Okay I know I’ve posted on this a ton before but I’m starting to freak out and I’m stressing a ton about choosing a school. I know mom 2 college kids will jump on me but oh well. I didn’t apply to the university of Alabama and it’s too late to get their scholarships for my 33 so yes I know I missed the boat and I messed up. I didn’t do a good job of applying to schools. I had my head on such big schools and I am the oldest so I had no one to tell me to aim more realistically and Nothing turned out like I imagined.I want to go to medical school ultimately but I don’t know how to get there. I tried my best and I just don’t know what to do. Im tired and ready to be done worrying so much it’s driving me crazy. I applied for South Alabama’s early medical acceptance program and am currently waitlisted. I won’t know til April 15th if I will be offered an open seat in the program if there even is one. All of my scholarships are in and these are my options (total price per year, I spoke to their admissions officers and these are the final numbers they gave me): Kentucky:33,000 per year
Auburn: 21,000
Georgia:36,000
Florida:45,000
South Alabama: 5,000-8000
Baylor:40,000
Cincinnati: 30,000
These numbers are with the scholarship value deduction. I don’t know what to do. My family/ Alabama pact program gives around 18,000 per year. I just want to be successful and I’m just trying so hard to make the biggest decision of my life. I’m sorry if I’ve been rude before I’m just trying to find my way and I’m so lost so if anyone could help me i would greatly appreciate it. I just want a school that will help me and not leave me with a biology degree after 4 years and no options but teaching. Not that there’s anything wrong with teaching it’s just not something I’d be good at or happy spending the rest of my life doing. I just need some help right now any words of help would be greatly appreciated
How much will your parents pay for the above schools?
Are the above numbers including the $5500 loan you can get personally?
@JustGraduate the 18k is the max they can give me which includes the state program PACT. I didn’t factor the student loan
To be clear - for South Alabama and Auburn, you would pay the above numbers or the above numbers less $18k?
For the other schools you would need loans to cover those amounts?
@JustGraduate yes I can pay 18k towards the above numbers
So South Alabama and Auburn are the only schools you go to without taking out loans over and above the $5500 you can take personally? You can cover Auburn with $18k PACT + $5500 loan - right? And South Alabama is easily covered by the $18K PACT?
So you have 2 schools to choose from. I would lean towards South Alabama because you’d be left with no undergrad loans unless there’s a compelling reason to go to Auburn and end up with debt. Eliminate the others because you can’t afford them, don’t want debt undergrad if you’re looking at med school.
@JustGraduate Do you think south will offer me all the opportunities a bigger school would? Would a degree from south be worth the same as a bigger school’s and will it hurt me in trying to get into a different medical school if I don’t get into south’ s own medical program? These are the only things that scare me about south
Sorry, I’m not up on med school acceptances. But I’m sure google would yield info about acceptance rates/school. I There are several posters with solid and recent experience in this area, maybe they will post. Also consider posting that question in the med school forum
Med school cares about a high GPA and high MCAT scores. They are also looking for more well rounded students. Those who have taken the hard sciences but also humanities and business courses. Med school is very costly. Do both Auburn and South Alabama have strong pre-professional mentorship programs? What are their success rates for admission to medical school. If you chose not to follow that path, which school will offer the opportunity for a well rounded education?
Maybe you could take a gap year and take the Alabama full tuition scholarship next year.
@ECmotherx2 that’s the big divide. Auburn doesn’t have a medical school or many clinical opportunities as it is an agricultural college away from any large city. However it provides by far a better overall education. South Alabama provides a shaky overall education however they have a medical school, 5 hospitals within 15 miles, and I have already shown interest in their program by interviewing for their early medical program. I am scared that south may put me in a hole for other medical schools if I don’t get into their own program because it is a small not very highly ranked undergraduate college. Would it be worth accepting some debt for a school like Kentucky which has a medical school AND a respected well rounded education?
@my2caligirls I am already an old senior and I have no wish to further postpone my studies. I am going to college this fall as I am the oldest of four and there’s no money to send me on a gap year excursion.
you can apply to UAH (Alabama - Huntsville) as you qualify for a 4-year full-tuition scholarship (assuming you have a 3.5 GPA)
http://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships
then apply to medical school at UAB School of Medicine, Huntsville Regional Medical Campus
http://uabhuntsville.com/
But you wouldn’t be accepting SOME debt to go to KY or one of the others - you’d be accepting a LOT of debt. Kentucky - borrow $33k for 4 years $132k total. Cincinnati is the least amount of debt at 4x$30k or $120K. Those are ridiculously high numbers! The undergrad debt is wayyyy too high to take on, even if you weren’t looking at adding on med school debt! And would your parents be willing and able to co-sign for that amount of debt (less $27k you should be able to get on your own by filing FAFSA)?
