How important is COA/debt in choosing between schools?

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What $ amount in cost savings is significant enough to choose the cheaper school?

  • $30,000

    Votes: 18 26.1%
  • $50,000

    Votes: 20 29.0%
  • $70,000

    Votes: 10 14.5%
  • $100,000 or more

    Votes: 21 30.4%

  • Total voters
    69

ClassicJandT

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I understand that for most people cost is only one of several factors and going to a more expensive school might make sense if that school is sufficiently better. For example, going to a school that has more research opportunities or better rotations could help you land a more competitive specialty that you are interested in.

But what about for those of us who are interested in totally noncompetitive fields? Think of people who are shooting for things like FM, psych, PM&R. etc. which actually makes up a pretty good percentage of people going to DO schools.
How much importance should we be placing on cost in the final selection process? For us, should cost trump all other considerations?

And what $$$ amount in savings is significant enough to choose the cheaper school? Is it a savings of 30K or 50K, or does the price difference need to be more like 70K or 100K?

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At the end of the road, patients really don't care where you went to medical school or residency. They care that you are competent and board certified. It's stupid to go into an extra 100K in debt of student loans if you don't have to, it's just money down the drain when you could be investing it somewhere else.
 
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If I had to pay 75k extra (over 4 years) to live next to my imaginary wife and kids I'd gladly pay it. I wouldn't pay 30k extra to live/learn in a big city (I'd sooner pay more to be away from a city!). Others may do the opposite....

As you said, cost isn't in a bubble... It's one of many factors. And it matters what the baseline is... If one school is dirt cheap and you pay an extra 70k because you want a different culture, patient population, family, etc... Why would we say no? If it came down to NYIT (~95/yr estimated?) vs Rowan (~85/yr including housing etc), I'd hands down pick Rowan. "Only" 40k, but it's on a high baseline to begin with...

More specifically, are you asking with regard to LECOM vs Rowan?
 
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I got accepted to KCOM, my top choice. I'm going to turn it down for LECOM. I really like LECOM and I know I'll do well there and I'm from the area. However, KCOM is a better school in terms of alumni base and rotations. But it's not $80,000 better.

It's the same reason I turned down my II for wvsom. At the end of the day, if you're actually interested in serving rural communities (and not just saying it to get the acceptance), you just can't afford to go to some of these schools. Especially in my case as a non trad with a family.


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I ended up picking a school that is ~20k more per year. Granted this school I thought had more opportunities such as research and various rotations to help me obtain a residency in the fields I'm interested in. I am typically a big advocate of "go to the cheaper place" or "buy the cheaper brand" but I really felt this was a decision not based on cost this time for me but rather a different type of quality and happiness. Some people may disagree with my reasoning but everyone has various opinions and things/places that work for them. I think some situations people are in, such as the poster above me, the cheaper school may be more logical especially if family is involved so it really varies per person.
 
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I chose LECOM-B over Nova because LECOM-B is 20k/year cheaper per year in tuition. Might be 100k cheaper total over the course of 4 years. I think 70-100k is significant enough to really question if you want to attend that school.
 
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I chose LECOM-B over Nova because LECOM-B is 20k/year cheaper per year in tuition. Might be 100k cheaper total over the course of 4 years. I think 70-100k is significant enough to really question if you want to attend that school.

You'll regret that decision.
 
In relation to OP's question, what about UNECOM (~51K) vs. LECOM (~31K)? Can the 80K+interest price difference be justified in this case?
 
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If I had to pay 75k extra (over 4 years) to live next to my imaginary wife and kids I'd gladly pay it. I wouldn't pay 30k extra to live/learn in a big city (I'd sooner pay more to be away from a city!). Others may do the opposite....

As you said, cost isn't in a bubble... It's one of many factors. And it matters what the baseline is... If one school is dirt cheap and you pay an extra 70k because you want a different culture, patient population, family, etc... Why would we say no? If it came down to NYIT (~95/yr estimated?) vs Rowan (~85/yr including housing etc), I'd hands down pick Rowan. "Only" 40k, but it's on a high baseline to begin with...

More specifically, are you asking with regard to LECOM vs Rowan?

