<p>The economic times are hard right now and my life is getting even more restrained than before. My dad earns very little and is the breadwinner of the family, with my mom unemployed. Despite this, my circumstances have prevented me from seeking financial aid. I literally have to pull every fabric together to achieve my education. My dad's entire life savings has been depleted because he is funding my studies and now he says he has none left to fund for my future semesters. To be short, this fall is my last. I am thinking that even if I work for 10 hours/week, I still would be unable to pay for my tuition alone.
I set my heart on medicine in middle school and ever since then, I haven't let go. I love meeting people, getting to know them, caring for them, and helping them in general. I am a very touchy and community based person basically, and medicine is my salvation at the least. I attend a top university for this reason but lately I have run across so many threads that say university does not matter. I knew this prior to freshman year but now I am gauzing at those comments more seriously when even after my attempts to make my education possible is not working. I am optimistic but I guess this money issue does not leave many of us students quite early. Some people will see me as naive in that they will question me on how I expect to pay off medical school, but I am very sincere about this dream. I cannot ask for loans because the interest rate is too high (atleast under my circumstances). There really is very little option.
The only smart option would be to transfer to a local university that might potentially offer me some sort of aid in terms of scholarship. The undergraduate program I am in is highly ranked (in comparison to notable schools like Princeton and such). The undergraduate program that I will transfer in will not comply to my degree and will be more co-op based. My major is in biological sciences and I don't want to pursue this at the transfer school because it has little departmental scholarship. The transfer school has a reputation of having high gpa students (primarily because of easier science professors) and I am just confused if it would be wise to go there since my gpa might be comparably lower than theirs. I wish I had made my move my freshman year...but what can I say? I never saw this coming like most other students struggling in my situation.
I am lacking in extracurricular cause I worried too much about my grades (rightly so because I am unlike many students since I also help with family chores and have to worry about that in the evenings and afternoons of each day). My family commitments and getting home on time has really made my college life just a book read. I think that the transfer college will help me be closer to family and just aid me to develop myself. I do research, but nothing ecstatic like my friends who have gotten to do so much over the year. Honestly, I don't have any sense of the competition for med school yet cause I am too busy with holding my grades (even that seems too difficult). I used to be a very bright student, doing multiple things at one time, and now I feel like I am back to elementary school where I knew very little.
What should I do guys? I've known that people from the transfer uni can get into fantastic schools but these people had near 4.0 gpa. I have nothing near that. I am going to be a sophomore and the co-op program has a lot of requirements that are not educationally provided at my school because it doesn't have that program. I find that the advisors at any school are not really helpful...so I have no reason to converse with them since I've tried before and received vague responses.
The thing is that I am trying my level best to hold onto my uni and my med school hope...but I guess I cannot be a control freak here. As my sibling says 'beggars are not choosers'. At the least, I am just looking to ask if I am headed the right way for med school. In comparison to everyone in my uni, I think I don't even rank the top. But still, most everyone is choosing to opt for medicine. This struck me weird, but yea any help from a parent or experienced med school student? I really need your advice; atleast it'll help me get some direction because I am open to anything at this point. I don't care if that co-op job takes me a year extra to graduate...just as so that I graduate with a good gpa and mcat to get into med school. I have already planned to take a gap year to help boost my extracurricular, so I don't really care. As long as my life is settled well, that is all I work towards.</p>
<p>P.S. I am so sorry this is long, there was just so much to say. Thanks for your read. I will sincerely appreciate your responses.</p>
<p>Why have you not filed for financial aid?</p>
<p>kat</p>
<p>I’m ineligible under the rules for applying. I don’t know another way to provide for finances besides relying on my dad for that. I might try for a loan but that is some couple of years from the present it seems.</p>
<ol>
<li>You have no money.</li>
<li>Your parents have no money. </li>
<li>Your parents make no money. </li>
</ol>
<p>You say you go to a “top” school. Top schools usually have financial aid for students in that situation. If you want help, you need to be more forthcoming about your “ineligibility” for financial aid. </p>
<p>If you truly are “ineligible”, and 1, 2, and 3 are true, I’m thinking the local U is not going to be possible either.</p>
<p>I was nervous at first to disclose my situation all thorougly due to privacy issues but I think without giving proper facts, it would be useless.
I am an international student attending cal and I am pursuing a really good major. Most of the students that I have known either take a gap year before getting into med school or get in right after senior year (atleast from my specific concentration). I thought I would be eligible for FAFSA before junior year because of my visa status, but after some setbacks, I don’t want to rely on any false hope as these processes have another set of dilemma on the other end. The thing is that since not a lot of people know about internationals, they cannot give any advice. For this reason I thought it should be exempt cause really what I am asking is what do people in general do when they are experiencing hardship in trying to accrue money for school. Also, I am considered a resident for tuition purposes since I’ve stayed practically my entire life here in cali. The transfer school is also a state school but is not as highly regarded as Cal.
