BU vs FIU (Full tuition scholarship) vs Dartmouth vs USF

[beardeddragon4510]

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Hi all,

I am extremely lucky to have so many great options, but I am having such a difficult time deciding between them. For context I want to go into surgery (although I know plans change during med school) and can see myself wanting to do academic medicine/practicing at a university hospital as my career. I have not yet received financial aid offers from BU or USF or Dartmouth but I highly doubt I will get any need based scholarships.


BU

Pros:
- Highly ranked and conveniently located research
- Really liked the city of Boston
- Absolutely loved the school when I interviewed there
- Hospital is right next to the med school
- Not in Florida (I really want to get out of Florida)
- Phenomenal match list and most prestigious of my options (may be helpful for getting surgery residency)

Cons:
- Very expensive price (received a 5k merit scholarship so about 60k tuition)
- Got impression it was in a dangerous area


FIU

Pros:
- Free (still about 6k per year in fees)
- Girlfriend has committed to FIU med so have support system and could live together
- Great match list (especially for a newer, unranked school)

Cons:
- Newer school without a set reputation
- Heard bad things about the NeighborhoodHelp program being irrelevant and stressful
- Claim to fame was their extremely high step 1 scores, but now step 1 is pass fail it is unclear how this will affect their unusually good matches/curriculum
- Clinical rotations are all over Miami requiring me to most likely drive through crazy traffic
- In Florida


Dartmouth

Pros:
- Really loved the school, hospital, faculty, and students when I interviewed there
- Ivy league reputation
- Small class size
- Not in Florida

Cons:
- Price (even more expensive than BU)
- Not as big of a research university as BU
- Students seemed concerned about funding for the school
- Hospital had staff cuts due to budgetary issues
- VERY rural


USF

Pros:
- Cheap (about 30k per year)
- Has been greatly improving in ranking, reputation, and research in the past few years
- Brand new building in downtown Tampa right near Tampa General Hospital and in a beautiful area (I could literally kayak to class and clinical rotations)
- Support system in Tampa

Cons:
- Parents live nearby
- Having grown up in Tampa I feel like I have seen and done everything there is to do
- Research is spread all over Tampa and may not be convenient
- Know of several people who have dropped out of USF med which indicates there may be some problems


It feels like going to BU would be a big risk financially but would really open some doors and opportunities that my others schools would not in terms of research and connections. However, FIU appears to be the safest option since its next to free and has a decent match list. USF seems like a medium between the two with relatively cheap tuition and a good/improving reputation. If money was not a factor I would love to go to BU but the 300k difference is huge and it seems like the dumbest decision to turn down a full ride to medical school so I don’t really know what the best option is.

 

[djiboutiman]

Take the money! You can always leave Florida for residency. BU is a great school, but it’s prestige is not worth the debt.

 

[Woahtherebecky]

When your $200k in debt during residency, you’ll regret not going to FIU.

 

[DirtyNewYorker]

If you're planning to pay for your total COA entirely through loans and you attend BU, you will be 390K in debt by the time you start residency assuming you take out around 84K each year and the interest rate average for these loans is 6.08%.

If you do a General Surgery Residency, you're looking at a minimum of 5 years, not including any fellowship. During your residency, your loans will continue to accrue interest. In order to keep your debt at 390K until you become making an attending salary, you will have to pay around 24K each year to your loans. If you can't do that, then the 390K could easily become 420K-450K by the time you become an attending. If you completely defer payment during residency, which I do not recommend at all, your net loan debt could be a whopping 525K

In 2030, I assume an average General Surgeon Salary would be around 350K, meaning your take-home pay would probably be around 241K. I'd say you'd need to start chipping away 100K each year to pay your loans off within the next 5 years. So really, your effective take-home pay would be about 141K. Plus, there's really no guarantee you will be doing surgery, so your salary could very well be around 250K, which could take your take home pay after paying for loans down to around 70-80K.

There are certain programs such as PSLF that could help you pay off a significantly less amount of money for your loans, but there's certainly no guarantee that it will be around in 2024 when you graduate, so banking on this program is a huge risk.

In short, BU is a great school, but you got to ask yourself whether the prestige and time you'll have in Boston is worth the sacrifice. If your debt was around 150K, I'd say it's a different story. But I think 400K in debt could be very daunting to pay back, even with a 350K+ salary


If you care about prestige, USF could be a more financially safe option where the loans could be much easier to pay off. However, I'm not sure whether I'd trust their USNews Rank when their Program Director Ranking is much, much lower.

 

[billnyethepremedguy]

What did you decide on? I am at a similar crossroads with FIU vs. some mid-tiers and the price of FIU is a huge draw but like you said the complete lack of research and teaching hospitals is a HUGE con.

 

[beardeddragon4510]

What did you decide on? I am at a similar crossroads with FIU vs. some mid-tiers and the price of FIU is a huge draw but like you said the complete lack of research and teaching hospitals is a HUGE con.

I still am deciding between FIU and BU. Like all of these insightful comments have said, it really does seem like an obvious choice to take the money and run. Especially considering the tumultuous economy at the moment and the possibility that the first semester of classes will be entirely online (why pay 60k to sit at home and study by myself when I could do it for free). However I still haven't made up my mind, it really does feel like I'm picking from two extremes and two entirely different futures which makes this so much more difficult.

 

[Yhwach]

Conflict of Interest Statement: I am on BU and Dartmouth WL

FIU. I don't see BU being that great for you to pay that much money.

 

[beardeddragon4510]

I ended up deciding on FIU due to financial reasons. It was the difference of more than 200k and ultimately I deemed BU not worth the extra price. I was very excited about finally getting out of Florida, but I can use the money I saved to go on trips and ultimately match into a residency up north. It really was a tough decision but I know I am going to succeed regardless of the school I go to. I just hope I don't have to overcome FIU's lack of name recognition in order to get into a good residency, but only time will tell.

 

[billnyethepremedguy]

I ended up deciding on FIU due to financial reasons. It was the difference of more than 200k and ultimately I deemed BU not worth the extra price. I was very excited about finally getting out of Florida, but I can use the money I saved to go on trips and ultimately match into a residency up north. It really was a tough decision but I know I am going to succeed regardless of the school I go to. I just hope I don't have to overcome FIU's lack of name recognition in order to get into a good residency, but only time will tell.

Best of luck! The support system will make things 100x better and if you work hard you can really make the most out of FIU.