Baylor Medical School Tuition

[PB&Jam]

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So I just found SDN's school rankings page (took me a while), and Baylor showed up at the top, with, as I'm sure most of you know, an absurdly low in state and out of state tuition. Is there a reason the tuition is this low? Are all TX schools like that? Are TX schools more selective, or prefer in-state to a greater degree, than other schools?

Sorry this is really random, the price just seemed like an outlier.

 

[navigator]

Texas oil

 

[Lucca]

Texas oil

This is absolutely correct. Texas higher education is the price it is because of oil. Baylor, although it is a private school, does receive a large amount of federal funds (as is reflected by the fact that they have to (partially) observe the Texas law about reserving seats for in state applicants) and many, many of those federal funds exist because the Texas government owns much of the land which the oil companies "rent" in order to make obscene amounts of money. If Texas were still independent, Austin would be D.C but Houston would be NYC.

Our professors do not hesitate to remind us that our university was built on oil money.

 

[Advance]

Living in Texas is great isn't it? 😀

 

[makennacompton]

RE: "which the oil companies "rent" in order to make obscene amounts of money"

It never ceases to amaze me how, when gas at the pump is $4.00+ everyone accuses the oil companies of price gouging and rapaciousness, but when prices are less than $2.00 (as is the case at present), no one ever praises the oil companies for their generosity and community spirit on behalf of all of us.

Guess some of you bio majors need to take economics, and you just might understand this thing called "supply and demand." It's why the oil companies actually are no longer making obscene amounts of money, and they were as much at the mercy of the world markets at $4.00 as they are now at $2.00. The oil companies DO NOT control the price of oil -- if they did, do you think it would have declined from $100 to $30?

It so hard to be a liberal when the shibbeloths don't correspond with reality.

 

[Lucca]

RE: "which the oil companies "rent" in order to make obscene amounts of money"

It never ceases to amaze me how, when gas at the pump is $4.00+ everyone accuses the oil companies of price gouging and rapaciousness, but when prices are less than $2.00 (as is the case at present), no one ever praises the oil companies for their generosity and community spirit on behalf of all of us.

Guess some of you bio majors need to take economics, and you just might understand this thing called "supply and demand." It's why the oil companies actually are no longer making obscene amounts of money, and they were as much at the mercy of the world markets at $4.00 as they are now at $2.00. The oil companies DO NOT control the price of oil -- if they did, do you think it would have declined from $100 to $30?

It so hard to be a liberal when the shibbeloths don't correspond with reality.

Not sure what in my post inspired this exactly. I wasn't complaining about oil prices or accusing oil companies of being evil lol. I'm not even sure what I said that could have insinuated that. I'm also not sure what political leanings have to do with this discussion either. I don't think I used any shibboleths either...So...uh....yah idk what do with this RE:.

 

[Advance]

RE: "which the oil companies "rent" in order to make obscene amounts of money"

It never ceases to amaze me how, when gas at the pump is $4.00+ everyone accuses the oil companies of price gouging and rapaciousness, but when prices are less than $2.00 (as is the case at present), no one ever praises the oil companies for their generosity and community spirit on behalf of all of us.

Guess some of you bio majors need to take economics, and you just might understand this thing called "supply and demand." It's why the oil companies actually are no longer making obscene amounts of money, and they were as much at the mercy of the world markets at $4.00 as they are now at $2.00. The oil companies DO NOT control the price of oil -- if they did, do you think it would have declined from $100 to $30?

It so hard to be a liberal when the shibbeloths don't correspond with reality.

Came in guns blazing.
Try to relax.

 

[makennacompton]

I read the use of the word 'obscene' in its dictionary sense of being 'intolerable and outrageous.' Thus, to my mind, 'obscene profits' = 'evil profits .' That's exactly what you meant to say by using the word, 'obscene.' Don't backpedal into the bushes and not own what you said.

 

[PB&Jam]

Holy crap, this opened a whole can of worms that I did not expect it to open. Good to know that the low prices come from oil subsidies, that makes a lot of sense. Although I wonder if tuition will increase a bit over the next year or two if oil prices stay low. Also did my research and found out that TX med schools are like 80% TX residents. Might still apply to Baylor though, after looking at their web site it seems like it would be good to add as a reach school.

