I have been accepted into the RPI-AMC Physician-Scientist Program. I have also been given a near-full ride to SUNY Albany. Can someone please advise me which route is best to take? I like the guaranteed admission of RPI-AMC, but it is expensive and I don’t know whether I want to be locked into Albany Med. How good of a med school is Albany Med? Does med school prestige really matter for residency matching? Does Albany Med do well in terms of residency matching? Is it worth going to SUNY Albany for 4 yrs and applying to other med schools? Am I limiting myself by going to Albany Med?
I also have been accepted at University of Rochester and waitlisted at Harvard and U Mich. If any of the waitlists work out, is it worth going to any of those schools over RPI-AMC?
I really don’t know what to do, and I don’t want to make an uninformed decision. If there is anyone who has gone to RPI-AMC, can you please explain if I will have opportunities as an undergrad to explore and shape myself (ex study abroad), or will there be no time for this? Do you have any regrets regarding the program? What are some of the most valuable benefits of the program, in your opinion? Also, if I decide to go to RPI and break my acceptance with Albany Med, is the RPI undergrad education solid enough for med school? I’m a bit afraid only because its a technical school, and I am unsure how good the premed advising and med school acceptance rate is.
What would be the total amount of debt you would have if you do stay in the RPI-AMC program through completion of medical school? How would that compare to the minimum and maximum debt you would have after SUNY Albany full ride followed by medical school?
If you do not go to medical school (most premeds get weeded out before applying, and most who apply get shut out), which college and major would you rather graduate from? Total debt in each case?
@ucbalumnus I thought the GPA requirement was 3.5. Thats cool.
SUNY Albany was a near-full ride. I finish undergrad with around $8k in debt. Whereas in RPI, i finish undergrad (3 yrs only) with around $150k (RPI expects me to pay 50k a yr lol i dont know how ill survive…)
And then add 4 yrs of med school on top of that, which is around 50-60k per year, so another 220k roughly.
Point is— I will save ~142k by going the SUNY Albany route. Is RPI-AMC worth the extra $142k???
If I am just going for undergrad to either institution, i would rather go to SUNY Albany (less expensive, pretty much same quality of education). Debt difference here would be $192k. My major would probably be chemistry or biochem (I wanted neuroscience, but neither institution offers it as a major)
But I promise I am 100% committed to medicine. (It’s the reason I got into this program anyway, right?? )
@PurpleTitan Well, paying off the loans will be quite a struggle, and my parents are trying to scare me by saying they won’t help me pay off my loans (they will, I know they will ). And yes, if i go RPI route, those are crazy amounts. They weren’t very generous, unfortunately. However, that’s a bridge I’ll cross when (if) I get there. I first wanna know what you guys would do if you were in my shoes. Any thoughts??
The $150k debt for RPI undergraduate pretty much makes it far too unaffordable. You cannot get anywhere near that amount of loans without a cosigner or parent loans. If your parents do not have the money, then it is probably a very bad idea for both them and you to cosign or take that much in parent loans.
Once you get to medical school, huge debt is the norm, but over 90% of MD graduates get matched to a residency, and will (after 3-7 years of residency) earn enough pay in medical practice to have a realistic chance of paying off the huge debt (but it can take a long time in a lower paid specialty). But the pre-med part of the RPI-AMC program is nowhere near assured to that level.
^ Agreed. It’s not a matter of not being willing to pay your loans; if your parents won’t co-sign, you can’t get those loans, and I would not be willing to co-sign for such a crazy huge amount.
Your parents will bitterly regret ever co-signing for those loans if they are foolish enough to do so.
@ucbalumnus So, when you say: “. . . the RPI-AMC program is nowhere near assured to that level,” are you saying that the RPI-AMC program won’t give me enough of a return (aka salary, residency matching) to be worth going to?
My parents will likely cosign, and we’ll see if we can get the loans deferred. But let’s assume (humor me here) that money is not an issue. In this case, what would you advise? Thoughts, anyone?
It’s not assured because you have to meet a tough GPA requirement every semester. College pre-med science classes (especially at a rigorous school like RPI) are several times harder than AP classes at an average HS (and still tougher than at an elite HS).
Speaking of which, what AP scores have you gotten on your science AP exams?
Earning a 3.40 GPA every semester in college is not easy. One semester of 3.3 GPA and you are out. Pre-med weeding is heavy, and BS-MD programs weed about as aggressively as the normal pre-med process. Most pre-med frosh are weeded out before getting to the point of applying to medical school (or transitioning to the medical school part of a BS-MD program).
In contrast, once students get to medical school, flunking out is rare, and failing to match for residency is uncommon.
@PurpleTitan Oh dear. That’s not good. Especially given my AP scores (eek!)
AP Chem: 3
AP Bio: 3
AP Physics I: Taking in May this year
That’s it.
