Certainly the instate applicants are probably more likely going to land at UAB or USA simply due to cost. That doesn’t indicate that an OOS applicant should expect to end up at UAB or USA.
An OOS applicant with med school worthy stats will likely get accepted to at least one of his own state’s SOMs.
The following link has UA med school placement including the Top 10 med schools.
https://prehealth.ua.edu/prospective-students/success-stories/
For 2014, the school has a 55 percent placement rate, which is healthy for a large state school, and the school had 99 kids accepted to med school out of 180 applicants. There were 50 acceptances at UAB, and 32 at South Alabama.
The rest of the top 10 was:
Tennessee: 7
LSU: 4
Eastern TN: 4
Georgia Regents: 3
UNC: 2
South Carolina: 2
Ole Miss: 2
Uniformed Services University: 2
I stand by my statement.
Your statement suggested that an OOS student should expect that his/her med school destination will be USA or UAB. that simply isn’t true.
Just because an OOS student may have been accepted to UAB and/or USA med schools, that does NOT mean that those were their only acceptances NOR does it mean that it’s likely their med school destination.
I can tell you this…USA accepts nearly every qualified female applicant from UA…instate or OOS…simply because it is male heavy. If that ends up being the OOS student’s only acceptance, then super, but more likely the qualified student has an acceptance to her own state med, and maybe elsewhere as well.
Again, I have a FB group for UA premeds. Most have multiple acceptances. I’ve only known ONE to have only one acceptance…and that was to UCF…and his MCAT was borderline. I’ve known a couple of OOS students who had no acceptances…one had inadequate grades and MCAT, and the other had good stats, but applied way too late, had a crazy app list, and was a 3 year undergrad (which is rarely a good idea).
Moderator’s Note: If people would like to continue discussing med school prep and outcomes they can start a new thread. Let’s get back to the OP’s question about “How much differential would there have to be between two schools in terms of ranking tiers to justify walking away from the full tuition or full ride”
There have been towns that have recruited families to move there. With a goal to integrate the town - they virtually give the house away as long as the family agrees to live there for x number of years.
Would you take that deal or move to the “better” neighborhood with the award winning schools? Live and school alongside more motivated kids? Less crime. More convenient. With higher net anticipated home appreciation?
Or take the free deal?
In some cases that is quite similar to the dilemma students and their family face when a large merit scholarship is dangled in front of them at a school they would have not otherwise considered. It in no way is an obvious choice and one should carefully understand what doors open or close if they take a path different than planned.
What if I don’t have kids or plan to send them to private school? At that point the award winning schools don’t matter nearly as much (if at all).
As for convenience, more convenient for what? Often times the recruiting neighborhoods are closer to major cities than “better” neighborhoods. If I work in that major city, commute time to work may be better. May also have better proximity to restaurants, theater, concerts, sporting events, etc. making it more convenient.
In terms of home appreciation, may well do better investing the difference (houses in “better” neighborhood typically are more expensive with higher taxes).
So just like the OP question, the neighborhood answer is it depends.
And I agree that one should carefully understand choices about college. Taking that large merit scholarship or plunking down huge chunks of change on prestige.
@ClarinetDad16 I actually really like that analogy.
I can imagine that if you were in the very first wave to move to the town as part of this social experiment that it could be quite scary. So many unknowns and uncertainties about the outcomes.
However, if the housing program has been in place for a decade or more and the families that have embraced this offer have found it to be not just acceptable but rather quite enlightening with benefits far beyond integrating the town, I would jump at the chance. Imagine living without the debt of housing costs - and what that extra money could free up. There would be money for private school or for a parent to stay home and provide children with ECs and to be involved in their education - even at that less than best public school. (maybe even a better chance at admissions to a top university coming from a bit less competition) There would be money for travel and more family time. Imagine if this fictional town was just a bit “less prestigious” than the “better” neighborhood (not a run down dangerous place) but still had all of the basic services for its citizens. The non monetary benefits of moving to a diverse area would start to compound and as more people took the offer there would be a cohort of dedicated, like minded peers. I think it sounds like a win-win situation. I would much prefer that town to a seemingly “better” town where I was on a treadmill just to keep up with my neighbors, working all the time just to feed the beast of competition and prestige, - where my taxes and money were being spent on luxuries and perks and everyone and everything is superior.
I can imagine that people would actually fall in love with their new town and be so overjoyed to be the recipient of such an amazing financial deal that they would want to spread the word! Soon more and more people are moving into the town without the subsidy or with a reduced benefit - just because it is now a vibrant, diverse, place where peole are happy.
Sounds great! Roll tide!
@CollegeAngst My situation might be similar to yours so I will share with you my story. My S would like to study medicine. My plan was to help him make the best choice for him. He had some free tuition free offers like Alabama(a good choice) and some other great schools like UNC( my alma mater-not free but lost cost comparatively) and he was accepted into Stanford. I told him we could help with Stanford but you would be own your own for med school. The advice would be to see the discipline of medicine your child wants to pursue. If she want to be a GP then I would vote for the no cost undergrad option. My S wanted to get involved with behavior research medicine so I recommended Stanford because I felt he would have more research options(just my opinion because I don’t know the data in terms of research for all the schools). I feel like he would have fun and be challenged and have a great college experience no matter which school he chose so that was not a worry. The hard part is worrying how much debt he may have after this is over but he is happy and that is enough for me. Good luck to you.
