HELP! Scholarship at a school I don't love vs. loans at a school I like a lot

[lnb22]

Hi all!
I'm having a really hard time deciding between 2 medical schools. They are both very good medical schools (one public and one private), but the public school offered me a full scholarship and the private didn't give me anything (grants or scholarships that is). The problem is that I really really love the private school (I felt at home and everything just felt right) and I'm not particularly interested in the scholarship school. The estimated first year costs for the private school is $70,000, and I would probably have to take out at least $45,000 in loans per year. The other is free. I just don't know how to gauge debt and how hard or easy it is to pay it off, and how much money should matter in making my decision. I also don't know what speciality I'm interested in yet, so I have to take that into account. As far as quality of a medical education goes, they are about equal (they are both top 25 schools). I only have until May 15th to decide, so any help is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

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[se2131]

Hi all!
I'm having a really hard time deciding between 2 medical schools. They are both very good medical schools (one public and one private), but the public school offered me a full scholarship and the private didn't give me anything (grants or scholarships that is). The problem is that I really really love the private school (I felt at home and everything just felt right) and I'm not particularly interested in the scholarship school. The estimated first year costs for the private school is $70,000, and I would probably have to take out at least $45,000 in loans per year. The other is free. I just don't know how to gauge debt and how hard or easy it is to pay it off, and how much money should matter in making my decision. I also don't know what speciality I'm interested in yet, so I have to take that into account. As far as quality of a medical education goes, they are about equal (they are both top 25 schools). I only have until May 15th to decide, so any help is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

That's a lot of debt to swallow when you have the option of not taking it on. If you think that you'd definitely be unhappy at the scholarship school, then go to the other one. But if you just liked the private school better (but could still see yourself enjoying the scholarship school), do yourself a favor and don't take on that kind of debt.

To give you some idea of the debt that you'll be looking at, I'll be taking out about the same amount in loans as you ($45,000-$50,000). I don't really have a choice in this regard. My total debt at graduation will be $217,000 when you count interest, tuition-inflation, and regular inflation. Total debt after residency will be $250,000. If I go into a fellowship of two years, then it goes up to $278,000. Of course there are a lot of assumptions built in here, the biggest one being that I won't be paying anything towards loans while in residency and fellowship because I'd rather put as much money as I can into my Roth IRA. Also, this is assuming no lender incentives. But at least this gives you a very reasonable scenario.

Anyway, this translates to a monthly payment of:
10-year plan: $3,206/month
25-year plan: $1,936/month

I'm sure I've messed up my calculations a little bit somewhere (especially since I can't for the life of me figure out how interest is compounded during repayment, the assumption above is monthly-compounding which is a bit pessimistic probably), but these are decent ballpark figures I think.

So if you go w/ the 25-year plan, that's a cost of $24,000 every year out of your pocket. Again, worst-case scenario probably (hopefully you'd pay off more than the minimum each month and pay less overall), but a very possible one nonetheless

 

[lnb22]

Thanks for the help- I'm really not good with knowing what debt would be like and how hard it would be to pay it off since I went to a state school for undergrad and had no debt. But thanks again, I appreciate it!

 

[gman33]

What are the reasons for not liking the one school?
The simple answer is to follow the money, especially if you deem both schools to be of equal quality.
You will probably be in a position to pay off any loans you take, but who knows what physician reimbursement will be like in the future.

I'd go with the scholarship.

 

[TMP-SMX]

Full scholarship? Sounds like a good deal to me. Perhaps you can reconcile your differences. By the way, maybe you can talk to the private school and maybe they can meet you half way.

 

[primadonna22274]

Absolutely, take the scholarship. Or, as someone else suggested, see if you can leverage it to get a better offer from the school you really like.
Debt sucks. I pay about $1000/mo on my PA school loans from 8 years ago, and will still be paying for a long time ($100k). That debt is the biggest hindrance to me returning to med school because I have to take on MORE debt while this debt grows. It really is painful. If you don't have to have debt then it's foolish to have it.
The scholarship is a gift. You should take advantage of it.

