The OPs parents could also be sending money to extended family members. There are many reasons why they could feel financially strapped…even with a decent income for their area.
@thumper1 I saw, 1/4th of mcat is physcology. Humanities and social sciences are fine by me. I enjoy debate and philosophy which fall under that. College of Wooster offers a pre med phycology class now.
I think you mean psychology, right?
I believe ethics is also required.
You will also have to demonstrate your strength in writing via multiple and complex,essays.
If you don’t like reading, you may have to alter that as well…lots required in college.
I wouldn’t use a surgeon who didn’t like to read.
Medicine doesn’t stop when you get your white coat. My OB/GYN reads thousands of pages of journals, new studies, meta-studies, etc. per month. He publishes widely and cites dozens of articles, books, studies and journals in every publication. And every single element of professional development- additional licensing, re-licensing, board certification (for gynecological cancers, infectious disease specialty, etc.) requires even more study and self-study.
Senior- get a better back-up plan. Being a surgeon is more than cutting people open and sewing them back up. It is essentially signing on to be a student for the rest of your life.
And becoming a dentist isn’t easier.
Holy moly, there’s a reason med school admissions likes kids who do well in English. Yup, it’s the volume of reading and the comprehension required.
I’m starting to wonder just how much you now about current medical training, licensing and practice.
We’re talking to a high school senior about her absolute certainties for 12 years down the road.
Miles to go.
@SeniorStruggling you posted the above…So…did you give up the sport…or not?
@thumper1 I gave up on pro dreams. I still compete nationally, I used to be much closer to the top of junior ranking before. I am not at the same level anymore in comparison. I am still top 5% in the country though.
I do not dislike reading, I love reading. I am awful at certain aspects of english and history, mainly abstract themes and understanding tone.
I am ok with reading and learning, I watch documentaries for fun and read many books for fun. Most recently some autobiographies of athletes.
I am not a hater of books or of learning, I am just inclined towards solid concrete thoughts as compared to abstract analysis of a piece of literature.
I hope you “understand tone” when you are interacting with people…because that is a key ingredient for a career in medicine.
@thumper1 Much better than in reading it.
I am great with people and terrible with literature. I am also a native spanish speaker so english is not my first language, though I am much more proficient in english.
@oldfort … It really comes down to a difference of opinion about debt. $510K in mortgage debt is manageable as long as one has the income to manage it. I based my post on the OPs description. I have lived the Silicon Valley lifestyle. While I sold a primary home and escaped my home state, I kept a condo there, for which I paid $178K in the late 90s, and could sell immediately for over $500K. This is not the first time that condo has been worth $500k. During the housing bubble ramp up, by 2005, less than 7 years after I bought it, it was worth $500k. People bought into the neighborhood at that price with easy loans and when the general economy crashed, the comps dropped to $300k (I was still doing fine because I bought before the Internet boom and I put about 30% cash down.). Now today, it’s worth $500k again but it’s a rental and I have no interest in selling. If you keep up with what is going on out there, things are headed for another cyclical crash, as often occurs because it is a gold rush mentality all the time. From the OPs description, I find that the parents are living a precarious lifestyle. Many do out there because it has become the norm to pay 50% of one’s income just on housing. The only thing that saves most people out there is the paper equity in their homes - which can fluctuate depending on the economy.
People think that carrying a $500k mortgage payment is no big deal because they never anticipate not having the income to pay that mortgage payment. If there is anything to be learned from the past decade it is that using the same approach that people use when they go buy cars - just give me such and such a payment - without any consideration of the actual costs of a mortgage and home ownership, is a bad idea. The OP paints a picture of extreme debt and while the income is high, the parents are still deep in a hole. Adding more debt will make this family’s life worse and there is no arguing otherwise.
As others have said, the OP is not responsible for her parents choices of jobs, lifestyle or housing. Frankly, while I have never been to SV, it sounds like her parents have a bargain and even if the market were to crash, could probably get out what they paid and maybe find jobs in Iowa, along with a 4 bedroom McMansion for 250k. I love house hunters and every once in a while there will be a house that in my neighborhood would cost 1,5M and in Michigan costs nothing.
While California schools are a great choice, if that is not what you want, go to one of the private colleges in your area and have a financial review and see if they can do anything for you that is not obvious from the NPC.
From Finaid
If you are a parent who is legitimately going back to school to finish your education or pick up an additional degree, provide documentation of this to the school’s financial aid administrator and ask for a professional judgment review. The school has the authority to deduct the parent’s actual education expenses from income or compensate in other ways. Since there has been a history of fraud in this area, you will have to convince the financial aid administrator that you are genuine.
I realize your parents have already gone but the way I look at it, if they would be willing to fund the cost of your parents education now, why not the cost of repaying your parents’ education?
As for the issue of cars, I made H get rid of a 14 year old car a few years ago because it did not have airbags, not sure if it had anti lock breaks or traction control. I did not want him or my children driving around in this car. There was nothing wrong with it otherwise except for minor repairs. If we still owned it, no way would I let either of my Ds drive it. I would probably take it and let them take my car (older minivan but with safety features).
Within reason a newer car is a safer car and that is what I want a new driver driving. A Chevy is fine, it should not be a Mercedes. In fact, if I owned a fancy car I would not let my kids drive that either, attracts too much of the wrong kind of attention.
Why not? Because taking on huge loans is a choice…not a mandate.
Look, I agree these oarents made a financial investment in their educations. This was a good thing for them, as clearly it netted them great paying jobs. As a taxpayer, and parent of another college student, I would not be thrilled funding college for a family with in excess of $250,000 a year income because they have college loans.
Yet you would be paying that if all circumstances were the same except that the parents were currently enrolled. It is the same loans. Does it matter if Parents took them out in 2016 to support their current education or took them out in 2012 to support their education then. Either way it is the same cost and degree.
It is a choice for the parents to go back to school, whether now or in 2012. I would argue it is less responsible now then it was in 2012, yet at least some PRIVATE schools might take it into consideration.
Further, as a taxpayer this is barely your concern since there is no way OP is getting a break at UCSB or whatever UC she gets into. However, it MAY matter if she decides to go private. Yes I am well aware that as a taxpayer who lives nowhere near say USC I am still indirectly supporting it through various tax breaks educational institutions get but by that stretch I am also supporting the Catholic Church, the 7th Day Adventists and various other charities and I certainly have no right to have a say in their policies. If anything, OP deciding to go private frees up a spot at a UC, saving the taxpayers money since her education is subsidized as is every California residents.’
And that is the all important difference. They are not currently in school. That really does matter.
I read @thumper1 's post as not being eager to provide need based aid in this circumstance rather than a discomfort with CA subsidies to all UCx schools. Maybe I misread.
50N40W understood my post exactly. Not eager to provide need based aid to a family with $250,000 plus in annual income…who happen to have college loans and a mortgage. Their choice. And as @oldfort pointed out in an earlier post…at their income level, they shouldn’t be living from paycheck to paycheck.
Maybe they are sending money to relatives. Maybe they are accelerating their loan repayments. Maybe they also have expensive car payments. Pay be they have huge credit card bills. Maybe. None of these things should entitle a family with a $250,000 plus income to need based financial aid. Their choice.
@angiepie
any update?