I got into a pretty good school and was expecting to go there for all of my undergraduate years. The school was pricey, but I had gotten several outside scholarships and my parents said they would figure out the rest of it. As of a few weeks ago, they said I could do this year (my freshman year) but I wouldn’t be able to continue because of certain events that came up (unless I took out an insane amount of loans). I’m thinking of transferring to my state college which is much cheaper, but I’m not sure if that would look bad on my application. I plan on applying to med school’s and I’m wondering if applying to a “less prestigious” college would hurt that.
If you have not yet started, can you withdraw, or defer your entrance for a year, then take a gap year to work to earn some money and gain some experience and reapply as a frosh to a more affordable list of colleges?
If you intend to take the transfer route, it may be best to start at a low cost community college (or transfer to a low cost community college as soon as you can if you have already started at the expensive college) rather than use up more of your money on a semester or two of an expensive college that you will not be able to graduate from.
Intending to go to medical school does complicate the situation, because many medical schools look down on community colleges; if you do the community college route, you need to plan carefully to ensure that you have enough of the pre-med science courses at a four year school after transfer (less of an issue if you are a science major, since you will be taking lots of upper level science courses at the four year school after transfer).
1 Like
Take a gap year. So many kids doing this. Apply to your state college and go there. Med schools are not going to care where you did your Undergraduate courses. I know many folks who transferred from community college to a directional state school, and then went on to medical school. Your grads and MCAT scores are the main determiners of getting accepted to medical school. Check out the section of this forum regarding Med school.
You are taking a far BETTER route to go to a more affordable college. Medical school is expensive and you’ll likely be taking out loans then. Don’t need the weight of a hefty loan balance from undergraduate years. Be aware that you alone cannot take out more than $5500 for freshman year in loans. Your parents need to be involved and will be held on the hook for any more than that, with amount increasing to $7500 as a senior. Also bear in mind that these loans increase as the interest clock runs on them.
1 Like
I haven’t started yet and withdraw from my school and enroll in a community college. I was thinking about doing the first semester at my local CC and applying to my state school for the spring semester. Perhaps taking the most basic courses at the CC and taking science courses in the spring.
You can do that, or reapply to your state school. What is affordable to you?
1 Like
What’s your home state? If you aren’t planning to do the full two years of community college and transfer as a junior, it may be better to stay out of credit-bearing classes in the fall and preserve your freshman applicant status. Make sure you have a clear understanding of the pros and cons before taking any CC classes. Depending where you hope to apply, there could be merit scholarships that are only available to freshmen, so taking just a few CC courses to “get ahead” could actually backfire financially. If you have one target school in particular, reach out to Admissions and discuss what would be the best strategy.
Since you’re premed and will need volunteer hours, maybe try to focus on that during your time off? And/or take relevant non-credit training classes, like EMT or CNA certification.
At any rate, you’ve made a smart decision not to start somewhere unaffordable. Attending a public university that’s within your budget won’t hurt your med school prospects at all - it might even help, since you’ll be well positioned to be at the top of your class. Kudos on weathering what must have been a big disappointment, and regrouping with a positive attitude!
1 Like
As mentioned above, check on whether it may be better to take a gap semester or year to apply to the state school as a frosh for better merit scholarships as a frosh than as a transfer. Whether that is the case depends on what the community college and state school are, and whether your high school record would get merit scholarships from the state school, if it offers them.
1 Like
I had actually initially applied to my state school (Rutgers) as a safety and didn’t receive any merit scholarships so I think it’s highly unlikely I will get any if I apply as a transfer. I would ideally like to still graduate in 2024 (without doing summer classes) so that’s why I’m considering taking CC courses.
[/quote]
As mentioned above, check on whether it may be better to take a gap semester or year to apply to the state school as a frosh for better merit scholarships as a frosh than as a transfer. Whether that is the case depends on what the community college and state school are, and whether your high school record would get merit scholarships from the state school, if it offers them.
[/quote]
I had actually initially applied to my state school (Rutgers) as a safety and didn’t receive any merit scholarships so I think it’s highly unlikely I will get any if I apply as a transfer. I would ideally like to still graduate in 2024 (without doing summer classes) so that’s why I’m considering taking CC courses.
If you were accepted by Rutgers for this fall and just didn’t go, I’d start by calling the admissions office. Tell them you were accepted for the fall and chose another school but now your financial circumstances have changed and now want to go to Rutgers. Ask them what you need to do to start in the spring (assuming that is what you want). They may be able to just reactivate your application or admission. It’s worth a try.
1 Like
I’ve emailed them and they said I would have to reapply for Spring. I will try to call and see if a personal conversation may change their mind. Thanks for the tip!
1 Like
Did you consider TCNJ when you were applying last year? It can be a great place for premed, and might have merit potential. They take spring apps too. An article in the Rutgers paper described TCNJ as “TCNJ’s campus is as if somebody took all the cleanest parts of Rutgers and mashed them into one campus that’s a fraction of the size.” Depending on where you were planning to go, one or the other might be more similar to what you were hoping for. Maybe worth applying to both and comparing offers?
Since it seems like a January start should be workable, I would really consider not muddying the freshman-admissions waters with fall CC classes. Take a couple of summer classes next year if you need to catch up - between that and AP credits (which I assume you’ve probably got if Rutgers was a safety for you) you’ll probably be fine to graduate on time. If you can take a gap semester and log some medical-related volunteer hours and/or acquire other relevant experience (i.e. EMT/CNA training as I suggested above), you’ll have no trouble making good use of the time.