Anyways, I am just looking for advice here on how some people have managed to pay for college. I don’t want to take a break in between my studies so I could earn money and come back…that’s making me cringe a little cause what if my family situation worsens with my other sibling attending college. Then I will really have to wait for perhaps 2-3 years before I go back. The thing is that once people step out of the road, it’s a lot difficult to get back in the lingo. Although I am just a college student without any employment history, I can tell from a lot of people’s experiences that this has happened before and I personally don’t want to do it. But please provide me any options that come to mind.</p>
<p>International and California state schools are both above my pay grade. Sorry. You may be better off posting in the FA forum. Plenty of helpful folks there. Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks @curmudgeon, just thought about that forum upon your suggestion and I think I should give it a try.</p>
<p>I am not sure why the expansive option was chosen to begin with. Many very top academically kids attend schools (both publics and privates) that give them either full tuition Merit or close to it. This includes many who are NOT at all in any kind of financial crisis. Many of my D’s friends who went to top priave prep. HS in our area and who have parents physicians chooose this route.<br>
At least, you realize that expansive UG was not for you. I hope you did not loose your chance at some kind of Merit award.</p>
<p>@miamiDAP, you are speaking the truth and I wish someone had offered to teach me the lesson during high school. The problem back then was that I neither had a scholarship at the nearby uni nor at Cal. One was prestigious, the other not so much. It made sense in the hype of senior year to choose the higher ranked one because I thought atleast I would receive a good job if I choose gap year. I also thought that I would be active enough to weigh out my commuting disadvantage.
When you mentioned merit award, I had to cringe because I did miss my some great opportunities by chance. I was chosen to interview for two highly prestigious merit programs, but I thought I messed up big time since I just don’t know how to express myself in front of people, especially interviewers. For the first one, I caught the flu a short while before the interview date and was just recovering when I got swept by creative questions. I think I was still trying to recover at that stage, and I felt that I did abysmal. The second interview was another great merit award but I really didn’t have anything to talk about besides just one or two main things. So yea, I tried my best freshman year and came up short.
Do you know how easy or hard it is to receive departmental scholarships? I know the awards are little in comparison to tuition, but they would be good encouragement for a person in my circumstance.</p>
<p>Departmental scholarships are usually only awarded to the top handful of students. Highest ranked one or students each year is the usual; occasionally as many as 5 or 10 if the department is very large and well funded. Scholarships are usually made on the basis of academic achievement within the department and may require the student being nominated for the award by a professor.</p>
<p>Many schools do not offer any departmental scholarships at all.</p>
<p>It’s extremely unlikely that a transfer students would be even be considered for a departmental scholarship.</p>
<p>OP, you should also know it’s extremely difficult for a non US citizen or green card holder to be accepted into any US med school.</p>
<p>Most US med schools will not even consider internationals for admission. Of those that will, only a handful (literally 5 or 6) offer and kind of financial aid to internationals.</p>
<p>Most med students pay for their education through federal loans–which you are not eligible to receive.</p>
<p>List of admission and FA policies towards international here:</p>
<p>[NAAHP:</a> Medical School Admission Policies Towards Non-U.S. Citizens](<a href=“Home - NAAHP”>Home - NAAHP)</p>
<p>UC’s expect internationals to be full pay.</p>
<p>IFF you have the grades, you might consider applying for a transfer to a top school that does meet financial need for internationals. While those are the most selective colleges, they do offer plenty of need-based aid. You might focus on (rural?) LACs, where you could add some diversity.</p>
<p>@wayoutwestmom, I thought that eligible noncitizens are still able to get into med schools. It is just people like myself who are not considered immigrants that are excluded from aid and domestic review.
@bluebayou, I could try to transfer to a LAC, but due to the recession, most LACs will not fund me. I know my standing very well and I am nothing compared to the top students that are often approved for admissions let alone need based aid. Those that offer aid will not fund for my room-board and etcetra completely. Hence, I may end up paying more than I may be currently. Schools like Middlebury, that are WAY out east for me, do offer aid to internationals but they have become need aware and so I might end up wasting money and time when I never really had a chance to begin with. Do you know of any that are rural and will appreciate my international background? I will try to find some myself, but if you have any good suggestions, that would be quite helpful.
Oh, and I did notice that as a californian, it’s extremely difficult to get in, even if one is a domestic. For this reason, I want to apply broadly and I will try to work some years by extending my gap year to earn money to pay out of pocket. I don’t even know if I’ll get a job, but I’m willing to learn from my college mistakes and not lament on the same issue in the future.</p>
<p>Possibly Grinnell:</p>
<p>[International</a> Student Financial Aid - Admission | Grinnell College](<a href=“http://www.grinnell.edu/admission/apply/international/finaid]International”>http://www.grinnell.edu/admission/apply/international/finaid)</p>
<p>They treat Intl. transfers the same as Intl. fr for FA, but are need-sensitive:</p>
<p>[Frequently</a> Asked Questions (and answers) - Admission | Grinnell College](<a href=“http://www.grinnell.edu/admission/apply/international/faq-intl]Frequently”>http://www.grinnell.edu/admission/apply/international/faq-intl)</p>
<p>Permanent residents (green card holders) are treated the same as US citizen w/r/t admissions. </p>
<p>Some schools will considered refugee or asylum visas on the same footing, but not all of them. Other eligible non-citizen categories–you will need to contact the admissions office of the medical school for clarification before you apply.</p>
<p>I strongly suggest that you read thru the NAAHP list if you are not a permanent resident so you can judge your chances for future potential medical school admission.</p>
<p>Very few international students are accepted into US medical schools.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not true. There are a handful of colleges that meet full financial need for internationals, which includes room and board (and even travel). But those are highly selective colleges and you would need a minimum of a 3.7+ gpa at Cal for transfer consideration. (That is why I preferenced my sentence with ‘IF’…)</p>