<p>@brianb299,
The truth is that small liberal arts colleges will prepare you at least as well for med school as any large school. The good ones will be better. Here is why: professors at liberal arts colleges know that their main job is to teach, but professors at larger schools often think that research is more important. </p>
<p>Am I generalizing? Yes, but, as an overall pattern, it happens to be true. </p>
<p>Are there exceptions? Sure. Some liberal arts colleges are lousy, and many professors at larger schools are fantastic. In general, though, you will get more personal, high quality, attention at a small LAC than at a large school (including the Ivies). </p>
<p>Plus… guess what? The medical schools know this too. My brother-in-law is a doctor. His undergraduate school was an LAC in the deep south. He quit a major flagship to transfer there. He says it was the best decision he could possibly have made.</p>
<p>OP, why are you questioning your whole search process? what have you heard here that has you questioning your approach?</p>
<p>Mom2 was right. Why would you want to do an undergrad premed at UCLA as an OOS student?</p>
<p>The UC’s are public schools funded by the state’s taxpayers. They don’t provide any scholarships to OOS students. They charge OOS students a “supplemental” OOS fee of $23K not covered by any scholarships. </p>
<p>So, your undergrad fees would run $55K to $60K per year. That’s $240K for a 4 year Bachelor’s degree. This is why Mom2 asked why you would consider UCLA for an expensive undergrad degree.</p>
<p>I dont want a small liberal arts college because that’s not the college environment I’m looking for and you guys are all saying that these schools I’m applying to are too hard for me and none of them will give me any money</p>
<p>Mom2 is 100% correct about UCLA. They want your OOS money. You don’t want to pay it. Therefore a meeting of the minds on what college should cost you will not happen with UCLA. Frankly it’s foolish. </p>
<p>I don’t think that you will get any FinAid. In order to get enough merit aid to bring your cost down to 30K, it’s going to have to be substantial merit aid. </p>
<p>The big players in this market are Pitt and Alabama. Also in there are Kentucky and Texas-Arlington</p>
<p>The TuitionRoomAndBoard for the SUNYs are just over 30K list price, so that’s something in your range. </p>
<p>A school like Case often awards a lot of merit. UR Merit can be estimated on their website. I don’t know if you will get enough to bring it down to 30K. I don’t understand applying to UNC or UVA either unless you really want to pay in the low 40s for list price, in which case these are good options. UNC is really hard to get into OOS. </p>
<p>I think that you need to have a chat with parents about what they would really pay and set your strategy accordingly. </p>
<p>I agree with “ClassicRockerDad” about the SUNYs. Binghamton is highly regarded and you should be able to attend for under $30K. His advice about Case Western Reserve is also good; a very excellent school for pre-med.</p>
<p>And UK and Bama give you options with that big school, rah-rah feel.</p>
<p>thank you for the clarification, OP. We’re just pointing out that you cannot have a safety that is a large state uni on your budget that is also of the selectivity of UCLA or UVA. </p>
<p>Everyone has to make these concessions to safeties or else they’re not safeties. You cannot easily choose a good safety, as I think I said above. You probably won’t need the safety anyway, but if you choose one that you won’t go to then you end up on a gap year. That’s not the worst thing that can happen.</p>
<p>If you know for sure you want to pursue medicine, why not apply to a school that has some pre-med honor slots (like UAB - in Birmingham, lgest city in AL; Univ of South AL, in Mobile) - I am sure other CC posters can mention others in other states. </p>
<p>A flagship school can sometimes offer some great things to prepare you. As others have said, UA has OOS scholarships that are worthy, and school is worthy for a student wanting to pursue medicine. I have students at both UA and UAB, both in honors programs and both on scholarship.</p>
<p>A high stats student like you wants to be planted where you can take advantage of opportunities and not be out of pocket a lot of $$$.</p>
<p>UA offers some unique opportunities - some my student is taking advantage of.</p>
<p>If your geographic area is of high importance, pursue those schools.</p>
<p>Be sure to get your applications in early enough on their scholarship timeline. You can narrow out to your final choice by May 1.</p>
<p>@jkeil911 I realize that may safeties obviously will be now where close to my dream schools but I’m also getting the feeling from this thread that I don’t even have a chance at schools like UCLA and UVA.</p>
<p>You would have a chance at those schools. Your record is good. You’ll just have to pay for the honor once you are admitted. :)</p>
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<p>Getting admitted isn’t the problem, you said that your college budget is 30K/yr while your family income is 170K/yr. Private college budgets are over 60K now. OOS TuitionRoomBoard is often in the 40s to mid 50s. UCLA is at the very high end. Even with merit awards in the 20K range on privates, you are still priced out. </p>
