Hi! I made a thread before asking this but didn’t know enough about my financial situation. Central Michigan University is full tuition and housing covered with a $500 stipend for books all 4 years. Umich would be around $30,000 for me. My family would cover most of it but each year i’d have to take out a $5000 loan so I’d graduate with $20,000 debt. I want to do pre-med, I’m just worried because I was looking at a 2017 profile for Central Michigan’s medical school and saw that only 7 CMU students were accepted versus 22 UofM students. Would Umich give me a better chance at medical school?
Merged two identical threads so responses may seem off a little on timing/date
ED
Honestly I’m not sure. I’d apply for scholarships and do work study as well. But you’re right, it’s not really realistic and I don’t really have a plan, I just don’t know where to start when it comes to finances.
Have you actually received your FA package from Michigan yet? Or run their net price calculator to get an estimate of your net price? https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/umich
The college navigator site shows average net price for freshman by income bracket:
AVERAGE NET PRICE BY INCOME 2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017
$0 – $30,000 $3,414 $2,660 $3,249
$30,001 – $48,000 $6,561 $5,878 $5,575
$48,001 – $75,000 $9,761 $10,106 $9,895
$75,001 – $110,000 $17,163 $16,677 $17,705
$110,001 and more $23,687 $24,129 $25,001 https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=michigan&s=all&pg=2&id=170976#expenses
“My parents are helping out with what they can” how much exactly is this?
U-M must receive your FAFSA records from the federal processor by March 31 to consider you for federal financial aid programs. If you are applying for institutional grants, we must also have your CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE by this date. We recommend that you complete these applications by March 1 to ensure that we receive them by deadline.
If we request additional documents from you, we must receive those by March 31.
The U-M Office of Financial Aid begins notifying entering students by email when U-M financial aid award notices are available on Wolverine Access. You will need a U-M uniqname or Friend Account to access your award notices online.
Consider your debt load the federal student loans (up to 27K over 4 years). Full stop. If you have to come up with 60K and your parents aren’t in the game, it’s not reasonable to consider. Is that your final financial offer?
And if you’re considering medicine or law, $0 debt will be your best choice for undergrad.
Did you submit your your CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE to U-M? If not - Do that now. If so, did you call their FA office and confirm they have everything they need?
Do not confuse lack of winning merit aid from U-M with having to pay full price, especially if you are an average/median income family. Very few students win merit aid there, but their need based aid is fantastic. And don’t confuse ineligibility for federal Pell grants with being ineligible for the institutional need based grants from U-M.
Are you certain that a financial aid package from Michigan is not forthcoming?
I’m not sure you have all the information that you need to evaluate your options. What is the gpa required to maintain the scholarship from Central Michigan and what if any other conditions must be met?
UMichigan is tuition-free for Michigan families who make 65K/year and under, and tuition for families that make 65-95K is generally about 2K a year. For families that make 95k-180k there are scholarships. https://goblueguarantee.umich.edu/
Do you know your EFC?
Why would your parents help you for 2 years only?
kumarr, if you’re expected to pay 60k+ for your undergrad, it’s not even an option. I mean it is literally not an option. You won’t be able to cover that and you will have to drop out.
Go to CMU. Take the free ride. What you want to do right now isn’t what you’ll want to do in a few years. CMU is plenty fine and allows you to explore. You can use your summers for exploratory internships/research/whatever.
@romanigypsyeyes : But kumarr is assuming no financial aid from UMich (has not received a financial aid package yet). I wouldn’t take the free ride till I know for sure Michigan is unaffordable.
Also useful: if parents have said “two years only” as an arbitrary decision, their version of “skin in the game”, or if they said so because they think UMich is 30K for all people and they can “only” pay 60k, which would only last 2 years…
Agree with taking the free ride. Medical school admissions are competitive so getting top grades at a state school is better than not doing so at the top school. Either medical or law school would mean paying the costs yourself so you should be looking at waiting as long as you can to incur debt. Nobody cares where you did your undergrad work (nor medical school) in the long run. Physician here, btw. Most of us went to school based are where we were from and what we could afford. Save your money!
Med school is 4 years, expensive and paid for by almost all med students by loans which have to be paid back). Med school WILL then be followed by residency training (at least 3-5 years). During these 7-10 years (med school/residency), longer if you go into fellowship training, you will not earn enough money to repay med school loans in any meaningful way. Your med school debt will continue to increase. Why would you want to add years of college debt and interest to what you have to pay back. Consider taking the full ride.
The very competitive nature of pre medical studies at U Michigan (bio, chemistry and other pre med majors) is tough. You get the smartest kids from Michigan and OOS.
Unless Michigan gives a great aid package, I would go to CMU for free and work on being the best student there in your major.
I personally think that being the big fish in a smaller pond is better. You could get more attention from professors and more opportunities for research.
Did you apply to Wayne and Oakland too? Since the two possible majors for you require so much more schooling I would go for the free ride. I’ve never heard of anyone getting a full ride at Central, I don’t think I would look a gift horse in the mouth and not take it. If you have the stats to get into MI you probably could have gotten a full ride at OU too. Wayne seems kind of stingy, though.
Know that many many people change their career choices once in college. They explore different classes and industries that they never even knew about before.
Also, $60K might seem like a lot, but a Michigan education can offer you a lot and has quite the brand recognition.
Realize that if you have to pay for it you will have to take out loans for it. These loans will accrue a lot of interest over time. You can run loan calculators yourself to see your monthly payments. A lot of people take out loans and that is how they afford college.
Know that if you do go to grad school zero debt will be a major blessing.