<p>I hate to say it, but doesn’t my daughter have an edge being a URM. I would think that they would do less weeding and more encouraging of URM’s since they are so such a small percentage of the med school population. </p>
<p>@cptofthehouse - I’ve heard of weeding out but not at that extreme. Now you are making me worried. I will have to contact the school and see exactly what they are doing. If they weed out by not allowing kids recommendations from the school, is it possible if my kid does an internship at another hospital during the summer that she could get her recommendations via that route?</p>
<p>“what do parents of students who are average have to do to send their kids to school? Not everybody has a high achieving kid who gets scholarships like our kids, so that means if the state school costs 20,000 plus a year, that’s what they will be paying.”</p>
<p>We send our kids to the local community college for the first two years so we only have to pay (in my county) 5k a year. Then they transfer to an affordable in-state public (the cheapest one in my state is about 17k), and we pay part of it out of our current income, part of it with money the kid makes, part of it with student loans, and part of it with parent loans. If we can’t borrow the big bucks (or aren’t willing to), well then the kid goes to school part-time and works more. This is not news. It is how it always has been. What seems to me to be new within the past 20 years or so, is the expectation of the middle class that “their child” should automatically be able to attend a “dream school” no matter what damage it may do to the family finances.</p>
<p>@happymomof1 - I didn’t mean to seem snooty… I have 2 other kids who that might be an option for. Again, I think you have to look at each kid individually and what they can achieve and what they are willing to work for. I know plenty of families and friends of mine who are sending their kid to CC college first, or state school. That’s great. But again, they are not high achievers like my child. I doubt very seriously that you will see the parents of many top 1 - 5% students sending their kid to a CC. That’s all I’m saying. :)</p>
<p>Most kids in the top percentiles of their grad class will go to 4 year schools, most of them state universities. If they are truly high achievers they will leave a good state university system and go on to top notch grad programs with scholarships. </p>
<p>There is no doubt you will get more personal attention as an average student at a 60K per year school, but what you can get for yourself as a top student at a state flagship/honors program may be just as good in outcome. I’ve watched many kids take both paths and I don’t see a difference in the outcome based on the school - the outcome is based on the kid.</p>
<p>Only you can know if you will be comfortable with the amount of borrowing you need to do to send your child to the costlier school, it is much more difficult for a 17 year old to appreciate what it means to owe that kind of money.</p>
<p>A current top senior that I know is contemplating a medical career; the student took what I consider to be a wise step and interviewed doctors in the area regarding state school/public school undergrad choices. Some of those interviewed said they would not take young doctors with high debt into their practice; this particular student is going to the state school after consulting people in the target profession. </p>
<p>I completely understand how much emotion is involved in this choice - but the stakes are higher than ever, and the risk to those who over borrow is great.</p>
<p>Omg, I don’t “agree” with this either, but it is a fact that students who graduate from medical school with family resources to pay back $200k are better able to start their practice with a net/cushion of sorts. Students who graduate with $200k in loans are placing themselves in horrific financial peril right out of the gate. A few missteps in establishing a practice; a lack of financing to implement a good practice branding program – it doesn’t take much to find themselves in a position where they have to work “for/with” someone else just to manage their overhead because of their loans. Professional school loans really should, to my mind, be tax deductible against a practice.</p>
<p>I will, however, share a summary comment made to me today at lunch by a lawyer who was discussing what’s happening in THAT market:</p>
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<p>Now, there’s certainly a glut on law grads of late, and I don’t know if the same applies to physicians, but caution against debt is decidedly a prudent route. I don’t know what state you’re in, but there are many state flagships that send a very respectable number of students to med school each year. Confining oneself to pre-med programs is not necessary to achieve the long goal; private school tuition is not necessary to achieve the long goal; and assuming higher debt than the federal recommended limit is not necessary to achieve the long goal.
Which is not to say that fit and finances are not highly personalized choices – they are. Just don’t feel like you “have” to “buy” the “best” to BE the best, if you know what I mean. It’s kind of like drinking the koolaid – and colleges are great at exploiting the inherent parental sense of obligation/guilt ;)</p>
<p>It sounds like you have two more to think about, so try to be kind to yourself!