 

[Reimat]

For the love of all that is holy - take the scholarship! For all the talk on the pre-med forums of "do what makes you happy," the BEST part of medical school are your classmates and they will probably be equally great at both schools. $200,000 in debt is a lot lot LOT LOT LOT of money, add in $100,000 in interest over the repayment period and you're talking about paying back ~$10,000/year for 30 years. That's $10,000 bucks to spend on vacations, cars, house payments, kids, investments...

If the schools are about equal in quality of education, you should absolutely go with the school that will be free. In 2, 5, 10, or 20 years, you'll be thanking yourself for making that choice.

Hi all!
I'm having a really hard time deciding between 2 medical schools. They are both very good medical schools (one public and one private), but the public school offered me a full scholarship and the private didn't give me anything (grants or scholarships that is). The problem is that I really really love the private school (I felt at home and everything just felt right) and I'm not particularly interested in the scholarship school. The estimated first year costs for the private school is $70,000, and I would probably have to take out at least $45,000 in loans per year. The other is free. I just don't know how to gauge debt and how hard or easy it is to pay it off, and how much money should matter in making my decision. I also don't know what speciality I'm interested in yet, so I have to take that into account. As far as quality of a medical education goes, they are about equal (they are both top 25 schools). I only have until May 15th to decide, so any help is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

 

[lnb22]

Hi everyone- so I figured I would clarify which two schools I was talking about just in case anyone has a personal experience with either so that maybe that would help me a little more. So the school I got the scholarship to is UAB, and the other school is Emory. If anyone has any personal experiences with these two schools, any extra input would be helpful. But thanks so much for the comments so far, they've helped a lot already.

 

[yadayadadude]

I'm sure I've messed up my calculations a little bit somewhere, but these are decent ballpark figures I think.

FYI, this is right in line with the spreadsheet I built to answer the same question. If we're off, we're both off.

OP, to take this one step further, if you make $200K/year as an attending, your after-tax salary is roughly $10-11K/month. You could conceivably be putting 20% of your after-tax income toward debt repayment for 25 years.* Take the scholarship!

*Obviously, it won't still be 20% at the end of 25 years ... presumably, you'll get a raise somewhere in there. But you get my drift.

 

[mimivirus]

im turning down a 25K merit + 5K need based scholarship guaranteed for the next 4 years to go to a school where ive calculated that ill have ~20K more loans/year (w/o even factoring in the diff in cost of living which will be HUGE)...

for me though..the difference in my perceived happiness level seemed to be pretty huge. even as i write this im experiencing some qualms with my decision (its a LOT of monayys) BUT i feel when i think of med school and life at the higher debt schoo and when i think about the free one...if that really quantifies anything..haha

anyways just thought id share...as i have been reading this thread to help my decision...

 

[goodoldalky]

You are certifiably insane if you turn down the scholarship.

 

[HunterJumper]

I would definately go with the scholarship. I'm sure in time you will find things at the public school that you like too. Having no debt would be a great first thing to fall in love with!

 

[randomedstudent]

Hi all!
I'm having a really hard time deciding between 2 medical schools. They are both very good medical schools (one public and one private), but the public school offered me a full scholarship and the private didn't give me anything (grants or scholarships that is). The problem is that I really really love the private school (I felt at home and everything just felt right) and I'm not particularly interested in the scholarship school. The estimated first year costs for the private school is $70,000, and I would probably have to take out at least $45,000 in loans per year. The other is free. I just don't know how to gauge debt and how hard or easy it is to pay it off, and how much money should matter in making my decision. I also don't know what speciality I'm interested in yet, so I have to take that into account. As far as quality of a medical education goes, they are about equal (they are both top 25 schools). I only have until May 15th to decide, so any help is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

My .02.....definitely the free one. But I'm quite frugal by nature so take that into account. I had a full tuition scholarship to my state med school and as soon as I found that out I cancelled all further med school interviews - I knew there was no way I would go somewhere else when I could go to this school for free. But I did like the school - I suppose if you absolutely hated it maybe it wouldn't be the best choice to go there, but if it was just "ok" compared to the "awesome" private one, I would most def. choose the free one.