@Mwfan1921 Yes! The Presidential is renewable for up to 4 years and there are a few “requirements”: maintain a 2.75 GPA and attend some meetings/seminars before starting the Fall Semester - though I will need to call to make sure those dates are still up and running due to the coronavirus situation.
My tuition + fees (the things that will be billed): $17,469
UIC Opportunity Grant $3,700 (a new program started in 2019/2020 and is renewable upon checking right now!)
Presidential Scholarship: $5000 (renewable)
MAP Grant: $5,340
PELL Grant: $6,345
That’s $15,045 without the MAP grant and with it, it is $20,385. However, I wasn’t awarded the Tuition Award - though it looks like it’s because the grants and scholarships do go over.
@suzyQ7 Yes. However, they’ve been super generous to waive the $2,300 “summer work” contribution for the 2020/2021 year so it’ll actually be $2,200 for my first year if I do attend Bowdoin.
And @AlmostThere2018 I totally agree with you here. Bowdoin and W&L, financially speaking, seems the most reliable and I am aware that Bowdoin sort of “locks in” financial aid as long as I don’t win the lottery.
@HKimPOSSIBLE what are your thoughts on your possible high rank med school aspirations if you end up doing really well on MCAT and go to UIC? Do you think you’ll just stick with the UIC med school or is the prestige med school thing no longer on your mind?
In another thread, there is a link to the Stanford faculty Senate meeting, in which the Provost states she can not rule out layoffs starting June 15. That is a very heavily endowed university. Nonetheless, they expect to cut programs, freeze hiring, and make other changes. It is probable most other colleges will too, and the financial impact will linger long after the virus leaves. The experience at Bowdoin in 2021 may be very different dmfrom what it was in 2019.
Yes this!!! Same with my kids school but not a Lac. They kinda went out of their way to take care of the kids there ESPECIALLY the kids that had need and internationals. Nice point to make in today’s climate. My kids school they are still paying the kids that were working even if they are not there. My kids job can be done remote with meetings and he’s still doing that. Very easy for them just to stop till the fall. I think it’s great that he can still earn his way per se.
I have an issue with Illinois Map fund. I really don’t know how it works but I would not be 100% confident in it especially in the covid climate. Illinois and Chicago and every other state and city NOW have to dig deep to pay for this mess. They have to get the funds from somewhere when they make cuts. The better financially off the school the better they will be able to cope with this and less cutting and changes they will have to make.
Yes, my kid’s LAC, also a peer to Bowdoin, is paying work/study for kids not on campus, paid their emergency trip home in March. They set up a google doc for alumni to identify how they could help students in myriad ways – donating points for tickets, storing items, hosting students in their homes in transit. Amazing network of support you become part of when you go to one of these colleges.
I’ll put a plug in for the big school. Some people (me) just don’t like LACs. I feel claustrophobic in the little towns, at schools smaller than my high school (by half), with the limited number of courses taught. I loved getting that great big course catalog every semester (yes, I’m old, I know it’s on line now) and having friends who were majoring in engineering and business and journalism. I loved all the choices a bigger school provided. I’ll admit I sometimes liked getting lost in big lecture hall and not having to discuss chemistry in small groups.
My sister went to Middlebury for her first year. Her friends were lot wealthier than she was. While on campus there wasn’t much difference but off campus? She wasn’t going to Kennebunkport or The Vineyard for the weekend. After a year she transferred and while she was still poor, a lot more of her friends were poor too.
HKim, there are a lot of benefits to the LACs. They are perfect for some students. You’ll also have to pay taxes on some of the benefits you receive from Bowdoin or W&L (room, board, travel, insurance), and to you that may not be worth it. You have to decide what it is worth to YOU. You might like not having to pack up and move home every spring, to just keep working on your projects through the summer with professors you know. You might like taking an online class occasionally . You might like keeping your job at your family restaurant or even just helping out on a busy weekend.
Hi @HKimPOSSIBLE. I’m now concerned that the $10 billion budget deficit that Gov. Pritzker is projecting for the state of Illinois over the next two years due to coronavirus will impact the funding of MAP grants, which are often underfunded (or even halted under former Gov. Rauner’s budget vetoes and accompanying budget impasse back then). Just another data point to consider in your calculations. I see you may be taking this into account already, as you’ve identified your COA at UIC with and without MAP. There is just more of a question mark that attends the UIC merit/FA support vs. that of Bowdoin.
Perhaps reach out to UIC GPPA staff that you have been working with and tell them you are concerned MAP won’t be funded for the next three years. If that happens, would they have more FA for you, or would you be left to cover that?
Even if you pick UIC-GPPA, you should still make sure that you would be a competitive med school candidate elsewhere, and make sure you’ve done your shadowing, research, volunteering, etc. That MCAT requirement is a little high - I think 90th percentile, right? You could be in a situation where you’re applying to other med schools anyway.
Revisit your offers with UIC GPPA, Bowdoin, Washington & Lee and Macalaster in light of the Covid-19 pandemic to make sure you understand offer details and how they might be affected by current economic situation. Put it in writing, email is fastest, and get their written responses. Good way to take school’s temperature and get a sense for how easy it will be to work with your school once you get there. Hopefully, this will satisfy your questions/concerns and provide written assurance to you that you will get what you need to be successful. If not, better to find out now.
Speaking on potential IL MAP grant issues in current environment.
OP posted FA numbers, surprisingly doesn’t include any FAFSA numbers, federal work study, may be FAFSA loans that can help to cover for R&B or substitute for MAP in worst case scenario.
I can’t replicate that 14% average number for the med school proportion - get something closer to 11%. And it trends down although numbers can vary greatly. Wonder what 2018 looked like.
Here are some great videos from Bowdoin about the med school application process. I like that the director of health profession advising is honest and says, in answer to the question, “What is Bowdoin’s med school acceptance rate?”, “It doesn’t matter what Bowdoin’s acceptance. rate is because it’ s not your acceptance rate” and then goes on to talk about what does matter-becoming a well qualified applicant, and how that works at Bowdoin.
You will need to speak with pre-health staff to understand these numbers, and similar numbers from any school.
We simply don’t know what numbers are in that data:
-Students who only applied directly out of undergrad? Reapplicants? Students who applied years after undergrad? If so, which year are they placed in? Did they do an SMP? Post-Bacc?
-Does this include those who applied to MD and DO schools? Caribbean schools? Eastern European?
What we know is that the average age of med school matriculants is aorund 24-25. This means that some students coming directly out of undergrad may be at a disadvantage because they may have fewer ECs, maybe fewer applicable/attractive courses/degrees. So, Bowdoin, and other schools, may be discouraging any but the very best of undergrads from applying to med school after junior year…so census could be down.
Census at a given school could also be down because the ROI of becoming a physician has decreased. High expenses, high debt loads, most opportunities in relatively low paying primary care specialties, and a host of other issues have conspired to impact the financial attractiveness of becoming a physician for some students.
The reality is that students graduating from schools like Bowdoin, and others on OP’s list, will have greater opportunities after getting their Bachelor’s degree, opportunities that may be more attractive than becoming a physician.
OP should ask these questions of pre-health staff at schools on his list, and he should understand what type of specialties that UIC GPPA grads (not the whole set of UIC Med School grads) are going in to…with 6-7 years of schooling and ECs are they competitive for the most selective specialties?
