<p>I am stuck with this hugeee college decision right now that is just overwhelming my mind! Right now it is between two schools: University of Michigan and Xavier in Louisiana. I took a visit to Michigan and completely loooooovvveedd it; it was pretty much everything I look for in a college. I am somewhat unsure of my major, but I know I want to have a concentration in premed and go onto medical school. I am also OOS for both schools. Here is a pro/con table of each:</p>
<p>MICHIGAN cons:
-MONEY!!! (I was offered no scholarships and little financial aid, so I would have to take out about $5k-$7.5k in loans per year which will total up to $20k-$30k in loans throughout my undergraduate time).
-not the most support/huge school</p>
<p>XAVIER pros:
-good science dept.
-known for getting blacks into medical school
-offering me full tuition scholarship (I would only have to pay room/board which my parents can foot).
-good support/smaller school</p>
<p>XAVIER cons:
-not very academically well rounded; probably ONLY known for science, so if I wanted to major in something else besides science, it would not look great
-very dead social scene/campus life
-not as prestigious as Michigan</p>
<p>So I guess in all, it comes down to money. Is the Michigan education/undergraduate experience worth taking out 20-30k in loans for?? My biggest fear of going to Michigan is being weeded out, wasting my parents' money, and still being stuck with these loans! My biggest fear of Xavier would be not liking the school at all and regretting that I should have gone to Michigan. So would any of you guys take this gamble or not??</p>
<p>20 - 30k in loans really isn’t that much and pretty standard. (Biased obviously) But go Michigan. You don’t want to look back and say “What if?”</p>
<p>Personally, I wouldn’t pay out-of-state tuition just for premed. If it were UMich vs. Xavier for Ross Business or Engineering, then different story.</p>
<p>UM definitely. As someone said earlier, 20~30k isn’t THAT much, especially for a UMich graduate because lots of doors will be opened up for you.</p>
<p>“Personally, I wouldn’t pay out-of-state tuition just for premed.”</p>
<p>Really? Did you check out Michigan Medical school class profiles? They matriculate ~50 Michigan graduates (past or present) each year. There are currently 193 Michigan alums in the Michigan MD program. Michigan is also well representred at other top 10 Medical school.</p>
<p>Michigan is clearly the better school and you would get much more out of it. But, do make sure on your estimates of how much more it will cost. Are you including transportation home on breaks? Have you carefully calculated the tuition and housing differential?</p>
<p>^Not with schools THIS different. Michigan will offer so many more opportunities that you could never get at a small regional school like Xavier Louisiana. There’s really no comparison here, go to Michigan. Simply the lifetime earnings difference will be more than 30k, plus you get the experience of going to Michigan.</p>
<p>giterdone - that opinion piece is without support. Some bias piece to support their company. It says stuff such as “Aren’t employment opportunities better, given top employers’ preference for elite-school students? A 2010 Wall Street Journal survey totally debunked that myth.”… and were suppose to take it as oh, done deal.</p>
<p>^^Wayneandgarth…depends on where you want to live or who you want to work for. Employers…even top employers if you are defining as Fortune 50…hire mostly out of their backyard i.e. schools in their region.</p>
<p>And this – “Being taught by a Stanford or MIT professor seems valuable, but a student can do that through Massive Online Open Courses, or MOOCs. Same course, same professor – free.”</p>
<p>^^ Would be better to look at a comparison by major than a general comparison and the OP intends to go to med school so could have any undergrad degree and will not need to know UofM or Xavier’s grad salary statistics…in this case the OP’s future earnings will be determined by post medical school employment. Most majors, in general studies and technical fields, do not have a wide starting salary spread university to university for a BA or BS. A better metric for the OP would be to look at med school acceptances between the two schools.</p>
<p>OP wants to do premed, starting salaries have nothing to do with her decision. Try to find med school acceptance rates even though I’m sure Michigan’s is much higher. Plus you’re never going to convince me or anyone else that went to Michigan (obviously not you) that some school like Xavier Louisiana is a comprable college experience or will give the same opportunities that Michigan will because it’s simply not true.</p>