<p>Just an observation, but a number of the top students from our high school who are the sons and daughters of physicians are in the honors program at the state flagship. </p>
<p>I think a couple of factors are at play. Many physicians' families won't be eligible for financial aid and they're feeling that $200,000+ is just way too much for an undergrad degree. Some portion of these kids will be going on to medical school themselves -- </p>
<p>Also, the state flagship honors program is pretty impressive. Average ACT is 32.</p>
<p>My doctor friends send their kids to the Flagship. Many of their kids want to go to med school (or are currently in med school) and they’re using their funds to pay for that.</p>
<p>One of my friends is currently paying for 2 children in med school. That’s a lot of money.</p>
<p>Plus, these folks know that the undergrad name means nothing to med schools…as long as the school is a “good school.”</p>
<p>I know several doctors in our kid’s small independent private school in the Midwest. I can’t think of one that went to our state university (although if we lived in a state like Michigan with a fantastic flagship, that might change). Our state flagship is fine, not the tippy top but not terrible either. The ones I know mostly went to liberal arts colleges in our state, I can think of a couple that went outstate to places like Georgetown and Duke. But I don’t see why this discussion is limited to doctors. I know more people who make over $200K in other professions than doctors, I think.</p>
<p>I think ici is pointing out that physicians, in general, aren’t pushing their kids to do the most prestigious name college thing – as wont by many CC denizens. It’s due to the fact that they see the undergrad name is less important than the actual work done by the student. </p>
<p>That was the case for my father in law who didn’t push his kids besides the large public school and has, off-handedly, implied that I shouldn’t push too hard for his granddaughters to go to overly-expensive private schools as well.</p>
<p>Almost all of my close friends husbands are doctors. Off of the top of my head here is where their kids have gone:</p>
<p>Williams
Bates
Brandeis
Tufts
Cornell (CAS, COE)
SUNY Oneanta
SUNY Binghamton
Dartmouth
NYU
Colgate
Tulane
CU Boulder
Boston College
Holy Cross
Fairfield
Emory
UMich
Our local Community College</p>
<p>Some of these kids come from the same family and the choice was based on what school the student wanted to attend and where they were accepted. None went to a specific school because of finances. Several have kids at both private and public U’s.</p>
<p>Quite a few have kids who are now in Medical school.</p>
<p>A significant minority of full pay students at most decent privates and OOS public flagships are the children of doctors and lawyers. This is the case at Oxford/Emory and it’s the case at OU. </p>
<p>Most students go to their in state schools, so it’s not surprising that most children of doctors and lawyers go to their in state option. However, if the children and/or parents find the in state option either undesirable or out of reach, they have other options.</p>
<p>What is a"siginificant minority"? Between what percentage range is it,
how do you know this number range, and how do you know they are “full pay students”?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>How do you know that “most children of doctors and lawyers go to their in state option”? Are you purely extrapolating from the fact that most students within any state attend their state’s public schools?</p>
<p>I dont know a lot of drs, but I know alot of profs at the flagshp ( with multiple ivy deg)& their kids went to lacs, or directional state u’s ( either in or out of state)</p>
<p>My H is a physician. We are in NC and both of our children go to state schools. One to UNC-Chapel Hill and one to NC State. Most of the children of our physician friends also go to one of our state schools, not all, but most. We are lucky to have good instate choices.</p>
<p>My guess is that this has a lot to do with what the parents did, which in the case of lots of doctors was go to their state flagships. </p>
<p>If I think of the five people I knew best in college (Yale) who became doctors, and who had children, their kids went to Yale (3), Brown (2), Harvard (1), Reed (1), Loyola (LA) (1), and Boston University (1). If you screen for the ones who pursued careers in big-time academic medicine (Johns Hopkins, Mass General, Cleveland Clinic) – those are the kids who went to Yale, Brown, and Harvard.</p>
<p>And it’s similar with doctors I know in my community. Mostly, the kids have gone to the same college as one of their parents, or a similar college. And in the case of the one 2-MD couple I know where both doctors went to a state flagship (albeit not an in-state flagship for either), one of the kids went to an out-of-state flagship public university (but also applied to Yale, Columbia, and Chicago and might well have gone to one of them if accepted there), and the other went to Penn (where one of the parents is a faculty member).</p>
