<p>Hey there CC, I am a senior looking to go down the path to med school and am seriously at a loss at to which colleges i should apply to. Mainly, I am confused as to whether or not the "Top" colleges are worth the money for doing pre med reqs.</p>
<p>From what I understand, I will be getting no need based aid (200k+ salary) and most private colleges are not completely need blind; they will look at my family's financial status before giving merit aid. If i were to ED to a college such as Columbia, for example, i would be committing myself to paying 60k a year for 4 yrs, but to what end? I would have to pay a similar amount when i go to med school in the future and having a younger brother, my parents cannot afford to spend 500k on my education. </p>
<p>My GPA and SAT are good enough to guarantee that i pay no more than 3k a yr at my state school and maybe even a full ride. Whereas at another school, i will be paying out the wazoo.</p>
<p>My question boils down to this: does it make more sense to go to a state school (in my case Rutgers) and pay little to nothing, get a high GPA and MCAT and then pay the money at med school or go all out from the start and pay full price at a top school and put a huge financial burden on my family?</p>
<p>Does going to a top school have enough benefits to outweigh the extreme cost difference compared to a good state school?</p>
<p>ANY thoughts or comments would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Rutgers NB is a good and economical option for a pre-med. If your stats are good enough for a full ride or close to it, you will probably get into the Honors School, and you will have access to special advising and opportunities. However, if you are not happy about going to Rutgers, you would be eligible for merit aid at a variety of other places. If your stats are that good, you don’t have to choose between Rutgers and Columbia or similar. There are other options.</p>
<p>Wherever you go, don’t just go there because you are certain you will be going to medical school. You may change your mind and decide to do something else. Be sure that your choice will be fine for you even if your ambitions change.</p>
<p>By financial burden as in we would have to take out a loan for me and my brother and i will have to pay the full 60k tuition. Of greater concern to my mom and I is that my dad has high bp and diabetes and it puts a strain on him which worries us. Even my parents are saying go to RU for 4 years and then they will pay whatever i need.</p>
<p>Did you take the PSAT? Have you taken many AP/IB classes? How are your ECs? There are many large merit aid opportunities out there for the right student, but deadlines are approaching. (at my school it’s Nov. 1)</p>
<p>OP, there is a thread stickied at the top of the Parents Forum, Schools Known for Good Merit Aid (sorry, I don’t know how to insert a link). A lot of people have pooled their knowledge. I suggest you take a look at it. </p>
<p>60K per year for colleges is a luxury expense. There are many families like yours that are full-pay on paper but cannot really swing it. Large debt and constant worry are definitely not worth the difference between Rutgers and Columbia.</p>
<p>Can you go to med school if you go to Rutgers? Yes.
Can you go to med school if you go to Columbia? Yes.
Can you do things other than med school if you’re a Rutgers grad? Yes.
Can you do things other than med school if you’re a Columbia grad? Yes.</p>
<p>If you were dead-set on going to Columbia, you wouldn’t be posting here justifying going somewhere else. It sounds like your main concern is–how will going to a run-of-the-mill state school affect my potential for going to med school? And the answer is, it probably won’t. You will almost certainly be a great student no matter where you go. And besides, it’s what you do and not where you go that matters in the end. </p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I was in a similar position as you were when I was applying to college (actually…that’s why I joined the forum in the first place!). I’m the eldest of 4 and begrudgingly decided on state flagship over pricey private. Turns out undergrad was an absolute dream (just like my dumb ol parents told me it would be), and if I could do it all over again, I’d make the exact same decision. I’m currently a second year med student at a state school…and, well, it’s awesome. </p>
<p>It would be amazing if you could go wherever you want and if you didn’t have to worry about the money that goes with it and if you didn’t have to keep your brother’s future in mind too. But, hey, that’s how this works–and if you play your cards right, you’ll end up where you want to be in the end regardless of the path there :)</p>
<p>(And by Columbia, I mean any school like Columbia too)</p>
<p>PSAT was 206 and i was a commended scholar, 7 AP’s (Lang Comp (5), APUSH (4), Chem, Bio, Calc, Lit, Stats) which is one of the most rigorous schedules in my school.</p>
<p>Ec’s range from 3 yrs tennis (varsity this year), over 500 hrs teaching MMA classes (2nd degree black belt), to volunteering at a hospital which add up to a total of around 700 hrs w/o factoring in sports.</p>
<p>@NJSue - yeah, though we should techinically be able to pay full tuition, paying that much for 8 years is not a possibility and, imo, isnt a smart decision either</p>
<p>@ Kristin - Thanks for the response! Yeah, im not interested in the name of the college as much as the value because of my financial situation in which i have to pay full cost but in reality it would be tough to do so. So im really just confused as to whether or not i should push my parents to spend that money now or not and is it going to help significantly in getting into med school if i spend an extra 55-60k a yr on the big name schools?</p>
<p>There are a variety of things that are important for med schools. There are things that are measurable: MCAT, GPA, raw hours spent volunteering or shadowing, research posters or papers produced, etc. And then there are things that are not measurable: experiences in the classroom which prepare you for med school, quality of clinical experience, depth of relationships built (peers, profs, shadowing, jobs), strategies learned while researching or studying, passions discovered while volunteering, work ethic honed through various part time jobs, leadership skills developed, communication skills improved (think essays, interviews), etc. </p>
<p>Do you have to go to a top school to accomplish these things? No. Does going to a top school help you accomplish these things? Probably. Does it help enough to make up for lackluster performance in any of those areas? Probably not. If you look hard enough, are these experiences available at all schools? Almost certainly. Is one environment objectively better than the other? Probably not. Would a top student be successful in either situation? I think so. Is it worth it to you? Well…that’s for you to decide!</p>
<p>A lot of students then jump to “Well, if you have student A who went to Ivy League School and student B who went to Big State U, and both have the same GPA and MCAT and ECs and LORs and interviews, who’s going to get the spot?” My vote here is that both will or both won’t, but that the name of the school won’t be the deciding factor. Sure, the school played a role in that student’s development, but to conclude that the student’s acceptance is contingent upon his or her UG school is just nuts. </p>
<p>Do you think the financial implications of the private school would make you feel stressed or guilty? Your mental health is important!</p>
<p>just apply to all the schools you are interested in going into and see where you get in. then look at the finances.
for me, i was sure i wanted to go into medicine, so i went to a nonflagship state school on a sweet scholarship that paid me to go to school. If I wasn’t sure about medicine, I would have gone to an ivy.</p>