<p>As a newly admitted Brownie, the past week has been amazing, but also really stressful in terms of trying to make a final decision about enrollment. I’m down to just 2 schools.</p>
<p>I was accepted to the PLME '17/‘21, with very little finaid (my family is fairly well-off), but was also given a full-tuition merit scholarship to a top LAC.<br>
My parents have a limited amount of money saved for me, so basically, if I choose Brown over the LAC, I will be saddling myself with hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of debt. </p>
<p>My financial situation really doesn’t merit any additional need-based scholarship, but still, price is the primary factor affecting my decision at this point.
Does anyone have any experience with this? Should I send an email/letter to the adcom/FA office explaining the circumstances? I know there were only about 55 PLME admits this year, so I might be a hot commodity to them. Is there any chance they’d consider giving me more if they’re going to lose me simply due to finances?</p>
<p>Definitely worth a try. I think chances are pretty low as the LAC gave you a merit scholarship (not available at Brown), but they may find some way to help you out a bit. I would CC your letter to the PLME office as well, just so they know the situation.</p>
<p>i guess it can’t hurt but i see no reason why they would do it. The ivy league by definition cannot give merit awards so unless they can somehow finagle need for you I think you’ll be SOL.</p>
<p>Long ago, I (and parents) had to plead with Brown’s financial aid dept for more funds to make Brown doable re $. We actually did this the day I arrived on campus. Now family situation had changed for the worse since financial aid forms (Dad still did not have job.) and it was long ago. (I also turned down a full ride at an excellent LAC with great premed stats.) My aid package was reworked, quite substantially. However, my experience over the years is that Brown makes a concerted effort to do well by the PLMEs. This includes that they work to find funding aid when possible for the Med School portion. (Something not heard of much these days.) For instance, I had Brown financed loans so that when I got to the med school portion, I had not touched my federal loan eligibility and could use the higher grad school limits for those.
Another thing to consider is the thousands of dollars you are going to save by not applying to medical school. Also when I checked recently, Brown was actually cheaper for medical school than some in-state medical school tuition. (Don’t know what state you are from.) And if you take any extra years to get into med school, the tuition just goes up.
The most important thing is, barring unforeseen changes in you, YOU ARE IN! I presume you have no doubts about going to med school or you wouldn’t have applied PLME. You will have a great undergrad experience. (Happiness is priceless.) My parents friends helped convince them I would have been foolish to pass up PLME and I’m glad they did.</p>
<p>PS, unless you are an URM (racially, or from N. Dakota etc) you are not likely to be a “hot commodity”. If they only accepted this number, (which I question. More likely that is their target number) then that is all they want. There are plenty of PLME candidates wait-listed to fill the slot if you turn them down. (I know one locally).</p>
<p>If your family is “well off” and calculated est parental portion is not close to what your parents have set aside, is it that they “don’t want” to pay that much, but could? You might start talking to them then about perhaps some of your “loan” coming from them. Then you will be repaying them in their retirement years, the interest goes to a good cause, and I would think they would know if you are a good “risk” investment.
Now in general, I don’t like loaning money in families, (had bad and good experiences) but sometimes it is a win-win.</p>