<p>Average living expense is about $12,000 / year if you take into consideration other expenses in addition to Room/board (from talking to middle class parents, who watch how they spend their money very closely).</p>
<p>Harvard Tuition and fees:$33,709
Room/board:$9,946
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$43,655<br>
+ Books, Travel, Summer classes, Other living expenses (car, insurance, med. insurance and expenses, clothe, etc.) will definately get it close or over $50,000.<br>
But again, that should not be a concern if you have tons of $$$ or very poor or simply do not care if you go into debt. People have different priorities in their lives. If they would love to attach Harvard to their name forever no matter what the cost is, why not? However, I do not see tangible benefits of Ivy League in comparison to BS/MD programs.</p>
<p>So that's one Ivy League which is below $50,000 -- so far below that $40,000 is actually a better estimate. I remain curious about the other seven.</p>
<p>It's absurd to include car insurance and summer courses. Health insurance is a part of "fees", as in "Tuition and fees." Travel and books do not add up to $6,000. I bet they don't even add up to $1500.</p>
<hr>
<p>If students are telling me they chose a school for scholarship money and happened to get an MD guarantee in the process, I'll have no complaints.</p>
<p>I don't hear that very often.</p>
<hr>
<p>Again, I'm not an Ivy Leaguer. I'm not sitting around telling people that they should all be thinking Princeton-or-bust.</p>
<p>All I'm saying is that students should pick their top choice college and ignore the MD guarantee, which is vastly overrated. If that happens to be Ohio State, and it happens to come with a NEOUCOM guarantee, great for them. But if their top choice would have been Vanderbilt, and they choose Ohio State *because of the *NEOUCOM guarantee, they're making a serious error.</p>
<p>Tux08902,</p>
<p>I would apply to the top schools of your choice, a couple of 2nd tier schools, and a few BS/MD programs. How can you be so sure you will get in at Dartmouth or Cornell? Or the kinds of financial support packages each school will offer you? Admissions are a crapshoot despite having excellent stats at Ivys.</p>
<p>If you get in several colleges, then of course, you could make decisions on where you want to go. Before you have acceptances, you should hardly rule out other choices.</p>
<p>It's great if your parents can shell out $40,000 to $50,000/ year for 4 years of Bachelors at an elite Ivy + another $140-$250,000 for 4 years of Med school. Alternatively, you can incur an enormous debt to get your BS+MD. </p>
<p>But if you don't have parental finances to back you, or if you don't want to use up your parents' retirement accounts (they are for their retirement afterall!), and you don't really want to sink in loans, then Ivy is not a viable option.</p>
<p>Even if your parents are doing well now, there's no guarantee that in next 8 years their healths and jobs can support such an expensive plan. A fact, many teenagers don't factor in.</p>
<p>Of course, if you are from an extremely wealthy family and have the resources and you DO get accepted, then Ivy is OK as a choice.</p>
<p>Otherwise, state funded BS/MDs are more well funded and most insured programs in the long run.</p>
<p>If it's the Ivy name you want attached to your name, you can always try to get in Ivys for residency or fellowships later on.</p>