Yes, the decision I have to make is between LECOM and Rowan but I don't want to make this thread about my specific case. I feel like a lot of people end up having to make a selection on cheaper vs slightly better and I just wanted to see if there was some type of consensus. For me, even though I am IS at Rowan, on paper it's ~47K more than LECOM over 4 years taking into account living expenses, health insurance, interest, etc. And of course, it looks like as of now 50K is right where the plurality of people feel that the cutoff would be.

Personally, I'm still not 100% on what I will do but I'm considering paying the extra $ for Rowan. I realized that I could reduce that on paper ~47K price difference by aggressively lowering health insurance, housing, and transportation costs. This involves taking a couple of steps such as (1) opting out of student health insurance and instead signing up for NJ medicaid when I start medical school, (2) living somewhere with public transportation so I can sell my sports sedan and go car free or just buy a cheap beater, and (3) living with roommates.

After these measures, Rowan will still end up ~32K more than LECOM which is why I have a dilemma. 32K is a more manageable price difference to me but is even worth paying that amount more considering I want to do family medicine or psych?

Anyways, the focus of my original question wasn't so much about my decision. I just wanted to see where everyone thought the threshold of COA savings should be for people interested in noncompetitive fields. Consensus seems to be that 50K in savings is the point by which most people would choose to go with the cheaper school over the slightly better school.
 
@ClassicJandT

The thing is even though you're reducing the cost for Rowan down to 32k more, it's still costing you ~50k more. Which LECOM campus is it btw?
 
@ClassicJandT

The thing is even though you're reducing the cost for Rowan down to 32k more, it's still costing you ~50k more. Which LECOM campus is it btw?

PBL at LECOM-Erie

The savings off the stated costs at rowan are mostly the result of (1) NJ allowing medical students to sign up for Medicaid/NJ Familycare while in school so not having to buy student health insurance and (2) lowering transportation costs by reducing or eliminating the need for a car if you live somewhere like philadelphia or Collingswood, NJ and commute out to school via PATCO.
Even accounting for higher housing costs in philly/ south jersey over Erie, these two things basically help bring a ~10k higher COA per year at rowan over LECOM-Erie closer to ~7k more per year instead. After you take into account the interest over 4 years, you get to that 32k projected cost difference between rowan and LECOM-Erie. Haha I've been agonizing over this long enough that I did the math on this.

Anyways, I think I'm more or less willing to pay that premium but I just wanted to see how other people made their decisions
 
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Couldn't charge me enough to not have to deal with LECOM's rules. I'm way too chill to deal with them, and probably would have gotten myself thrown out of school over drinking water in class or something.
 
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Yes, the decision I have to make is between LECOM and Rowan but I don't want to make this thread about my specific case. I feel like a lot of people end up having to make a selection on cheaper vs slightly better and I just wanted to see if there was some type of consensus. For me, even though I am IS at Rowan, on paper it's ~47K more than LECOM over 4 years taking into account living expenses, health insurance, interest, etc. And of course, it looks like as of now 50K is right where the plurality of people feel that the cutoff would be.

Personally, I'm still not 100% on what I will do but I'm considering paying the extra $ for Rowan. I realized that I could reduce that on paper ~47K price difference by aggressively lowering health insurance, housing, and transportation costs. This involves taking a couple of steps such as (1) opting out of student health insurance and instead signing up for NJ medicaid when I start medical school, (2) living somewhere with public transportation so I can sell my sports sedan and go car free or just buy a cheap beater, and (3) living with roommates.

After these measures, Rowan will still end up ~32K more than LECOM which is why I have a dilemma. 32K is a more manageable price difference to me but is even worth paying that amount more considering I want to do family medicine or psych?

Anyways, the focus of my original question wasn't so much about my decision. I just wanted to see where everyone thought the threshold of COA savings should be for people interested in noncompetitive fields. Consensus seems to be that 50K in savings is the point by which most people would choose to go with the cheaper school over the slightly better school.
Rowan has much better rotation sites, go with Rowan.
 
