For love or money?

[DNAroolez]

Hey guys- I am in the process of deciding where I am going to go next year, and I wanted to get current students' advice... basically my decision is boiling down to a school that is in a great location that I love and my state school that is pretty nice and also offered me a mighty generous scholarship. I know I would be much happier in the first school (close to friends and family, good programs for what i want, good repuation etc...) but deciding to go there would cost me about $100,000.

That seems like sooo much money to me right now... people have told me that this amount of money will not make a difference in the long run especially on a doc's salary, but coming from someone who is used to making minimum wage, this offer is hard to refuse!
Any insight?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[automaton]

do you realize what kind of lifestyle you can sustain with an extra $100,000 over 4 years? you could basically buy a $500 plane ticket to travel every weekend for 4 years. or however you'd rather spend it. that would buy me a lot of happiness. but being close to friends and family is cool too.

 

[Rafa]

do you realize what kind of lifestyle you can sustain with an extra $100,000 over 4 years? you could basically buy a $500 plane ticket to travel every weekend for 4 years. or however you'd rather spend it. that would buy me a lot of happiness. but being close to friends and family is cool too.

This is such a kickass response I've got to give you a thumbs up: I honestly can't remember the last time someone's post actually made me stop and *think*. And imagine. I mean...seriously. $500 a weekend? You could buy round trip tickets to almost anywhere in the US *and* spend 1-2 nights in a hotel at your destination of choice. You could literally live in one part of the country and spend every weekend in a different state. For some reason, this sounds like a really good idea right now.

But to the OP, it really depends on you. How far would the other school be from where you live? How close is the expensive school to your home? It sounds like staying close to family and friends is important to you. When you say 100k, do you mean the school would cost 100k *more* than the other school? If so, do you think it would be worth graduating with that much more debt? If you do, go for it. But if not, perhaps you should go with the state school. Especially since virtually any med school in the country will get you where you want to go if you're willing to put in the work. And if you do really well, you'll feel less pressured to go into a high-paying specialty for residency if you don't have an extra 100 grand hanging over your shoulders. If the money you were deciding between was less - like 10 or 20 or even 30k, I'd lean more in favor of school #1. But with such a large discrepancy - *especially* if school #2 is offering something close to a full scholarship - I'd go with school #2. I'm pretty sure it'll be more fun going through med school without watching every penny - and maybe even having a little extra to spend on the side.

 

[DNAroolez]

Thanks for the feedback! I should have been more specific. The state school offered me a half tuition scholarship totalling about 40K. I haven't gotten my financial aid package from the first school yet, though. The state school is only a couple hours away but the first school is in the city I have basically lived near and went to school in all my life.
So the 100,000 thing was an estimate I put together based on budgets I saw from both schools. It looks like I could potentially be laying out an extra 100 grand on the first school...