<p>Hello! If you were a high school senior and had to decide between two colleges, Michigan State and Eastern Michigan, which would you choose? My cousin is having a tough time deciding, so I'm posting this here for her. She wants to go to med school. MSU is more prestigious, but she would have to take out a loan of about $10,000 a year. EMU is much less prestigious, and has a med school acceptance rate of 0% (it's mostly a business/nursing/teaching school. Few people apply to med schools). But, everything would be paid for, so she'd leave undergrad with $0 in debt. Apparently, MSU would prepare students more for the MCAT and med school, but EMU is easier and she can always study for the MCAT with all the money she would save (books, courses, etc). Which university would you choose?</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s a matter of prestige, but which school would prepare her better for med school.</p>
<p>MSU but only if she thinks she could pay off the debt in reasonable time. Maybe get a job during the year</p>
<p>I’d go for MSU</p>
<p>Wayne State is a better place than EMU for pre-Med and will cost less than MSU.</p>
<p>WHY only those TWO schools?<br>
Have your cuz apply to Wayne State and that other lesser-ranked Mich public that has a med school…(western carolina?)</p>
<p>Borrowing $10k per year is crazy for a premed. Besides, are her parents saying that they’ll cosign those additional loans? If not, she won’t get those extra loans. </p>
<p>Premeds shouldn’t borrow much because they have to borrow SO MUCH for med school. She’d end up with WAY TOO MUCH debt. That $40k would be growing and growing and growing and growing during undergrad, during med school (along with huge med school loans) and during residency. </p>
<p>What are her stats?</p>
<p>How much will her family contribute? </p>
<p>I would choose EMU. Having no debt is the dream for most</p>
<p>MSU.</p>
OK, so i asked her why those two, and she said EMU has a good plan B for her (she LOVES teaching, almost as much as medicine. Teaching is definitely EMU’s specialty). MSU has Lyman Briggs, and she also absolutely loves science. If med school doesn’t pan out, she wants to teach high school Bio or Chem. Wayne State is a good college, but she just didn’t like the campus. UMich deferred her, and she is expecting a rejection. She only applied to four colleges, and 3 of them accepted her, and narrowed it down to two.
I’d go to MSU. I know a few people who have graduated from there with great results in the medical field.
One side note - You cannot borrow $10,000 in Government loans per year as an Undergrad. As a Freshman, $5500 is the limit - In theory you could do a private lender school loan for the rest, but as a general rule, this is a very very bad idea. I’d make sure they know how they are going to come up with the money first.
She has a couple of serious problems with BOTH of her two choices:
- MSU…too much debt. She won’t be allowed to borrow that much…and each year, she’d likely be borrowing MORE because costs increase. She’d likely end up with $50k of debt…and MUCH would be co-signed debt (and many parents will NOT agree to that.).
Also, even if her parents were naive enough to co-sign that much debt, she’d end up with WAY TOO MUCH debt if she went to med school (likely over $300k in debt)…and she’d have WAY TOO MUCH debt if she became a science teacher…(likely $50k of debt for undergrad, plus maybe another $30-50k for her credential/masters. As a teacher, she couldn’t afford that much debt! (has she done the math? Has she looked at loan repayment amounts???
- EMU…you say that it hasn’t sent anyone to med school (is this true??) The problem with this is that the school won’t likely have knowledgable premed advisers, probably don’t do Committee Letters or Mock Interviews, and probably would be clueless about helping her figure out a application list or help her with the med school app timeline. Now granted, if she frequently viewed/posted in the Premed Forum here on CC, there are about 10 parents there who can provide much assistance in that area. They are parents of med students who are very familiar with the entire process and are very good with crafting app lists, etc. The med school accept rate for those who follow the advice on that forum have an extremely high success rate if they have med-school-worthy stats. I have only known one student who didn’t get at least one MD acceptance, and I don’t think she followed the app list suggestions (too many OOS publics on her list)…and she had a borderline GPA.
I would STRONGLY encourage her to send in an app to that other Mich public with a med school (Western Michigan???)…if the deadline for merit consideration hasn’t yet passed. This could make a HUGE difference for her in the long run. Still fine if she decides on teaching, but likely VERY WELL set up for premeds since it has a med school.
edit…oh poop…Western Michigan requires instate students to apply by Dec 5th for merit consideration. Strange that they let OOS students apply for merit until May 1st. Perhaps she can call and find out if she can still be considered for merit there.
Ugh…hopefully someone with familiarity with the other Mich publics ( @kelsmom ??) can recommend another one that would give large merit.
What about Oakland University? They just built a building for the med school recently, and its cheaper than MSU. It’s a huge up and coming school that I don’t really think you can go wrong with.
^^^
GREAT SUGGESTION! Oakland’s merit scholarship deadline is still GOOD!!!
@officialcollege
Have your friend QUICKLY apply!!!
Thank you both for the Oakland suggestion. She is now applying, and we ran the net price calculator, and it appears she would be able to go with very little debt, which her parents can pay off. Thanks again!
OK, about the comment by stanatedj, she has the opportunity to borrow $6,500 (according to the NP calculator)
Federal Perkins Loan - $1,000
Direct Subsidized Loan - $3,500
Direct Unsubsidized Loan - $2,000
This is obviously still a lot, but I thought she could only take out $5500. I’m not challenging you, but did you just make a mistake? Or is one of those loans a “bad” loan (e.g. the Parent PLUS loan)? Thanks!
Also @mom2, I emailed the school because I was completely shocked to hear that. Apparently, very few students apply to med school from EMU, and they don’t have ANY advising committee for pre-med. So, applicants are largely alone. They now have a Pre-Med Club, and part of that club is to have doctors in the area come and discuss the process, which I guess is better than nothing. However, having no guidance from someone who specializes in that area definitely has a negative impact. Would you happen to know if MSU write committee letters? It attracted her to Bama, but she definitely couldn’t afford it without massive scholarship help, so she decided to not waste money and time on an application to a school she could never go to.
Beside Oakland, have her look into Alma and Albion (both of which can have generous packages - it really depends so run the Net Price Calculator). What about Grand Valley State?