<p>Let me interject here. I am from the East Coast and when I practiced there I had no doubt in my mind that my children would attend the most prestigious universities like most of my colleagues wanted for their children. I moved to the Midwest and was baffled as to how few of the graduates from the top private high schools in the city attended Ivy League schools. I was told that most kids, in general, choose to attend schools in their region and the NE is too far for where they want to go. I thought it was an excuse for inadequate academic curricula in the city.</p>
<p>Well, I have learned over the years how wrong I was. Most of these kids have an affinity to their state’s flagship through family history and definitely football. My physician colleagues do not see any value in sending their kids to prestigious universities and this holds true especially if their kids plan on applying to medical school. Some of my colleagues do send their kids to the Ivy schools, but they are the exception. The doctors in town send their children to the best primary and secondary schools money can buy. But after that, their kids are typically lavished with merit scholarships and low in state tuition at a state school.</p>
<p>My attitude has changed. Despite having children with great stats for prestigious universities, thanks to the CC crowd, I found several universities with excellent merit scholarships to send them to. The most important gift I can give my kids is sound financial management. I will gladly pay for medical school at our state flagship medical school or my alma mater but not for a prestigious UG education.</p>
<p>That is a common sentiment expressed here on CC. Some people just cannot be convinced that many perfectly qualified students would happily make other choices.</p>
<p>CC also cured me of my earlier wishes for my kids. There is such a neurotic obsession on the forum with admission to prestigious “dream” schools that it frightened me into being very happy with my state’s flagship.</p>
<p>It’s easy to understand that doctors’ kids will prefer to attend their state’s schools because of football - especially in the Midwest. Go Fighting Illini!</p>
<p>frugaldoctor, there once was a thread about a student who turned down her Harvard admission in order to a Christian affiliated college (not near her home). There was so much shock and awe about it. This student had been a member of CC, and there were a few posters who practically demanded that she explain her choice. Her father actually got on and gave their reasoning. One poster in particular just couldn’t accept this and, in my opinion, practically badgered the father to have the student come on and give some better reasons for her choice. I got a good education in how firmly some posters believe that no one in their right mind would ever turn down an Ivy league education and that there essentially could be no legitimate reason to do so.</p>
<p>I work with many doctors, and a lot of them send their kids to state schools, just as they attended state schools. No doubt others have sent their kids to privates as well. A personal friend is a physician, and he told his son that since he was going to be paying for his son’s med school, he needed to go to school wherever he could get a full scholarship. His son was offered full rides at two universities. He chose to go to UNC on a wonderful full scholarship, and is now in his first year of medical school back in his home state.</p>
<p>One of the great benefits of CC is that it has the proven ability to make people happy with their State schools since it frightens people into being happy with them!</p>
<p>Of the top of my head, the doctor’s kids I know went to</p>
<p>U Penn
MIT
Smith
Elon
Columbia
Christopher Newport/Va Tech
University of Richmond</p>
<p>Only one went to an in-state public. In my experience the doctor’s kids in my state went to private colleges even if they were less talented students. I’m sure that if I lived in a state with outstanding public options, that would be different. Frankly, for me, Elon and the University of Richmond fall into the category of schools that are not worth paying for over a state flagship, even mine. But each person has their own line on that one, based on their own finances and their kid’s needs.</p>
<p>I think many physicians fall in the HENRY category - High Earners, Not Rich Yet.</p>
<p>Especially for General Practictioners, their $200-300K gross income is too high to qualify for financial aid, but low enough that $50-60k per year is a huge hit. Unless they had been conscientiously saving large sums for college (in addition to paying off their own student loans, malpractice insurance, etc.), it can be challenging to cut 25% or more out of the household take-home budget.</p>
<p>I would be curious if there is a difference in responses from physicians at the lower end of the payscale (relatively speaking, of course) and specialists, who can be in the seven-figure range.</p>