 

[DokterMom]

State regulations require that TX med schools admit 90% of their class from In-State residents. Baylor is required to admit either 70 or 75% In-State.

OOS applicants should bear this in mind when deciding whether or not to invest their application time and money applying to TX schools. Baylor uses the regular AMCAS application; the others use their own TMDSAS with a whole different set of essays. They're very good to excellent schools and easily some of the best bargains in medical education.

@navigator and @Lucca - I'd be curious what evidence you have tying the low tuition price directly to oil. Yeah, there's lots of oil money here, but I don't see how our state government could not just as easily direct those funds elsewhere. Looking at our top political leaders (Bush, Perry) somehow, it doesn't seem like education is that high a priority...

 

[PB&Jam]

State regulations require that TX med schools admit 90% of their class from In-State residents. Baylor is required to admit either 70 or 75% In-State.

OOS applicants should bear this in mind when deciding whether or not to invest their application time and money applying to TX schools. Baylor uses the regular AMCAS application; the others use their own TMDSAS with a whole different set of essays. They're very good to excellent schools and easily some of the best bargains in medical education.

@navigator and @Lucca - I'd be curious what evidence you have tying the low tuition price directly to oil. Yeah, there's lots of oil money here, but I don't see how our state government could not just as easily direct those funds elsewhere. Looking at our top political leaders (Bush, Perry) somehow, it doesn't seem like education is that high a priority...

Thanks! So far I'm only considering Baylor, because it uses the AMCAS and because I don't want to waste my time applying to a bunch of TX schools where I'm already at a significant disadvantage trying to get in. But if it's not oil money, then what? TX school costs are outliers even compared to other state schools.

 

[DokterMom]

Thanks! So far I'm only considering Baylor, because it uses the AMCAS and because I don't want to waste my time applying to a bunch of TX schools where I'm already at a significant disadvantage trying to get in. But if it's not oil money, then what? TX school costs are outliers even compared to other state schools.

Not saying that it's not oil money -- maybe it is. To be honest, I've wondered the exact same thing... Of course, we 'save' an awful lot of money in other areas...

 

[navigator]

I'll backtrack here and say that I don't think Texas oil itself directly subsidizes tuition for students - rather, oil revenues (in places like the Permian Basin) make up a substantial portion of operating costs for public institutions in Texas (medical, health-related, and undergraduate). Because our institutions are so heavily funded in this way, they don't need to rely on tuition as much to run smoothly.

Other public schools in less energy-dependent and diversified economies will rely much more heavily on tuition (see: MSU).

BCM would have higher tuition if not for an agreement with the Texas state government to limit the number of OOS students matriculating every year. It's no really a purely private institution but rather a public-private venture.

 

[Lucca]

State regulations require that TX med schools admit 90% of their class from In-State residents. Baylor is required to admit either 70 or 75% In-State.

OOS applicants should bear this in mind when deciding whether or not to invest their application time and money applying to TX schools. Baylor uses the regular AMCAS application; the others use their own TMDSAS with a whole different set of essays. They're very good to excellent schools and easily some of the best bargains in medical education.

@navigator and @Lucca - I'd be curious what evidence you have tying the low tuition price directly to oil. Yeah, there's lots of oil money here, but I don't see how our state government could not just as easily direct those funds elsewhere. Looking at our top political leaders (Bush, Perry) somehow, it doesn't seem like education is that high a priority...

Certainly you're right about our state governments priorities. I'll look up some more information when I get home but I know there are a lot of ways in which funds collected via oil revenues subsidize Texas education.

Something specific to my institution is that the chemistry and engineering departments receive a lot of money from the oil sector because of 1) alumni, 2) grants from charitable organizations funded by the energy sector (Welch foundation, Rockefellers), and 3) direct ties between research labs and corporate energy.

It'll be interesting to look up some info though, it's something our professors have told us since freshman year, but to be honest I never went digging to see how true it was today