I get that every parent wants that for our children. We want them to have their dreams and we want to help as much as possible, but we also have to be realistic.
Most of my daughter’s classmates, in in her neurobiology major, were also going for medical school. Most of them didn’t get in.
You have a contract with the university for med school? What does that entail?
What happens if your child has to move out of state, to do her residency, will you be able to afford to upfront costs of an apartment and transportation in a high cost of living area?
I hope your daughter can become a doctor but it shouldn’t be something that takes away your future retirement.
Training to be a doctor isn’t pretty; the smells of a hospital, along with frequent exposure to illness and infections affects everyone in different ways. Some of my daughter’s classmates were always constantly sick. You don’t know, at this point, how susceptible your daughter is or is not to hourly exposure.
If you have to take out loans, that are not funded by the government, how will you pay those? Will you qualify enough to cover all those costs over the years? There is a limit to what people would loan you and the interest rate will vary depending on your income and credit. At one point they may not fund you. Also, my daughter knew of several classmates who were on “pay as you go loans”. The parents didn’t want pay as you go, but loans are often sold and resold and some loans have those requirements.
I’m happy for your daughter, that she got into a university, but this just does not sound very affordable especially because you’re looking for scholarships now, to cover the costs now. This is something that is budgeted in advance, not after you’ve been accepted.
The direct entry program provides up to five qualified students with admission to the USC SOM Greenville simultaneous with acceptance to Furman University.***
She still has to go for an interview but upon talking to UofSC Med school they only select 10-15 for interview and so far she is coming in as a very competitive student
Be sure to budget for increases…even if tuition stays flat, room and board are sure to increase in an inflationary environment.
In our experience, the local scholarships were either designed for kids with high financial need, or were small, one shot deals. 250 bucks from the garden club? Kudos to the winners. But with extra essays, interviews, etc. Your D’s time is probably better spent picking up extra shifts at work…
For us it was the opposite. Tuition went up by $2000 every year and room and board stayed the same. Well, actually board went down as they charged freshmen about $600 more than upperclassmen because, well, they could (captive audience as freshman had to live on campus).