<p>Texas instate medical school COA is about $40000, so $160000 for 4 years. Add the Rice undergrad loans cost to your projected loans and you are in the $300000 ballpark. Since you have a 2290 SAT, you should be able to find a loan calculator on line. Try fin aid, it’s simple minded but the cold hard numbers should bring you to your senses. The advice you are getting is good, but until you follow up on it you are wasting their time. Unless you have access to a money tree or sugar daddy, you can’t afford your plan. We are trying to help, try to be rational, Rochester is probably your best option.</p>
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Not exactly. Even at the full ride level, these merit scholarships aren’t normally for the “best” candidates in a purely academic sense. The schools are invariably looking at other factors. Academics can be a factor, but it’s certainly not the most important. factor. They’re looking for many things - compelling stories, service, diversity, etc.</p>
<p>Have you heard the old expression about not looking a gift horse in the the mouth? Applies to you. Right now you are very upset because you have gotten two prizes you so very much want. Two very expensive ones. You are accepted to Rice and Emory, but did not get the money to go there. Only getting merit money would have made it possible because it appears that your parents make too much for you to qualify for significant financial aid. You are just focused on what you WANT. It’s like you won a limited ticket to buy a limited chance at something very expensive, but you don’t have the money. And you are trying to come up with the money which is really about $200K over 4 years.</p>
<p>The thing is, you have a very wonderful gift right there that you are putting your nose up to, because it is not what you wanted. You do have choices here. But they are not going to be what you want. Yes, you can go to URochester, do well and try to transfer elsewhere. I’m not going to lie to you. Even if you do well, it is not likely you get enough merit money to make it possible, but you know, maybe you’ll get some. And you’ll only have 3 years to fund rather than 4. Maybe with what your parents save on costs this year, they can kick in more for the next 3. You’ll be eliigible for a little bit more in loans–in fact take the full $5500 Stafford this year and bank it so it’ll go towards future years’ costs. Maybe you can take extra classes and get 2 years under your belt so you can transfer to Rice or Emory and finish up in 2 years. So, you can give that a go.</p>
<p>But really, you have been given an opportunity that most people would ever so much want. You are acting very much like the typical spoiled entitled brat here, and I am not saying this in a mean way. There are so many who can’t go to any college because not only are they in your situaion, they don’t have the ROchester alternative and there aren’t any schools within commuting distance that fulfills any of what they want and need academically and their parents won’t and can’t pay.</p>
<p>I hate the University of Rochester. My parents made me apply because my mom works here and she gets a tuition waiver. I live here and have hated Rochester for years ever since I moved from Texas; the school’s academics are sub-par, the students are inadequate, and the social scene does not suit me. I received a merit scholarship on top of the tuition waiver, so it will cost 80,000 after all four years.</p>
<p>*Quote:
University of Rochester will not be hard because I received a 20,000 merit scholarship, meaning I am one of their best students.
*</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>Do you mean $5k per year? or $20k per year? If you mean $20k per year AND you have free tuition, then how is URoch going to cost you $20k per year?</p>
<p>AND…Do NOT assume that because you got a merit scholarship from URoch that you won’t find the classes difficult. My kids had near free-rides at their school (with similar and better stats than yours), but because of their majors (math and chemE/pre-med), they had to work very hard for their As.</p>
<p>their top 25 percentile has a 2170+/ACT 33+…there will be a lot of kids with stats similar or better than yours. Uroch has a rep of giving lots of merit money, so it’s not like you were singled out as some kind of unique prize.</p>
<p>You’re pre-med…and maybe going to be in some kind of STEM major. Your classmates are not going to be from the univ at large…they’re going to be the best at the school.</p>
<p>URochester is a fine school academically. I guarantee you that you will be challenged. I know many kids accepted there and who have gotten nice merit money, and yes, they are top students… SOme have turned down Ivy to go there because of the merit money they received. You will be Making money going there, so bank it and get your loans and bank that too since you are not eligible for financial aid making student savings a moot point. With free tuition, whatever your parents kick in, you have $25500 i nthe pot for your next 3 years whereever you choose to go, and more if you work and save and ask your parents to save for you too. Plus each year you get increased amounts you can borrow through the Staffords.</p>
<p>I don’t think that is the smart way to go, but is doable pretty much on your own.</p>
<p>premedgirl:</p>
<p>Wow. I have to say, I’m absolutely stunned. You’ve been given a wonderful opportunity to go to an excellent school without taking on a bunch of debt, and you’re complaining? Good heavens. I certainly hope you learn to adjust that attitude before you become a doctor–if indeed you ever do.</p>
<p>Even if you went to UTSW (where med school IS ridiculously cheap - tuition is just over $15,000), your total CoA there would probably be about $45,000 a year. That’s $180,000 over 4 years. Add that to $140,000 (which you may not even be able to borrow) and you will be $320,000 in debt. That’s a lot of debt, even for a doctor - especially if you want to do primary care or a lower-paid specialty.</p>
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</p>
<p>No you won’t. Assuming you’re an NYS resident, SUNY Downstate Medical is $13,545 for semester for tuition plus a few hundred extra for fees, making it on par with Texas medical schools. The University of Buffalo medical school costs about the same.</p>
<p>Or, if you really want to go to medical school in Texas, you can move to Texas for a year and work to establish residency. You’ll be an independent student at that time.</p>
<p>Look, I understand you. Throughout the app season you probably had your heart set on Rice or Emory. College was your ticket not only to a great academic career, but also to a place where you felt you identified more (the South, with more conservatives). The adjustment period when you first find out about not being able to go there is hard. Since decisions were due May 1, you’ve probably only been dealing with this for about a month. It’s easy for someone to tell you to just go to Rochester because they’re looking from the outside, without all the emotional entanglements you’ve been feeling to Rice all year, perhaps longer than that.</p>
<p>But that’s precisely WHY this advice is good, because it IS without the emotional entanglements you are feeling. Right now your strong desire to attend Rice is clouding your judgment about Rochester’s quality as a school (it’s a great university, and I’ve heard awesome things about Rochester itself). That’s pretty normal, but listen to the voices of reason - your parents and the smart people on CC - who are telling you that you have an amazing deal. You get to go to Rochester for an affordable price, possibly graduating with NO DEBT. Then after that, you can go wherever you want. Rochester has a top-notch medical school, where you can possibly shadow doctors or participate in medical research if you want. They probably have great premedical advising. You could stroll into the office of admissions at the medical office and ask some questions, if you wanted.</p>
<p>I had to make a similar choice, when I was in high school. I got into Emory, but with no aid. My parents couldn’t afford to pay. And I got into a small LAC with a full merit scholarship. I took the full merit scholarship, never looked back. I have NO regrets. I had an amazing time at my undergrad school; I love it so much even now as an alumna. Many of the classes were challenging and interesting, and I was surrounded by intellectual equals even though I was at the top of my entering class. And I’m now in an Ivy League PhD program with an NSF fellowship. I’m going into my last year. My undergrad is LOWER ranked than Rochester.</p>
<p>College is what you make it, and so is life afterwards. If you go in with a positive attitude, you may fall in love with Rochester. Even if you don’t, you will probably still have a great college education. Take some time to get over the initial grief, and then start to think rationally about it.</p>