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The rules and regulations are simply silly. I get having to wear appropriate attire, that is understandable, but the mandatory classes + no food/drinks in the building is silly. We're grown adults, we can make the choice of how we want to proceed with class. Also, in every medical office I've worked in, the physician has a bottle of water, or some food on their desk they are snacking on.

Cutting costs means cutting out expensives obviously. Now many schools pay to guarantee their clinical rotations. From interviewing at LECOM-B and LECOM-E, both Dean of Students explained one way to cut their costs is to not pay for guaranteed rotations. They have verbal contracts with hospitals to put their students on rotations there. The downside to this is that if the hospital deems so for whatever reason, they can drop the student. Now this is not often the case, but that should not be something a medical student should be concerned about, even if the school employs the correct measures to rectify the situation. How would you feel if you scheduled an EM or specialty rotation at a hospital, to find out that it was cancelled, but instead you're doing some other sub-I, or other rotation at a hospital you're not as big of a fan of? I would be pissed.

Also (sorry long post), the first two years are standard everywhere you go. It's not as though the concepts of biochem are different at Penn vs PCOM vs Western vs LECOM. It's the same info. Your clinical rotations are what matter. A school such as Rowan that has a better reputation will certainly have better clinical rotations than other newer schools, and lesser reputable schools such as LECOM. Also, FWIW, I know few residency directors in specialties that will only interview students from the top DO schools (PCOM, KCU, Nova, Rowan, MSU, KCOM, UNECOM, DMU).

TLDR; Money matters but at the same time you can't put a price on your education unless you have extenuating circumstances such as family, support system ect. At the end of the day, sure being in less debt means more money in the future, but you might be closing some doors in doing that.
 
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You'll regret that decision.
Really? Now that you are paying back your student loans as a resident you still think that paying 100k less is a regrettable decision?
 
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Really? Now that you are paying back your student loans as a resident you still think that paying 100k less is a regrettable decision?

Yep. Actually even more so now because I see how much the quality of medical school training matters.
 
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Yes, the decision I have to make is between LECOM and Rowan but I don't want to make this thread about my specific case. I feel like a lot of people end up having to make a selection on cheaper vs slightly better and I just wanted to see if there was some type of consensus. For me, even though I am IS at Rowan, on paper it's ~47K more than LECOM over 4 years taking into account living expenses, health insurance, interest, etc. And of course, it looks like as of now 50K is right where the plurality of people feel that the cutoff would be.

Personally, I'm still not 100% on what I will do but I'm considering paying the extra $ for Rowan. I realized that I could reduce that on paper ~47K price difference by aggressively lowering health insurance, housing, and transportation costs. This involves taking a couple of steps such as (1) opting out of student health insurance and instead signing up for NJ medicaid when I start medical school, (2) living somewhere with public transportation so I can sell my sports sedan and go car free or just buy a cheap beater, and (3) living with roommates.

After these measures, Rowan will still end up ~32K more than LECOM which is why I have a dilemma. 32K is a more manageable price difference to me but is even worth paying that amount more considering I want to do family medicine or psych?

Anyways, the focus of my original question wasn't so much about my decision. I just wanted to see where everyone thought the threshold of COA savings should be for people interested in noncompetitive fields. Consensus seems to be that 50K in savings is the point by which most people would choose to go with the cheaper school over the slightly better school.

$47 over 4 years isn't significant. Btw, how do you sign up for NJ Medicaid during medical school? I thought that wasn't allowed when you're a full time student.
 
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$47 over 4 years isn't significant. Btw, how do you sign up for NJ Medicaid during medical school? I thought that wasn't allowed when you're a full time student.

http://www.njfamilycare.org/who_eligbl.aspx
I know it used to be the case that if you were a full time student, you weren't able to get onto medicaid. But I believe that since NJ expanded medicaid in 2013, you are eligible as a single with no dependents if you make under 15K or so regardless of student status. During medical school, you would probably be making under 15K so you can sign up and to my knowledge, there are no specific restrictions against doing so. Disclaimer: I haven't actually done this yet myself, but anecdotally I know medical students at several schools throughout NJ who were able to do this.

Btw a 47K price difference is definitely significant to a lot of us, especially people like me who want to do family medicine.
 
