Hi,
First of all, I would say that I have had a very successful application cycle. I've been fortunate to be accepted at HMS, CCLCM, UChicago Pritzker, Northwestern Feinberg, Mt. Sinai, as well as Mayo-Rochester. That was in large part due to the great advice I got from folks on this forum, including many of you. So thanks!
Brief background on me: I have been living in Boston the last couple of years working in an HMS-affiliated research lab, have a long-term partner here (hopefully, soon to be fiancee), have family here, as well as my immediate family only a couple hours drive away. When I got into HMS, I was deadset on attending due to these personal reasons as well as professional reasons (would be able to continue doing things I am doing inside/outside of the lab). HMS is need-based only, so unfortunately, I did not qualify for any FA based due to the paperwork we submitted. I felt I had a productive meeting with the FA director, so hopefully that improves, but I want to go into making this decision assuming the FA will stay the same. I will not ask my parents to contribute anything to my graduate education.
I am writing this post to hear from you all what you would do in my situation. I think my career goals are to pursue a surgical subspecialty and go into academic medicine. I would like research to be a minor component of my career, as my main goal is to be an outstanding clinician.
I've read countless posts on these sorts of dilemmas elsewhere, but I think mine may be a bit unique in that I got into "the most prestigious school in the country" that is located where I am most comfortable and where my partner is most comfortable. I worked extremely hard the last few years to get into HMS and be in this dilemma. I got zero love from any other schools in Boston. Is going to HMS worth 400k+ loans after interest? If this was not HMS, I would be taking the full COA or full-tuition hands down. I know it matters how you do where you go, not where you go.
My heart is saying go to HMS despite the loans, because (assuming programs like PSLF are still out there), I will eventually pay it back, especially if I stick with my plan of pursuing a surgical subspecialty. What's the price of happiness? Medicine is going to be hard, so you might as well go where you are happy?
On the other side, my head is saying go where you will have no debt, few people are in as great a position as you are. Zero debt means it is totally fine if I hate surgery and want to do primary care ,IM, etc - I can be whatever type of physician I want to be. Plus, I wouldn't have to worry about paying 1/3 of my take-home salary as an attending to pay off loans that have doubled due to interest. Would such a debt actually make me even more unhappy because I would constantly be thinking about it and not enjoying the process of becoming a physician as much?
I've spoken with mentors who were in a similar position to me and who choose HMS and have zero regrets about the loan burden due to programs such as PSLF. I've spoken to mentors who were not in this position but would hands down choose HMS if they were in this position. They have said such things without having the personal connections to Boston that I have. When I speak to people outside medicine (eg parents), they said take the money.
Sorry if this seems like rambling. Would love to hear what you guys would do in this situation. Of note, I did get generous merit-based aid at other schools (Feinberg 1/2 tuition), Mayo (1/2 tuition), still waiting to hear from Sinai.