<p>You sound like you have a “dream life” in one of several promising directions. We’re giving you options to meet that “dream life” objective within your budget. Get over the idea of having dream schools. Wherever you go will be a stepping stone to the next level. </p>
<p>Now it maybe that your parents would “prefer” to spend 30K/yr and that their expectations of getting aid are unrealistic, but that when push comes to shove they could pay more. They may be willing to borrow more. YOU should avoid borrowing too much because you’re going to have to take out big loans to attend professional school (MD,MBA, JD). Those loans will hopefully be worth it, but borrowing a lot more money to get a liberal arts education prior to professional school is probably a mistake. </p>
<p>If you are stuck at around 30K/yr, the schools we have given you will get the job done. </p>
<p>Going back to this being about possible safety schools, as mentioned before, consider Pitt. My guy used them (and UA) as safeties and Pitt ended up being his second choice when all was said and done. They are a great safety school IMO. (Good enough that many like them as a first or second choice.)</p>
<p>Case Western and U Rochester can be applied to, but you won’t know if the finances are quite as good until later on. Pitt is rolling admissions and rolling merit aid (with more that might be garnered later from competition). They also cost less to begin with. Ditto all that with UA too.</p>
<p>You have a chance of being admitted to UCLA, but what you don’t seem to be understanding is that once you are admitted, how will you pay $60,000 per year? The money will not magically appear through some miracle scholarship. Unless you have $240k in a 529 account now, I don’t see how your parents will afford a quarter of a million dollars for your 4 years at UCLA. This will be in addition to the $200k for med school. BTW: UCLA is not a safety school.</p>
<p>You know, OP, it might be time to stop arguing with the people from whom you’re seeking help. Sometimes you can be wrong. Sometimes the people trying to help you can be right, especially when there are several of them with some experience in the field. Just sayin’.</p>
<p>It ain’t a safety if you might not get in. It ain’t a safety if you might not be able to afford it.</p>
<p>Sigh. It’s a tense time of year for more than a few people, but as I read the escalating tone on this thread (and on other sites–from some of the same people), I feel compelled to request restraint from the adults advising the students on CC. I could post this reply here, or on many other threads on which snarkiness is replacing objectivity. I think we can be direct without being rough or unkind. </p>
<p>I am well aware that UCLA is not a safety school and @jkeil911 I do not know where I was arguing with you all. I thank all of you very much for your help but this is just very stressful and its starting to sound like I am looking at all the wrong schools. I know that I want to a big school and I dont think I should have to compromise that because I am sure there are plenty out there who will accept me and give me enough money. Sorry if I sounded argumentative I guess I am just stressed. And @perseverance1 I thank you very much for your post.</p>
<p>OP - Back to your original query: would Clemson be a suitable safety for you? It would seem to offer a lot of what you’re looking for in a school, and I believe you would probably qualify for a good scholarship there.</p>
<p>For safeties, there are some automatic full tuition to full ride scholarships listed here: <a href=“http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/”>http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/</a></p>
<p>Remember that medical school is expensive, so you may want to save money and avoid debt that will be added on to medical school debt (medical school will probably cost you $300,000 on top of whatever undergraduate costs you).</p>
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what is wrong with OOS UCLA premed </p>
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<p>@brianb299</p>
<p>I see no benefit to going to UCLA as an OOS premed. First of all, the cost isn’t worth it. Secondly, it is a school with a gazillion gunner premeds of which less-than-half of the med school applicants will get accepted to any US MD med school. Thirdly, since getting into a UC med school is more difficult for an OOS student, you will be applying to a lot of OOS SOMs, so traveling for med school interviews will be difficult. Lastly, inadequate med school advising and no committee letters. </p>
<p>So, why would any OOS premed go there? What benefit is there? There are just too many negatives. </p>
<p>Go to a school where you will get a very good education, a very good GPA, and has good advising and hopefully does Committee Letters. ANY good school is good enough for a premed. </p>
<p>I know that the prospect of being a premed and applying to med schools is daunting. And often people think that they will give themselves a leg-up if they attend a big-name undergrad…when in truth, they may end up shooting themselves in the foot. Med schools don’t care about these things. Even if you attend an ivy the “nudge” is tiny. Attending UCLA gives no nudge at all. In fact, for an OOS student, it is a negative. </p>
<p>Med school is expensive and often requires significant debt. Don’t go into debt for undergrad. </p>
<p>(mother of a med student)</p>