Harvard for 400k?

[friendlydoc7]

Hello,

After getting accepted to a number of top medical schools, I finally decided to commit to Harvard. Unfortunately, I did not receive a merit scholarship from any school. I'm in the unfortunate situation in which I did not qualify for financial aid and my family is not in the position to support me financially for medical school. If I live frugally below the estimated cost of attendance budget or win a few scholarships, I estimate that I will be $400k in debt at graduation, taking into account interest and loan initiation fees. After residency I'll be $500k to $750k in debt depending on what field I pursue.

While Harvard Medical School is clearly an amazing opportunity, this amount of debt is terrifying. Is the opportunity to attend HMS worth this huge expense or would I be an idiot to sign my self up for so much debt? Will the Harvard prestige and network continue to open interesting, unique doors decades after graduation despite prolonged indebtedness? Should I trust that by joining the Harvard/Partners family I'll somehow be able to make ends meet long-term?

I'm considering two alternatives to starting at Harvard in the fall: 1) reapplying to lower-tier schools than offer merit scholarships. 2) forgoing my strong desire to become a doctor to pursue a less altruistic, internationally focused business career. I could also apply for a military medicine scholarship, but I'm a huge pacifist. I find it absurd that the wealthiest non-profit in the world may price me out of my dream education!

Thank you very much for your help and advice.

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[edmadison]

Read this book tomorrow: David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell. No it's not worth it except perhaps if you plan on being a big name academic and the it's still probably not worth it.

Ed

 

[JourneyUpstream]

I find it absurd that the wealthiest non-profit in the world may price me out of my dream education!

Thank you very much for your help and advice.

Not a knock against Harvard in particular.... Do you really find it absurd? I do. It's ridiculous. I also know the sad reality is that we don't live in a world where people starve because other people simply aren't smart enough to figure out how to produce enough food for everyone (in fact, as you may know, there's already more than enough in the world to eliminate starvation already). You probably know that people and institutions sadly, but generally just do what's in their best interest despite of what is the morally right thing to do, and that goes even if they're "non-profit" entities. I don't like it. Not everyone is like that. I would hope that when I die and someone looks over my life, they could say "he wasn't like that." I think you need to decide what's important to you. You will never starve. You will always have a roof over your head. Do you want to drive a $120,000 car by a certain age? What kind of people do you want to work with? What makes you feel satisfied with yourself? How big of a house do you want? The situation you're in -- it's not fair. It's bull****, actually. I wish it wasn't that way, sorry. I hope someone has a better answer they can give you from experience. I don't have a better answer for you, but I thought it'd be helpful to point out that possibly, among the stress you must be feeling at this time, you should be looking primarily at yourself for the answer.

 

[RangerBob]

Hello,

After getting accepted to a number of top medical schools, I finally decided to commit to Harvard. Unfortunately, I did not receive a merit scholarship from any school. I'm in the unfortunate situation in which I did not qualify for financial aid and my family is not in the position to support me financially for medical school. If I live frugally below the estimated cost of attendance budget or win a few scholarships, I estimate that I will be $400k in debt at graduation, taking into account interest and loan initiation fees. After residency I'll be $500k to $750k in debt depending on what field I pursue.

While Harvard Medical School is clearly an amazing opportunity, this amount of debt is terrifying. Is the opportunity to attend HMS worth this huge expense or would I be an idiot to sign my self up for so much debt? Will the Harvard prestige and network continue to open interesting, unique doors decades after graduation despite prolonged indebtedness? Should I trust that by joining the Harvard/Partners family I'll somehow be able to make ends meet long-term?

I'm considering two alternatives to starting at Harvard in the fall: 1) reapplying to lower-tier schools than offer merit scholarships. 2) forgoing my strong desire to become a doctor to pursue a less altruistic, internationally focused business career. I could also apply for a military medicine scholarship, but I'm a huge pacifist. I find it absurd that the wealthiest non-profit in the world may price me out of my dream education!

Thank you very much for your help and advice.

I assume you have quite a bit of undergrad debt, correct? $400k for Harvard is more than $100k more than the full cost of attendance at other private schools. Unless tuition has skyrocketed since I graduated 2 years ago...

Personally I'd encourage you to go to the cheapest good school you can go to, but it sounds like you already turned down the other options since you say you'd have to reapply. I think that's a bad idea. Aside from risking not getting accepted (unlikely in your case if you're getting accepted to Harvard and other top programs--but you may not get interviews from any of those programs the next time around considering you turned them down), you have to take into account the lost opportunity costs of not working a year. If there's something you really want to do for the next year this isn't as big an issue, but speaking in purely practical and financial terms, delaying medical school by a year delays practicing medicine by a year.

Assuming an average salary of ~$200k, you'd have to go to a program $200k cheaper than Harvard to come out with essentially the same amount of debt. (Ok, probably closer $130k or so since the government takes a big chunk of that $200k).

Lets be honest---you're not going to be "rich" for quite some time with that debt burden (unless you go into derm, ortho, etc.) And unless you go into primary care or other low-paying specialty, you have a good chance of making at least 300K (EM starts around there I believe), which is even more lost opportunity cost if you delay practicing.

The military may not be such a bad route, financially speaking. You're technically doing good and fully in line with pacifism as a physician in the military, but I can see how helping those whose job it is to use lethal force when required/ordered could make you uncomfortable. And anyone that went the military route will tell you--only do it if you want to be in the military.

Business may not be such a bad idea if you enjoy it--you'll get to "start your life" sooner, make a full salary sooner, have less debt, etc. But if contributing more to society and having a stable, altruistic and rewarding job is more important, then you can certainly make due even with that large debt burden in even a primary care specialty---with that debt level, after taxes and 20-year loan payment schedule you're looking at around $80k take home (assuming $200k salary) for 20 years, not taking into account inflation and salary increases over those 20 years. That kind of sucks when you think about all the work you'll have put in, but hey, $80K after taxes is a very nice and stable life. You'd have to live on less than that so you can catch up and put away money for retirement, and you won't have the big fancy home some of your other physician friends will have, but it's all about perspective.

(Also, keep in mind there's a fair chance you'll get scholarships if you did go to Harvard--they don't want you borrowing the full cost of attendance because you'll bring up their borrower statistics, so often schools will give you "sympathy scholarships." I got some and I didn't go to a program with the funding of Harvard.)

Bottom line: Avoid debt like the plague as much as you can. The amount of debt you're looking at is astronomical, but it's doable if you don't mind not living the "physician lifestyle." If you have cheaper alternatives this year I'd definitely go for them, but if your goal is to be a physician, I'm not so sure it's worth reapplying.