Stressing over financial aid situation please help!!!

Paying for College
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<<<brown’s acceptance="" rate="" to="" med="" school="" is="" consistently="" 85-90%,="" while="" vanderbilt’s="" around="" 66-70%.="">>></brown’s>

first of all, that means NOTHING. Getting accepted has to do with the student, his stats, his application, and the timing of his submittal…and his demeanor during interviews.

I’ve gone thru Vandy’s med school acceptance rates for the last 3 years and looked at the details. The school seems to allow ANYONE to apply to med schools, whether their stats are worth or not.

Vandy does not have a BS/MD program like Brown does. I don’t know if Brown is including those students in their published rates, nor do I know if Brown makes it difficult for those w/o med school worthy stats to apply to med schools.

Brown’s admit rate has been RANGING from 80% to 91% over the last few years.

Vandy’s admit rate has been about 66-70%.

However, neither stat means anything to any particular prospective or current student. Brown may just be more discouraging to those who don’t have med school worthy stats.

Vandy “let” 40 students apply with GPAs less than 3.3

Vandy 'let" 7 students with MCAT less than 27 apply, and only ONE was accepted.

Vandly “let” 15 apply with MCATs between 27-30 and GPAs below 3.3…and only five were accepted.

There are more “ugly” stats, but these are situations that will hurt a school’s overall reporting numbers.

On the other hand…their applicants with a MCAT above 30 and a GPA above 3.5 had a 90% acceptance rate.

Really, except for schools within Calif, most schools have steady and similar stats when an unhooked applicant has these various stats.

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I do understand that Brown has a different feel, less traditional, no core requirements. But if you want to go to medical school, you’ll be right back into the traditional format, taking the required classes, not many choices. Will you be okay with this? I don’t see how Brown’s " Open Curriculum is much more suited for me and my career goals"

I also think the fact that you received $10,000 from Brown an issue. To me, that means the family has some assets or a high income, but not high enough to be totally full pay, not low enough to get average financial aid. I really think your family will struggle to pay that difference every year. If you were full pay, I’d feel more confident that Brown looked at all your numbers and said “This family can afford it, so full pay.” Instead, they can see that you aren’t a full pay family, that you need some help, that your family is right on the edge. I’d worry.

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accepted by Vanderbilt University as a Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholar, which means tuition is covered, I receive a 6K stipend for research/studying abroad, around 2K as a National Merit Finalist,


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You’re now saying that you have to pay about $22k per year to Vandy? How do you figure that when you got free tuition, plus $6k stipend, and $2k for NMF.

It appears that you’re costs might be about $15k or 17k max.

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We have some good friends whose daughter did an MD/PhD at Vandy and has done very well. Here’s a link to the program.

https://medschool.vanderbilt.edu/mstp/program-overview

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@mom2collegekids Vanderbilt gave an expected cost of attendance.

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@AlbionGirl Do you know if that the girl thinks that MD/PhD is worth it over just a MD if someone is not completely sure about the PhD portion but not totally objected to it?

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^you’ll know that as you do research. NO ONE is admitted to an MD/PHD who isn’t totally committed to research and thus has done research (if not third authorship) to prove it.

CVS at Vanderbilt is a terrific opportunity.
It IS a very different atmosphere from Brown, certainly.

Can your parents afford Brown each year out of pocket (income+savings) without taking loans for you?
If you attend Brown, you’ll be on your own for med school: are you okay with that?

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@MYOS1634 My parents would be able to afford Brown with a small figure of loans. However, they certainly will not be able to afford medical school. I am perfectly fine with paying my own medical school fees, but my parents really do not want me to accrue such a massive amount of debt.

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I know she’s doing a residency in Boston right now but I don’t know what her ultimate plans are. If you can get acceptance to an MD/PhD program where they pay tuition and a living expenses stipend like the one at Vandy it would be hard to turn down as it is an amazing opportunity.

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It’s easy NOW to say you’re 'perfectly fine" with it, because you’ve never had to cope with earning to support a family while repaying a massive debt.

As one goes higher up the educational attainment ladder, the school one gets his/her bachelor’s degree from matters less and less.

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I would like to pose a new train of thought. I am very unsure of what I want to do in the future–med school is just one of the possibilities. But say that I am not going to go down the med track. Say I decide to do business or econ or something. In that case, what would you guys advise me to do? One of the biggest worries I have is that I decide to stop doing pre-med in college, and I feel like in that case Vandy may not be worth it over Brown. If I am completely undecided on a career path, what would you guys advise?

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It’s not at all unusual to not be sure, as a high school senior, what you want to do after college. One of the best ways to not feel like you are limited in what you can do is to have a financial cushion and to have low or no debt upon college graduation. Something to think about.

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@BelknapPoint I totally agree with that. The only difference in my case is my parents are adamant that they will pay for undergrad. Not sure if that makes a difference in what you believe in.

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If your parents have decided to pay for Brown, go with Brown.
The ‘fit’ is indeed different.
I would imagine being a CVS would offset that but they know you better than we do, and it’s their money. Thank them for their kindness and remember it’s a gift you can ‘repay’ by taking advantage of everything at Brown, asking for help proactively when you hit a roadblock (all freshmen do, the difference in outcomes lies in those who bury their heads in the sand and those who do something about it) , and keeping them updated regularly.

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Agreed. If you decide down the road that you want med school, you’ll probably want to kick yourself . . . but I doubt you’ll regret having attended Brown!

And you can always take a couple of years off after you graduate to work and save money before you start med school.

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“I would like to pose a new train of thought. I am very unsure of what I want to do in the future–med school is just one of the possibilities. But say that I am not going to go down the med track. Say I decide to do business or econ or something. In that case, what would you guys advise me to do? One of the biggest worries I have is that I decide to stop doing pre-med in college, and I feel like in that case Vandy may not be worth it over Brown. If I am completely undecided on a career path, what would you guys advise?”

I’d say that unless you’re thinking about one of the few jobs where coming from an Ivy could help you, like management consulting or front-office investment banking, the advice would be the same. from the point of view of somebody who has no connection with either, they’re on about the same level.

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Still seems like Vandy’s the better choice. If your parents could use those 135k to help med school, could they also give you some to invest in a startup, if you were interested in entrepeneurship? Or if you wanted an MBA and it wasn’t funded by an employer, then to help pay the high master’s degree tuition?

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Maybe business was a bad example considering Vandy doesn’t have any undergrad business programs haha. If I go to Brown, I would definitely consider its Applied Math/Econ program, which could land me in consulting or investment banking, so I was thinking maybe Brown would be worth it in that aspect?

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OP,

What were your leadership, EC, and CS stats like? Just curious to know what’s required for entry into the Vandy program. Thx.

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@nw2this PM me and I’d be happy to tell you!