Is it worth it?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Wake Forest University
1

<p>I have been accepted into Virginia Tech (VT), Wake, U of Rochester, Case and RPI. I am an above average student in HS, had a 3.9 unweighted and 4.0 weighted. I took only two APs and took some college credit courses too. Money is a big issue and I need to know if it's worth going in dept to attend Wake, 15,000 to 30,000 dollar loan each year. I would like to major in biology, leaning towards pre-med. VT is the cheapest since it's in-state for me. I won't want to attend Wake and come out with a 2.8 or 2.9, wasting both my money and my parents'. Also I have received an extension because there was an issue with my financial aid processing. Please any suggestions, ideas, or comments are welcome. </p>

<p>Students who major in bio at Wake, please post a message...</p>

2

<p>Unfortunately, Wake doesn’t have the budget (endowment?) to afford a competitive finaid package. Searching cc, you’ll see many middle class kids had to choose elsewhere even when WF was their first choice, just bcos of the money. So no way, WF is not worth another $15-30k per year, particularly if you are considering med school.</p>

<p>btw: you won’t likely graduate with a 2.8, but you’ll need a 3.5 to be competitive for med school.</p>

3

<p>Not a student, only a dad. Save your $. I think in the long run (and short run) you will be much happier.</p>

4

<p>No, that’s not worth it. I am planning to enroll at Wake in the Fall because they were able to give me a good financial aid package (after a lot of work on my part fighting for it…). Anyway, Wake is definitely not worth that much in debt. My original package was similar to yours, and I was planning to enroll at my state-flagship because of it.</p>

<p>Go to VT. How’s URochester’s package? My friend attends that school, and the sciences are very strong there. TONS of research opportunities, from what I hear. Intro science classes are huge though (like couple hundred), because the majority of the students study biology/chemistry/physic or a type of engineering.</p>

5

<p>I respect everyone’s reply and am glad for the advice. I have big shoes to fill as my older sibling graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a 3.7, double major. People expect me to attend a prestigious university and reach the same heights as my older sibling. People around me, especially my teachers, had high expectations from me as I proved in the classroom and will feel as if I’m pathetic and weak if I attend VT, which is ranked #71 while Wake is like #28 and U of R is #35. </p>

<p>Well rockerguyasj how did you bargain with Wake for money? How much of a loan is reasonable? Probably how long will it take to pay off a “reasonable,” loan? </p>

<p>Is the average GPA for the sciences in Wake in the mid to high 2’s (2.5-2-9)? Are Biology majors and chemistry majors hard since they fall into the pre-med category? Environmental Science is also another major at Wake which I was interested in and I do believe it is possible to meet the course prerequisites for medical school with that major, correct?</p>

<p>Bluebayou, in order to get into medical school you need like a 3.5 right? Well why do people study pre-med at places like Wake where they will receive low 3 and high 2 GPAs and struggle GREATLY to get in a decent medical school such as VCU’s or West Virginia’s? Rather they can instead attend a state school and get like a 3.6 GPA or high in a science degree and then attend medical school where they will appear to be on top of the game.</p>

<p>Does Wake have a 5 year masters/B.S. degree program?</p>

6

<p>Well, if your parents and teachers “expect” you to attend a “prestigious university”, then they should help you foot the bill so you won’t be in debt forever. That’s my take on that. VT isn’t no slump of a school to begin with. </p>

<p>With the bargaining part, it took me nearly a month to do it, so I do not think you have that much time. I was offered a merit scholarship on top of my FA package, and when I visited Wake I was able to convince a high profile Wake student, the Dean of Admissions, and my Adcom to advocate for me to get more scholarship $$. They called me on May 1st and told me that they were able to get me enough extra scholarship money to attend. If you were offered a scholarship, you may have some leeway room to bargain.</p>

<p>I also was able to get all my loans subsidized (4k of Perkins and 3k of Stafford). </p>

<p>Also ES at Wake is offered only as a minor, not a major.</p>

<p>Honestly, I love Wake, But no school is worth that much debt. You’re obviously hardworking and intelligent. Go to VT, be an all-star student, and get into an amazing medical school. In 10 years, your undergrad degree won’t matter as much as you think it does.</p>

<p>When you’re a Dr. no one will ask you where you went for undergrad. </p>

<p>IF you are dead-set on Wake. Figure how much loans you need to take (15,000-30,000 is a huge window), what type of loans (subsidized, private, etc). And maybe see if you can apply to some private scholarship to help you out. Also, remember that you can apply as an RA after your first year, which will knock out about $9,500.00 a year (free room and board). Just be pragmatic about it, this is a lot of money. You can also double shift in the summer to get some money, work during the year, etc.</p>

7

<p>I’ve never seen the actual numbers, but I’d be very surprised if the average GPA in the sciences at Wake was in the as low as you’re asking. In fact, I think that your major average has to be higher than that in order to graduate (I’ll look that up in a couple of minutes).</p>

<p>Personally, as a former biology major (former because I graduated not former because I switched majors), I never thought that it was harder than the other majors. It was probably more time consuming because of the required labs, but not harder. I got the same feeling from the chemistry majors I knew, although all of them griped about having to take pchem, but I think that’s a universal chemistry major complaint and not unique to Wake Forest. I honestly didn’t know that we had an environmental science major. I thought it was a minor, but I could be wrong (another thing I’ll look up).</p>

<p>Honestly, I wouldn’t let your GPA worries keep you from coming to Wake. In my experience, most people who are still pre-med at the end of three years (when you’ll start the application process to medical school) have a gpa high enough to get in. I really don’t think that the people who end up dropping from the pre-med program would be less likely to drop from the program at any other school. I’m not entirely convinced that the gpas at Wake are actually deflated, but even if they are, I’m fairly certain that it isn’t negatively affecting the number of medical school admissions.</p>

8

<p>Okay, it turns out that the minimum major GPA to graduate in both the chemistry and biology departments is 2.0, but I still don’t think that the average major gpa of a bio or chem major is less than 3.0. I’m fairly certain that I was in upper level classes where there wasn’t a grade less than a B, but I guess that I could be wrong about that.</p>

<p>We don’t have an environmental science major. It’s a minor.</p>

9

<p>Estimating a $22,500 loan each year x 4 years = $90,000 in loans. As a rule of thumb, to pay off a loan of X dollars in your first 10 years after graduation, you’ll need an average salary of X dollars per year. It’s not reasonable to plan on averaging $90,000 for the ten years after college - go to Tech or another place that will give you reasonable aid. (I say this as a loyal WF alumnus.)</p>