Best wishes in your decision.</p>
<p>Thanks to all of you for the wonderful advice. At this point we have already decided on paying the extra 5,000 year to send our kid to the pricey top 20 private… truthfully the local state school accepted her in the honors program but only gave her 1/4 of cost in merit. Out of state much better schools gave her way more in merit money. So her choice is between 2 top 70 schools are the dream school. We are not even considering the state school. So the difference really is about 5000 a yr…my heart and my brain says the opportunities alone not just the name is worth that. With 30,000 plus kids at the large public school she would have a harder time getting the level of one on one top 20 can offer.</p>
<p>I think one of the problems that current college costs/FA practices pose is that by the time you really know what the choice is going to cost you have very little time to “sign on the dotted line” by May1. Your child, and you the parent, have spent years preparing for this decision that must now be made with the nitty gritty details coming in only weeks or days before that magical date.</p>
<p>There is a reason that car dealers try to close the deal without letting you leave the dealership following a test drive - you are much, much more likely to buy - regardless of the cost/benefit ratio represented by the purchase of carX. The timing of FA packages and final decisions creates a high pressure environment without the opportunity for your head to clear the heightened emotions of this process so your choice can be truly rational. </p>
<p>For high achieving kids the problem is compounded by the joy of bragging rights at school. After years of hard work and competition, they are thrilled to tell their peers that they are going to “X University”, but if the cost is unreasonable for their situation, they are really too young to appreciate what that means.</p>
<p>The most difficult position of all is where the OP is - there are resources, but the higher debt is just beyond the comfort zone, so how far is too far? Either choice could leave you with regret, but hopefully alternate perspectives can help you make your decision with solid reasons and not just emotional hopes and fears.</p>
<p>I won’t be the last parent to be willing to eat hotdogs so that my child can good the absolute best education that will help her succeed in life.</p>
<p>Hot dogs are the least of it. You believe in your kid; we all believe in ours, too. We all feel they worked hard and deserve the best.</p>
<p>Please just know that weeding is not a concept. It IS a practice. Your daughter may make it. We can’t predict that. But, weeding doesn’t mean the classes are tough. It means the classes “can be” designed to eliminate kids. </p>
<p>In the end, each family makes the best decisions it can.</p>
<p>I don’t know a single school that has ug classes designed specifically to weed out pre meds or any discipline. Not here in the US. Specific military and other type of programs, yes, but not for general ug studies. But the course of study at some schools, the grading system are more difficult. It’s just the climate of the school. Engineering, as a rule, is not a good major for a premed and MIT Is not usually a good premed prep ground. Few of the ITs are, due to the way the curriculum is set up. </p>
<p>The committee system is one that does not benefit the students except in streamlining the med school app process it self. It prevents kids from hand picking recs and takes control of the app process through one medium. If a school has such a committee, and they do, look at it very carefully and see how many who declare pre med end up approved by the committtee. Don’t be fooled by committee results or by % acccepted by committee because a lot of times, kids are discouraged from applying if there is question of qualification. What’s a true shame is that I know dozens who were discouraged by the committee who graduated, took a stint at a lab and/or took courses elsewhere and applied because they were effectively barred from applying directly from college, and then were accepted to med school. They are not happy with their ug college.</p>
<p>cpt- you mentioned your alma mater weeds them out at the committee level. I am adding that the only kids who even get that far are those that can master exceedingly tough pre-med classes. </p>
<p>IMO, weeding is not about a hard class (ie, in the sense that AP chem is harder than regular chem.) OP won’t get info from a phone call. It’s not in media materials from any school. Most schools don’t publish “percentage of freshman who entered as pre-med and got into med school at the end of senior year.” They will note % of kids who applied and got into med school. The culling occurs in-between.</p>
<p>My young friend just grad from [a top-five] med school, last spring. She was caught in this “weeding” at her first college, one with a high acceptance rate to med school. And, she is brilliant and an exceptional student. Long story, but she was belly-up at her first college. It’s not fair, in any sense.</p>