Hello!
I have been having a rather frustrating experience with deciding on a college for Chemistry/Pre-Med. My two options are between commuting to a state university (SUNY Stony Brook) or taking out around $10,000-$15,000 worth of loans per year to go to my dream/top university (Northeastern). Of course, I cannot think of the immediate gratification of taking out the federal loans available to me and packing up to go to Boston. Since I plan on attending medical school, the upwards of at least $40,000 of debt just through undergraduate school dissuades me from going to a private university.
Which leads to my question: Does going to a private school make a significant difference, especially in terms of medical school admissions, in comparison to attending a lower-tier state school? (I know some rankings are arbitrary, but Northeastern seems to be winning in the academic department). Would it be best to save a big chunk of money and go to state school?
My heart says to āscrew itā and take out the loans for Northeastern. My mind, on the other hand, tells me that I should think this through. Are the loans worth it? Is the ācollege dormingā experience worth sacrificing both my own (albeit nonexistent) money as well as my motherās? Will I land the same successes if I were to go to state school, even including the lesser resources for Co-Ops and internships? (The latter is because Boston is the Mecca for the sciences, and Iām sure I can find great opportunities. Long Island has significantly lesser resources, other than Stony Brookās hospital/BNL). Iām well aware that college is what you make of it, but ultimately, there are some factors that hard work cannot replace a lack of/lesser academics and resources.
Thank you! 
I think there is a way to look up the percent of med school applicants from each institution that get admitted to medical school, though I am not 100% sure of this. If you can find that, it might give you some insight. I very much doubt you will find a significant difference between the two schools. Many posters with far more knowledge about medical school admissions than me, repeatedly recommend taking as little debt as possible if medical school is in your future.
I think you are presenting a very common dilemma that is presented on this website. People seem to approach this whole process with their hearts (the one telling you āscrew itā) rather than their rational minds. They shop for the Mercedes when what they can afford is a Ford. Well there is nothing wrong with a Ford, and quite honestly both will get you there. When you are 17, you donāt have enough experience to realize just how much 10,000-15,000 a year in loans is, how much a burden it is to pay back that much money, and a large portion of those loans will need to be borrowed by your parent, not you, as there are limits on how much you can borrow.
In the end you get to go to college, that is huge, even if itās Stony Brook, a perfectly respectable option. Whether you go to Northeastern or Stony Brook, your experience will still come down to what you make of it.
@NorthernMom61 Thank you! I think Iāll need to do a heck of a lot more research on the medical schools each school generally sends their students to. I feel like NEUās Co-Op program really does serve as a huge advantage over SBU; Iām not entirely sure if that advantage supersedes the loans I would have to take. I think one of my main concerns is that everyone I have spoken to have expressed the value of the college experience, in terms of living in a dorm, learning how to deal with a meal plan, etc. Perhaps if I were to commute, I could get a job and save up money for medical school, and live more comfortably. I just need to evaluate if these factors justify some loans.
There is no āvalue to the college experienceā if you canāt afford it and it sends you down a road of crippling debt. NEU is a great school, and obviously your ādreamā school, and one of the hardest things is to unhook from the dream because it is emotional, youāve been fantasizing about it since you picked this NEU to apply to many months ago, etc.
It isnāt fair that every single strong student in America canāt go to their ādreamā schools, but you do get to go to a school, and there are many strong students in America who canāt even do that.
For what itās worth, I worked for three years with a young psychiatrist who went to Stony Brook maybe ten or twelve years ago. He had no trouble getting into medical school by doing his undergraduate studies there. And donāt forget, the Brookhaven National Laboratory is nearbyāthere may be some opportunities there in addition to the medical center at Stony Brook.
@NorthernMom61 Thatās a good point. Iām currently trying to get some extra aid from NEU. If I can get enough to bring the loan number as low as possible, I think I will go there. Otherwise, I do agree with you, going away to college with a huge amount of debt is irrational if SBU does give similar opportunities.
You canāt borrow that $40k on your own unless NEU has given you both the Federal loans and Perkins loans or you are considered an independent student. Someone else would have to cosign loans for you, or take out parent loans. What is your loan situation exactly?
You can get into med school from Stony Brook. Donāt worry about that. Save your debt for med school.
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@happymomof1 I have qualified for around $9,000 of federal loans for NEU. Iām just afraid that the intro class sizes and the cutthroat competition of SBU may affect my GPA/confidence for med school. But then again, I canāt escape the competition.
That would be the full Federal loans and the full (or nearly full) Perkins. You would not owe interest on the Perkins and on any subsidized portion of the Federal loans until you graduate or drop out. However, that still is a lot of debt to be considering if you are headed to med school later.
