Hey guys,
I’m a prospective student who’s gotten accepted for Biology (w/ Pre-med) at URoc, GW, and TCNJ; I wanted to hear your opinion as to which college I should choose! This is obviously a huge decision for me because I plan to spend 8 years (given that I’m a successful Undergrad. and will be able to go to Med. school as a Grad. student) wherever it is that I choose to enroll. In terms of financing, GW’s given me the most money (around 45k in fin. support and scholarships altogether), TCNJ gave me pretty much nothing (no scholarship and just 2k in grants), and I still haven’t heard back from Rochester (although I know I got a small 8k scholarship from them). In terms of rankings, University of Rochester seems to have a slight edge over GW… that includes their medical school and just nationwide rankings altogether. But in the same time, GW is just a much more vibrant school, whether it be in the light of school-spirit or just the quality of life there, which makes sense since its located in DC… just a few minutes away from the White house lmao.
Anyways, let me know what you guys think, and as always, thanks so much!!!
Fear4College
Huh, usually GW is more stingy. If they offered you such generous aid, it sounds like a great option. I think you’re right that student life there might be more “vibrant”.
Yeah I definitely concur! But I’m like so ambivalent about my choice because in the same time U of Roch. is a pretty godly school. Not trying to say that GW isn’t… but the feel at both Universities are INCREDIBLY different!!! One school is in the nations capital… and the other is in the middle of nowhere in NY. One school tends to be warm, the other cold. Ughhhh xD. I feel like I can accustom myself to both of them if I try really hard, and I am honestly most interested in attending the place that I will be most successful at (not just as a student, but as an individual searching for a vocation in medicine in the long run!) 
~ Thanks for your response!
Rochester is not in the middle of nowhere. It is certainly not the same as DC, but the metropolitan Rochester area offers a typical mid-size city experience. GW doesn’t have much of a traditional campus feel, while the U of R has a very pretty campus. I think overall U of R is going to have a more intellectual environment if that’s what you’re looking for.
What are your total costs at each school? Are you in state for TCNJ? TCNJ’s total cost is around $28K so with $2,000 that brings the cost to about $26K. GWU’s total cost of attendance is about $66K, so with $45K in financial aid (assuming it’s all nonrepayable) that leaves $21K left to pay. Rochester is about $63K per year so $8,000 brings it down to $55K, although it’s hard to judge when you haven’t heard back full details.
So that’s what you really need to do - wait until you hear back about your package from URochester. Also, is your $45K at GWU all grants and scholarships, or does that include loan aid? Can your family afford it?
If these assumptions are correct that means GWU is your cheapest AND your favorite option, so I see no reason not to go there. It’s a great school and you can go to a good medical school from it, and there’s no reason to pay an additional $120K for a “slight” edge (that I’m not sure really exists).
Hey blprof, thank you SO much for that opinion, and yeah I totally agree with it having a “more intellectual environment”! As juillet wrote, I honestly believe that it just comes down to financial aid. If I suddenly get over 30k grants from U of R (which is relatively unlikely), I don’t see why I wouldn’t go there. Likewise, if I get less than around that amount, it would not make sense if I went to some place other than GW because I would straight up have to pay a lot more in loans as you guys implied, which obviously would not be worth it in the long run. Furthermore, I plan on going to med school, so given that I do well and my family’s overall income stays steady and consistent, I would have to take outside loans of approximately $22k per year (the $45k didn’t include approximately $7k worth of Federal Subsidized and Unsubsidized loans, so I am actually hooked up there too. Only 15k would have to be taken from outside private loan sources, which will obv. be at much higher interest rates 
). Multiply that by 8, which obviously is just an estimation, and I’d come out of graduate school with about $180k in debt. Now, although that seems ridiculously high, I’m not too upset, because I know there are so many worse cases out there, where people have come out with $300k and in some cases even $400k of debt, so I guess I just have to be complacent. Thank you both so much for the time and effort you took to write these responses, I really appreciate it! ~ Fear4College
Should it be of interest to you, Rochester appears on an online list, “The Experts’ Choice: Colleges with Great Pre-med Programs.”
I totally agree that with med school in the picture, cost should be at the top of your list at decision time!
Just checking… you are aware that usually students go to different med schools than their undergrad institution, right? It sounds like you’re expecting your undergrad destination to be your medical school, and while that can happen, it’s not that way for the majority of med students. (Or did you get accepted into combined programs?)
Any of your three options will give you the opportunity to do well on a med school app. You, of course, have to be the one who actually does well wherever you go. Some kids at the (high) school where I work, have told me they do better studying at locations with fewer outside attractive tangents. Any of your colleges will have ample EC opportunities, but you don’t really want to get too “lost” in a party scene.
So if I read your post #5 correctly, of your 45K per year package from GWU, 22K would be in the form of loans? And there is also a federal student loan of 7K? So is the total loan burden 29K per year or 22K? Or something else?
Could you break down for each school, the total cost to your family? How much grant or scholarship loan did you get for each and what would be the total cost of attendance after that is subtracted.
Rowan - 28-2 = 26K
Rochester - 63-8 = 55K
GWU???
You should calculate for the four years of your undergrad costs. Med school, as mentioned by @Creekland is a completely different proposition and is nearly always full pay.
Wait, you have to pay the entire cost in loans? You reeaaallly don’t want to come out of undergrad with 88k in loans, especially since 4 years of med school will probably be another 250-300k.
It’s all about Net Cost…TCNJ is cheaper, so they give out small scholarships.
TCNJ’s Biology program is very competitive and would prepare you for med school.
You want to save money for undergraduate so that you have more for med school.
If the net cost of GW is the lowest and that is the school/environment you prefer then go there.
Thanks for all the amazing comments guys!
@mamaedefamilia the cost breakdown atm is this: GW will cost a total of 25k after all grants and scholarships, but that is excluding the 8k in federal loans (both sub and unsub) that I can take! So outside loan sources at GW would be about 17k! I still have yet to get my financial aid package from URoc (i don’t know why they are taking forever… I’m calling them today), but they did give me an 8k scholarship as mentioned before. TCNJ would pretty much cost the exact same as GW, but GW is just a better school (at least in my opinion and from my research), so I’d prefer there. So now it really just comes down to how much money I get from University of Rochester…
Anyways, thank you guys so much again! And yeahh at this point I’m probably going to have over 250k in loans after medical school… but I mean, that is only to be suspected. If there’s any other advice you guys can offer me, please hook a brotha up 
URochester kids arrive on campus with solid academic preparation: “The 610 Smartest Colleges,” Business Insider (online). With strong students and a traditional campus, UR tends to resemble an archetypical American university. If this resonates with you, you could be looking at a good opportunity. GW could be fine too, but in definably different ways. It’s actually the distinct differences between these schools that should ultimately make the decision easier for you.