@JustGraduate well actually with the 18k per year through my PACT/family contribution the numbers Id have left to pay would be:
Auburn:3,000
South: none
Kentucky: 15,000
Georgia:18,000
Florida:30,000
Cincinnati:12,000
Baylor:22,000
The other numbers were the cost of attendance after they offered scholarships. I’m sorry I worded the first part weird. These would be my final costs per year I’d be left taking loans out for (not that they are insubstantial either).
@Wien2NC I only have one reserve against UAH, and its a petty one. I live about 10 minutes from campus. I’ve lived in Huntsville since I was 5 and my family moved here Atlanta. I just want a new experience for college and I just don’t feel like I’d be happy going to a small school I’ve lived next to my entire life. I know its a great engineering/nursing school with ties to UAB Huntsville Medical Center, but I just don’t think Id feel like I was really going off to college. They don’t have a big athletic program to rally behind and all of my peers who have graduated before me always seem to end up moving back home and living with their parents for the duration of their undergraduate studies. I just want to experience something new and live on my own for awhile. I should probably apply I guess you’re right it would be a good educational opportunity and I’m not really in a position to be picky , however I may have missed their scholarship deadline
@JCJETT2235 Am not familiar with PACT so didn’t realize it covered OOS and privates. Thanks for clarification.
That said it doesn’t change my position. Maybe Cincy at $12k fits in but even that debt concerns me given your desire for med school. EDIT: scratch that - Cincy gives $48k total debt. NO NO NO
Can your parents qualify for loans and would they be willing to co-sign of you decided to go that direction?
You can only borrow ~$5500/year, so the only affordable schools on your list are Auburn and South. Can your parents pay their EFC?
the only schools on your list that make any sense whatsoever are South Alabama or Auburn. the other schools just cost too much. forget about them.
i think your best option is South Alabama’s early medical acceptance program and I do hope you get accepted.
if that does not happen, the only other reasonable option from your list is Auburn.
but that is not even a reasonable choice when you have a debt-free option right in your backyard in the form of UAH.
medical school is going to be very expensive. as the oldest of 4, and assuming your parents do not have endless reserves of cash, you need to decide what’s more important to you – going to medical school, or having a fun college experience away from home.
if you are serious about being a doctor, you will live at home, commute to UAH, have fun there (hockey is a blast anyway), graduate debt-free, and be in a much sounder financial situation for medical school.
in several years when you are saving lives in the operating room, you won’t be thinking “gee i wish i went to a few more football games and frat parties”
if you don’t want to major in biology then don’t. major in something you like that will give you job opportunities if you do not eventually get into medical school. you do not have to major in biology to go to med school.
as long as you get your application materials in before Aug 1, you will still qualify for the UAH full-tuition scholarship. in fact, just submit your application today so you have this option locked in and on the table ASAP.
[QUOTE=""]
I only have one reserve against UAH, and its a petty one <<
[/QUOTE]
well, sorry but it does sound kind of petty to me. you have a strong STEM school that will offer you full tuition, that you can commute to for saving even more money, that will enable you to graduate debt-free and without dipping into your parents college savings that could otherwise go toward your medical school and three other siblings, and you even have a local medical school. you have a great situation right in your backyard and millions of aspiring future doctors would gladly trade places with you to have a situation as good as the one that’s right in your lap – and you are making it sound like it’s a BAD thing!
[QUOTE=""]
I just want to experience something new and live on my own for awhile. <<
[/QUOTE]
but if it requires your parents shelling out $15K-$18K to subsidize you, then you are not really living on your own, are you?
i understand the desire to go off to college somewhere else but with the possibility of medical school for you, plus putting three other kids thru school, i have to be honest – i think your parents are looking at a heavy financial burden for the next several years and i don’t really think it’s fair of you to expect them to pay an unnecessary premium just so you can have more fun at college. maybe they are rolling in $$$ and it won’t be a problem for them, but it sounds like they have some sort of financial limitations from your previous posts. maybe you could consider this decision from their perspective, and from the perspective of what’s good for your entire family, and make a decision based on that.
you are in a season of life when you are facing a series of hard and complicated decisions over the next few years. but personally i really don’t think this is such a hard decision if you are serious about medical school.
1st choice: South Alabama early medical acceptance program
backup option: UAH
@Wien2NC I’m just not so sure why you associate UAH WITH UAB’s regional medical school. UAH has no medical program of its own and I doubt any preference would be given to a UAH undergraduate versus one of UAB’s own students. I think you are confusing proximity with preference. The regional branch is not a stand alone medical program. You apply in Birmingham for UAB medical school and then can decide wether to attend a regional campus there or in Huntsville. I see no reason why UAH is a “great situation in my own backyard”. If anything it less likely to get me into medical school than south as it has no medical program to speak of.