Pretty awful, I know. I am surprised I even got into this program. My ECs, ACT, and LORs were great, but I thought they would laugh my application off the table when they saw my AP scores. Maybe they think that I am capable of doing well here, which is why they offered me admission, but idk. I’m really doubting myself here.
@ucbalumnus At the interview, I heard that if your GPA drops below 3.4, they will put you on academic probation (or something like that) and they will help you out in whatever way possible (assign tutors, etc.) to bring your GPA back up. They said they are very helpful with assisting you through the process, and every single person accepted into the program has made it into AMC with no problem. Thoughts?
You are seriously contemplating asking your parents to co-sign more than 150k for your undergrad. Then on top of that you will be taking on your med school debt. That means you will finish med school with an extra 150k plus interest to pay down. Just to knock back that part of the debt, you will need to have an extra 2k in income every month. In other words, while your med school pals are buying cars and starting to think about buying houses, you will be taking the bus, and sharing an apartment. And no, do not count on your parents helping you pay off this debt. They have already told you that they won’t. This is their way of letting you know that they are looking ahead at the other expenses they will have in their lives.
If you do go ahead and borrow this crazy amount of money with your parents, make certain that all of the parties who sign off on the loan hold life insurance policies for the value of that loan on each other. That way if anyone should drop dead before the loan is paid off, the wrong person isn’t left holding the bag.
@happymomof1 I talked to my mom just a few minutes ago. She said that she is incredibly happy that I got into this program, and she will do anything to see me through to my MD, even if it means shelling out that much money. Tbh, I feel really bad asking them for help, but this is the tradeoff for becoming a doctor. You need to be ready to pay up. I’ve talked to doctors about this, and they have said that they are slowly working their way through the debt, and while it’s a huge burden, it isnt impossible to pay off, and being a doctor and helping others is worth the money put into the education.
And yes, maybe my med school friends will be better off than me and have more luxuries in their lives. But that’s not what matters to me in the long run. I don’t care if I have to slog and work hard to pay off my debt. At least I will be on my way to becoming a doctor,and helping others, which is truly what will make me happy. And then again, it’s not like I am the only person who will be graduating undergrad with 150k in debt… People who go to much more expensive schools will be shelling out a lot more money than me. Heck, I doubt most 1st year med school students will be entering with less than 125k to shoulder. I won’t be much different from them. (maybe less gray hair lol)
Anyway, thanks for your response. I will take it into consideration. Finances, while an important part of deciding where to go to college, is only one part of the equation. I would appreciate it if future posts could also talk about other aspects of the program to help me decide. I don’t think I should base my decision solely on finances. I think there’s more at play.
Average student loan debt levels are way less than $150k for undergraduate.
https://ticas.org/posd/state-state-data-2015 indicates that average debt levels are typically within the federal direct loan limit, or only slightly above (i.e. little or no cosigned loans). That you may have friends taking unwise amounts of debt for undergraduate does not make it a good idea for you.
Actually, most students don’t take on that kind of undergrad debt - even pre-meds. Quite possibly especially pre-meds because they know what their med school debt will look like. The amount you are considering is at the very high end. @mom2collegekids is one of our pre-med experts, she might have a better idea bout the national figures.
Perhaps I can talk to the financial aid office at RPI to see why they didn’t offer me enough aid. They might have made a mistake, or we might have made an error while filing for financial aid.
But regardless, what I meant was that shouldering a lot of debt is to be expected. It is normal, and while you should try your best to lower it, it is expected that you will have a lot of debt. Perhaps my debt may just be higher. And that’s okay. It’s not ideal, but I can make it work. I understand it won’t be easy, but the satisfaction of becoming a doctor is well worth the price (at least that’s what I’ve been told consistently).
Let’s drop the discussion of finances PLEASE. I’ll sort it out as best I can with my parents and the financial aid office. I’m not getting anywhere by just talking about finances. I’m not sold on SUNY Albany just because of the finances. I’d like to know more about the program; its flexibility, prestige, return, residency matching, professors, etc.
We’re talking about finances because stuff like return, how far you go in the medical profession, even if you go to med school is mostly up to YOU, not the school you choose to go to.
@PurpleTitan yes, I understand completely (you’re not saying anything wrong) , and I will contact rpi to handle the finances, and I’ll update you all on how it goes, but I would like to compare other aspects of the two schools too, not just finances. We’re beating a dead horse at this point. Help me out here.
We’re harping on finances because everything else pales compared to $150K in debt. 5 years out of undergrad, regardless of whether you get in to med school or not, you won’t think there is any aspect of either college (or combination of aspects) that you’d consider worth taking on $150K (extra) in debt for. The only reason why you’re so blithe about this is because to you, 150K is just a number; you really don’t understand what that amount of money (with interest compounding and adding on) means to your future.
And yes, doctors tend to have to take on tremendous med school debt to become doctors; but you’re considering taking on $150K+compounding interest on top of that. Average med school debt is $170K. You seem to think that $320K and $170K are just numbers, but they’re not. The difference between the two will make a major impact on the rest of your life.