The competition for pre med students is tough everywhere. Thereās no reason to assume that it would be any easier at NEU than at SBU.
@happymomof1 Youāre rightāitās still a lot of loans. I was thinking of working over the summer to make some of the money to pay off the loans little by little. On the other hand, I have a job (basically) set if I were to go to SBU that is close to campus. Itās just that Iām wary of having to commute; Iāve heard mixed reviews on having to commute to college and whatnot. Iām not sure if going away to campus would be an advantage to me as opposed to staying home and having my own car. Itās two completely different options, and each has itās own pros/cons. I want to make the right decision, which is very pressuring considering I donāt have an extensive amount of time left.
Happykid commuted to our local community college for the first two years, then transferred to a state U an hour away - well beyond easy commuting distance. She was a Theater Tech/Design major and all but lived on the campus of her CC for those two years because of all of the production work. Commuting will work for you if you make it work. Go to campus in the morning, come home late in the evening. Chances are you will make friends with some people who live in the dorms, and you will have the opportunity to get some of that experience by hanging out with them.
@happymomof1 I live around 45 minutes from SBU, so I can see the benefits of befriending someone on campus. Would it be best for me to choose class times earlier in the day, then?
You will have to see how classes that you need are scheduled. Sometimes you can even keep your classes to three days per week, though that will likely be harder for you because you are apt to have some labs being in pre-med.
Neither situation that you have is perfect, one makes it so you have to live on campus and both you and your parents will accrue debt, and the other will require you to commute 45 minutes per day which will required adjustments when you want to participate in activities or the weather is bad, but this second option is much more affordable to you.
What would probably be good to ask yourself isāhow much to you want to go to college? It is going to take WANTING IT bad to make either scenario work. Both scenarios will involve sacrifice. Welcome to the world of adult choices.
In realityāthe āgetting into a collegeā is the easy part. The ādoing collegeā and the āfinishing collegeā is the hard part. The priority of college is to get an education and actually finish a degree.
@NorthernMom61 Considering Iāve been working for college since I was in elementary school, nothing will stop me. I know that I will thrive regardless of where I go; I think the main question is whether or not the extra debt will make a difference in my medical school pursuits. Would a medical school prefer a top university, or do they care more about the studentās individualistic achievements rather than the overall quality of the institution?
Medical schools care about your GPA, completed required coursework (regardless of specific major), your MCAT scores, probably medical/hospital/relevant research experiences, medical school interview. Where you go to school is not as important as these things. To go into debt is your own choice, but the school you go to will not be the deciding factor for medical school admissions.
You seem to want to hear someone say that the school will make the difference and you should go to NEU. Only you and your parents can decide that.
@NorthernMom61 Thank you! In that case, unless I receive more financial aid, Iāll probably save my money.
You are welcome. Good luck.
Where I used to live, lots of students commuted about 45 minutes to the state U. Some could use public transportation (I knew one who even kept a bicycle at the train station at the university campus), and others drove. Many of these students made good friends on campus, and so could stay overnight there if the weather turned bad or if they had a project that kept them there late. Some eventually did move to live off campus with those friends, others continued to commute from home for all four years.
If you need to make this work for you, you can.
@schroscat Personally Iām not a fan of Northeastern based on this article, fair or not.
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/article/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/
Stony Brook is close to NYC and the many connections and opportunities that implies.
If you are commuting to Stony Brook I assume youād need to live in Boston. If $15k per year gets you everything at NEU it might be the better financial deal. It is going to cost you something to live at home and commute. It wonāt be $15k, but somewhere between $0 and $15k.
I have nothing against living at home and commuting if the situation is right (quiet room, no conflicts with parents or siblings, commute isnāt too long), but if the āsleep away college experienceā is only a little more, AND you can afford it, at least consider it. Iām not sure I could have lived at home during college. I have 3 younger brothers, 3 dogs, my grandfather lived with us - it was just plain noisy. Any commute to a school, even in town, would have been 45 minutes at least, without snow, parking, traffic.
How much will a 45 minute commute in each direction cost you in gas, tolls, car maintenance, and perhaps higher auto insurance costs? How much will buying lunch on campus cost? If you were at NEU, would you forgo having a car, and therefore not have to pay car insurance?
If you were paying room & board at Stony Brook, would the out of pocket cost be the same as NEU?
Also consider how much you could earn during your co-ops at NEU. I have read that the income earned can be considerable.
I am not advocating taking on unnecessary debt. But the savings may be less than you think. Make a spreadsheet that factors all of this in and see what it looks like before making a decision.
Stony Brook is also a fine school so if thatās where you end up, it will prepare you for whatever the future brings.