Which of these schools will essentially be free for you? If it’s an instate flagship in the safety category, I’d eliminate the safeties that won’t be free as a starting point. For example: why spend SLU tuition levels (even if you get a partial scholarship there) when flagship will cost you zero?
Not to single out SLU. I say this as the parent of a kid who will be going to SLU (free due to one parent working there) vs going to my alma mater (WashU), which I loved, but can in no way justify the extra 50+k of out of pocket tuition. It’s better for my kid for me to put the 200k savings into a restricted trust at graduation with the instructions: do not touch until retirement. Don’t even use it for grad school or a house. Go into debt for those things, live frugally and climb out. If those orders are followed, that should pay out a 70k retirement annuity (in today’s dollars) in perpetuity. Best gift a 22 year old can have.
Based on my current GPA and likely status as a National Merit Semi-finalist, Fordham, Miami Oxford, and Ohio State will be almost nothing. Would it be wrong for me to attend Pitt over these schools? Because I am an OOS applicant, I would be paying full tuition at Pitt, but I am attracted to both the location and opportunities that Pitt has (I visited and love it there). And I totally understand your question about SLU and agree.
Can your parents pay for Pitt without loans? I have sent two kids to Pitt from OOS so I understand the attraction, but we had enough college savings to pay for it, and neither of my kids were aiming for med school. I think if that had been part of the equation I would have insisted on our instate public.
You may get some merit aid from Pitt. Your stats are high enough. It’s not a given though which is why I think you’re better off applying to the places you like and then comparing how much each will cost once you have figures in front of you.
tOSU does not have specific NMF scholarships. The OP would likely get at least a Maximus at tOSU (3k/y). That would leave a direct cost of 22k /year. There are full COA and tuition scholarships (Eminence and Morrill), but they are competitive.
I don’t think it’s “wrong” to attend Pitt for more money over other similar schools. If you’re looking to go to a large but not tOSU large school that can prepare you for med school in an urban environment, Pitt is a good choice.
That said, if you’re using Pitt undergrad with the expectation of Pitt Med, I think you’re overestimating the benefit. There may be some marginal admissions benefit. Key word marginal. Very marginal. I think people also overestimate the importance of med school prestige when it comes to residency/fellowship/attending placement.
People who attend average to above average med schools have strong placement for residency/fellowship. Price equal, your placement ROI will be better at the more prestigious med school. Generally. My wife went to an above average med school and completed residency and fellowship at Pitt and Northwestern. One of her fellowship colleagues even did med school in the Caribbean. Another went from standard flagship med school to NU fellowship to Harvard post fellowship.
I can’t put a dollar value on your preferences related to fit/environment. But from a debt management perspective:
less expensive undergrad option where you’ll be happy and able to accumulate the supplementals needed for med school (lab experience, public health initiatives, shadowing, etc) which also offers you good off ramps if you decide medicine isn’t your thing.
avg/above avg med school for an inexpensive price that offers good residency—>fellowship placement.
What does this mean? And what does it have to do with whether to assume debt for undergrad…or not?
To the OP. You have a good list, and every school on there would be fine for a medical school prospective student. If your instate option is tOSU honors, that’s terrific. Is that where you are instate? If so…why isn’t Miami Ohio on your list?
As a side note, anyone thinking of med school in the Caribbean now needs to really google sources to see if they think it’s a good idea for them in the 2020s. For certain specialties it’s ok, not great, but ok. For others, it can be practically the kiss of death. My lad who just did Match 2021 has seen several sad stories from personal people he knows and several from a Match board online. Stats are out there for people to compare.
With pretty much everything “doctor prep,” what used to be true a couple of decades ago isn’t necessarily now. It’s gotten far more competitive.
My nephews both attended US Med schools. One went to our instate Med school and got his 1st choice placement, UC Irvine for pediatric neurology. The other attended Baylor and got his 1st choice, Georgetown dermatology. There are many roads to the future but being saddled with major debt is not a good way to start.
My nieces attended a podiatry school in CA and another an osteopathic school in WA state. Both are proceeding nicely in their respective paths. My older niece was just hired by Kaiser as a podiatrist after doing her residency at CA VA. Other niece continues her studies in WA.
Just going to say that college costs have gone up so much in the intervening 20 years that repayment is an entirely different conversation than it was. Even somebody going straight to Morgan Stanley / MBB / Big Law (& I know current recent grads at all of those) will not pay off student loans “soon”. I know (directly) and hear (anecdotally, through friends & of course here on CC) medical doctors who got their med school loans paid off just in time to start paying for their own kid’s college fees.
OP, don’t do ED to anyplace that will use up your college fund. Do apply to Pitt and most of the other places on your list- and then when you have offers do the math: 4 years of UG + 4 years of med = how much debt?
You didn’t ask for it, but some opinions on your list: On your reach list, I would be cautious about CW, Columbia & NU from a GPA pov and Harvard from a personality pov. From your match list, I don’t see GWU or BC being worth using up your fund on- Pitt or OSU would be just as good in every dimension that I can think of (I am a fan of both schools in other circumstances- I just don’t see their added value for you).
Yes. Definitely true that being left out in the cold for residency placement is much more common now than it used to be. That is definitely true.
The bigger point still stands: many med school aspirants believe they need to attend a top 15 or so med school to get a good residency. This just isn’t true. I’d encourage folks to look at where people match from various schools, but as a general rule, if you placed med schools on a percentile scale, at least when it comes to schools at around the 60th percentile, you’ll find a good share of prestigious residency placements. Especially when you consider that a lot of students at a solid but not spectacular school would prefer to stay where they are as it’s where they grew up and want to end up.
I like how your parents are handling it, saying that they can give you a certain amount total for your education, and that you should plan on how to handle it.
Med schools like very high GPAs and very high MCATs. Then, you need to have some type of research or “EC” that is relevant to medicine. And you need to have some type of volunteer or paid work that involves patient contact/clinical setting, just to show them that you really are interested in clinical medicine.
If you are interested in basic science research in medicine, you might consider shooting for an MD/PhD program. These are free; in fact, you get a grad student stipend. But they take a long time, they’re highly competitive, and you should only do it if you’re hell bent on becoming a researcher physician.
No matter how you plan on doing it, you should probably go to the best large university with research opportunities, that costs the least for you. You sound like a very strong candidate - I’m sure you will do well anywhere you go. A lot of people who start out pre-med wind up changing their minds, and switching into something else. But if you’re sure you want medicine, I’d go to the place that’s likely to be free for you that has strong academics and research opportunities. On your list, that sounds like Ohio State U. An no, I cannot see that Pitt would be worth paying a lot more than Ohio State, for you. OSU has a med school in Columbus - I’m sure you could find research opportunities there.
I wasn’t really expecting to receive any significant boost in admissions chances for Pitt Med. Rather, I am attracted to the UPMC opportunities and they also offer Computational Biology (less than 10 schools in the nation offer it).