer associate vs. the slave wages of residents). I, on the other hand, had no clue what I was going to study going into undergrad. I considered three different majors until I locked in on one junior year. Law school was almost a default. I will also add that my closest friends in the world are predominantly Yale classmates. About a dozen of us still take annual “boys’ long weekend” vacations together. My Yale friends include successful doctors, lawyers, bankers, engineers, business owners and journalists – I like to think we make each other smarter. For me the extra my family paid for Yale was well worth it.
