I’m a high school senior living in Minnesota. I am interested in health sciences/medicine. Initially I thought I wanted to be a Bio-Medical Engineer, however I’m not entirely sure the technical side of the field fits me as well as I had originally thought. Regardless of the school/major, I plan on pursuing medical school.
I have recently found myself in quite the predicament:
I am split between taking a full ride at UW Madison and paying full tuition at Yale University. If I went to Yale I would be coming out with 60K in debt. I know I would fit in better at Yale than at Madison and I really enjoyed the campus when I toured. I’m just not entirely convinced that the debt is worth the degree, especially going into the financial struggles of med school.
That’s a huge no-brainer. Take the scholarship. Not sure? Substitute the word “college” for “new car.” Which one would you take? A 60k BMW at 5% interest you can’t really afford anyway, or a new Honda Accord for free? You’re going to be better off financially taking the free car. Now, you mentioned medical school. That’s going to be a lot of money in loans, and you’ll have a major advantage going into med school debt free.
Actually the true financial comparison is ($0, assuming full ride means everything is covered) vs. about $280k (Yale full pay plus expenses). If full ride means just tuition is covered, instead of $0, it is everything else you would need/expect to pay over 4 years. Even if the debt at the end of 4 years is only $60k, the fact is there was another roughly $220k (or whatever the final differential is vs Madison) spent that could have been saved. If you are definite about med school, it looks like a pretty easy decision unless money is really no issue for your family.
So to clarify, the 60k in debt would be something I take on for myself. The rest of bill would have to be footed by my family, which would still be a challenge for us to handle but somewhat doable.
Yale has an average GPA of 3.7 vs Madison’s 3.3. If you apply to med school with a choice of Yale 3.7 vs Madison 3.3, you would be glad to pay $60k to gain an advantage.
@jdzucol: Except that that analysis is faulty as we can reasonable assume that the average student at UW-Madison is not at the level of the average student at Yale.
The question is whether a student who can get in to Yale would pull the same or better/worse GPA at UW-Madison, and it not at all clear that they would get a lower GPA at UW-Madison. If you argue that they’d pull a lower GPA, you’d be making the argument that UW-Madison is more rigorous than Yale.
IMO, other than for finance/consulting, it would be really difficult to justify spending so much more for Yale than UW-Madison on purely ROI terms. And even then, it would be difficult to justify as even 2 years of an elite MBA would cost much less than 4 years of Yale.
OP, what will be the net cost for Madison (all in, tuition, room and board, fees, travel, books, other expenses, less grants/scholarships – for these purposes financial aid in the form of loans should not be a credit) vs. Yale using the same metrics so we can do a true apples to apples financial comparison? Also is the Madison scholarship for all 4 years and contingent on maintaining some minimum gpa. Finally if you lose the scholarship, what will be the new net cost (are you in state, OOS)?
The net cost of Madison for four years would be no more than 5,000 a year. All tuition is covered, all that would need to be payed is housing + gas money back to Minnesota. Minnesotans also gain reciprocity with Wisconsin, so if the scholarship is lost It would be roughly 30,000 a year. Yale would be around 70,000 a year with tuition, housing, and flights back to MN. No doubt that Madison is the smart play on the numbers side.
You are going to medical school, so Madison would be a no-brainer. You can always apply to Yale for medical school, as long as you keep your GPA up in undergrad.
The question to me is how big is the overlap between the top UW students and the middle to top Yale students. That is a general question I have for state flagships and the top 15.
UW 75% 1450 SAT
Yale 75% 1600
Yale 25% 1420
Without more data points, it is hard to tell exactly, but you could interpolate and get close. I envision two overlapping bell curves with Yale’s shifted and elongated to the right.
Anecdotally:
The only kid who got into Yale from our HS in the past 7 years had a 1420 (Naviance makes it easy to figure this out). He had a 4.0 as do pretty much the top 10% of the class (my kid said he was very smart). FWIW, he had the “mother of all” non-sports ECs for Yale. His EC was off the charts for a high school kid. I have no doubt he could throw down a big GPA in either place.
Maybe your parents are willing to co-sign for private loans that exceed those limits. Even so, I’d suggest that the limits are there for a reason. Somebody’s analysis leads to the conclusion that > $31K is not advisable. FWIW, Yale’s average debt at graduation is about $14K (for students who have any loans, that is, not for all students). So, by both those standards, $60K is a lot (especially if you’re serious about med school, and if $60K represents only part of a much bigger cost difference).
I think you should go to Madison. But … room and board will be closer to $10,000 than $5,000 (unless you’re planning to not eat, which I don’t recommend).
The pull of Yale’s prestige would be difficult for many to fight against, so you and your family will have to make a choice. I do know you can – and will – get a great education at UW-Madison. We have a son who opted for Madison, loves it and just three days ago was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa there as a junior. He studies hard, has ECs, and I’m sure you will, too, and that you would not lose your scholarship.
It’s good to learn that Madison now offers scholarships to out-of-state and Minn. reciprocity students, unlike three years ago. The monetary resources that you would save by enrolling at Madison would be available for medical school. It would be a treat to enter residency without $300,000+ of med school debt.
BTW – let us know in two weeks what choice you make. You’ll likely change your mind twice a day until you feel good about a decision.
I actually have to make a decision by this Friday due to the conditions of the scholarship. I have no doubt that the next two days will be full of ambivalence!