Thank you @NosyCaliparent ! I can relate, cos DD is not keen about applying to Stanford or Ivies in light of the generous scholarships she has received (Alabama is at the top of the list), and we’re not sure about entirely skipping these schools.
Also please remember that your high schooler may believe they want to go into medicine, but that desire may change over time. If they suddenly are not a pre-med, you still want the school they choose to serve them well.
Congrats! @Mom22DDs I would encourage her to at least apply IF she is interested in Stanford or any of the Ivies. Tell her not to be concerned about acceptance or no acceptance. The most common thing my son tells me when he talks to fellows students is that they all thought they would never get in. Also Stanford and the Ivies have great aid so it might cost less than you think. I still agree that the no cost option is best for non research based medicine. But she would have options. Visit the schools and she will pick the one that is right for her. I know this time can be stressful for you and your DD but to be honest I kind of miss it now that he is off in college. Good Luck!
@ThankYouforHelp you are correct. My son just had his Chemistry final and he thought about changing his mind about medicine and he is only a freshman. So I anticipate that many more of those times will come but the OP was talking about schools in the 30-50 range which have other great programs kids would excel at(including Alabama).
30-50 range is not Alabama. 30-50 tends to be highly selective schools - schools like Boston College, Georgia Tech, NYU and several of the UCs. None of those schools are going to give free rides.
Alabama currently is ranked 103, and is trying to improve its ranking and intellectual atmosphere with merit scholarships.
Yes, Bama is trying to improve its ranking, but it doesn’t really need to improve its “intellectual atmosphere” with over 40% of the school having an ACT 30+. Anyone in an academic major will be surrounded by very smart classmates.
Just to throw in a personal experience; DD1 graduated from UAB in Nursing, but has a very good friend from Louisiana that attended UAB and is now in med school in her home state. That is a confirming experience about how being from some states and getting into med school in their home state after OOS education for UG.
I know it is very cost effective for TX residents to go to med school in TX, although as this thread has suggested having acceptance into one medical school may be what the student has available - multiple acceptances can provide some student selection.
As a student who is now transferring to a private school after they gave one up because of money, here is my perspective.
My first tip is to make sure you have a strong, broad list of schools. I ended up getting into high caliber schools and low caliber schools but no in between. We did not qualify for financial aid except for one OK school that I didn’t really want to go to in the first place. Because of this, I ended up going to the 30k/year public school rather than the 65k/year private school. But it was a huge drop in education quality and I regretted it. If there was one thing I could have done differently the first time was to find better matches so I wasn’t having to give up the super good expensive school and go to my next best which was a whole 3 steps down in terms of caliber.
The other thing I recommend is always consider the finances but don’t make them the priority. I honestly could have gone to the 65k/year school the first time and not had loans but the idea of paying that much was totally absurd to me so I didn’t. Again, I regretted it. I think for who I am I thrive in a private school environment with small class sizes and students who are there to work and not just party. I felt like the state school I attended was all about getting drunk, and it seemed like a waste of money.
I did save money by attending a state school for 1.5 years. If the student gets into a super expensive school as a freshmen but can’t afford it, maybe ask the school about transferring there after going to a community college to save funds. You still get the degree.
Also think about future jobs. If the student is pre-med, pre-law, engineering, computing or maybe business a full tuition private school is more likely going to pay off because the salaries would be higher. In my opinion don’t send your dance student to Harvard, if you know what I’m saying. They won’t make the money to justify it.
Consider location more than caliber. If the student says “I want to be in LA after I graduate” then they should go to a solid school in LA rather than a great school in Colorado. Networking is half of the job search anyway, so being in LA for 4 years and working there during internships will let them build an LA network that the great colorado student when they move to the same area 4 years later.
i guess the last thing I would say is talk with the financial aid office. They are often willing to work with you and if you go there they will likely crunch some numbers and see if you qualify for need based grants (this is mostly with private schools I think, public likely wouldn’t do much). But they did this with me. They looked at it with my brother in college and made other small changes to see if I could get funds. Also if you are an RA, which is a risk because you have to apply, you generally get free housing and sometimes meal plans as well. As private school this could make what you pay 50k down from 65k. But from this perspective I do not know if the RA’s get actual pay as well so you may be covering more of the student’s spending costs.
Overall, I say money is a factor but never let it sway your choice if you can help it. I wasn’t really excited for college after I went to the cheaper school so it wasn’t right for me, and the student should be happy first and worried about money second.
@mom2collegekids I apologize - I see that what I said came across as an attack on Alabama. I agree that a student can get a great education there, especially if the student is driven to take advantage of the available opportunities.
@CollegeAngst If you don’t mind me asking, what top schools and which(don’t know to put this without sounding terrible) other good schools that your child is considering?
Here’s a What-would-you-do…Full tuition/fees with summer stipends through Johnson’s scholarship at Santa Clara University vs full pay at Amherst. DS is likely pre-med. Kind parents willing to pay 4 years and are able to do so without debt–if DS takes the SCU scholarship, then tuition funds would cover med school and DS would graduate debt free. If DS chooses full pay Amherst, then DS assumes costs/debts for med school. What would you advise the student?
@WhimsyU I’m an Amherst alum. I started pre-med, got interested in other things, and went on to get a fully funded PhD. Great experience. Good career. Unless I was 100% sure that my kid was going to med school, I would choose Amherst.
Let’s say DS was 100% sure about med school. I’m not in medicine, so I ask this question from a position of ignorance: do doctors typically have a hard time paying off med school debt? If the answer is yes, take the free ride.