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http://www.njfamilycare.org/who_eligbl.aspx
I know it used to be the case that if you were a full time student, you weren't able to get onto medicaid. But I believe that since NJ expanded medicaid in 2013, you are eligible as a single with no dependents if you make under 15K or so regardless of student status. During medical school, you would probably be making under 15K so you can sign up and to my knowledge, there are no specific restrictions against doing so. Disclaimer: I haven't actually done this yet myself, but anecdotally I know medical students at several schools throughout NJ who were able to do this.

Btw a 47K price difference is definitely significant to a lot of us, especially people like me who want to do family medicine.

Oh I agree. $50k sounds like a lot, but you can cut down living costs by a little less than half if you have a roommate. The difference in tuition between Rowan and LECOM is like $6-7k a year. You do get more freedom and resources at RowanSOM so that's a consideration. The rotations at Rowan are significantly better.
 
And those of us who have put themselves through school who have no other support. Debt is a real thing. Its all play money until the Sallie Mae comes calling you



Yo, that **** is hot... lmao
 
Couldn't charge me enough to not have to deal with LECOM's rules. I'm way too chill to deal with them, and probably would have gotten myself thrown out of school over drinking water in class or something.

Oh god with the no water. Cry me a river. There are drinking fountains right outside the lecture halls. But gotta agree you man, they are strict.
 
Oh god with the no water. Cry me a river. There are drinking fountains right outside the lecture halls. But gotta agree you man, they are strict.
I'm serious- if a school isn't going to let me have something the ****ing UN guarantees rights to in class, in a reusable bottle that will in no way impact their stupid "trash reduction" argument, I'm going to raise hell. Not because it's important, but because their justification is ridiculous and pointless and I fight for what is right. LECOM is clearly not only wrong, but ridiculous in regard to their rules.
 
Oh god with the no water. Cry me a river. There are drinking fountains right outside the lecture halls. But gotta agree you man, they are strict.

When you see a school being nit-picky about the small things, one can only image how uptight they are about the larger things. So you can kind of take it as an inference to how they deal with bigger issues.
 
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I'm serious- if a school isn't going to let me have something the ****ing UN guarantees rights to in class, in a reusable bottle that will in no way impact their stupid "trash reduction" argument, I'm going to raise hell. Not because it's important, but because their justification is ridiculous and pointless and I fight for what is right. LECOM is clearly not only wrong, but ridiculous in regard to their rules.

I'm currently a postbac student at LECOM and it's not as bad as what ppl on SDN make it out to be (Hell). As for the no water issue, I was told that it was in terms of spilling water into outlets and onto laptops.

From your response, it seems like you would die at LECOM because of their rules. I have classmates who are very passionate when it comes to stupid rules and it seems like they are dying from the inside out. I'm dying from the inside too, but not as quickly as they are.
 
I'm currently a postbac student at LECOM and it's not as bad as what ppl on SDN make it out to be (Hell). As for the no water issue, I was told that it was in terms of spilling water into outlets and onto laptops.

From your response, it seems like you would die at LECOM because of their rules. I have classmates who are very passionate when it comes to stupid rules and it seems like they are dying from the inside out. I'm dying from the inside too, but not as quickly as they are.

There really is no justification for having no water in the auditoriums. Might as well ask students to not wear shoes in the classroom too. After all, they do make a mess and causes a lot of work for the janitorial staff.

Almost every laptop nowadays are pretty water resistant. I was told that the reason water was banned was because LECOM doesn't want to pay extra for the cleaning crew when students leave a mess in the classroom. That's why you have cheap tuition. There's mandatory attendance for LDP where you're sitting in the classroom almost all day, and you aren't even allowed water.

Sounds pretty ridiculous if you ask me.
 
There really is no justification for having no water in the auditoriums. Might as well ask students to not wear shoes in the classroom too. After all, they do make a mess and causes a lot of work for the janitorial staff.

Almost every laptop nowadays are pretty water resistant. I was told that the reason water was banned was because LECOM doesn't want to pay extra for the cleaning crew when students leave a mess in the classroom. That's why you have cheap tuition


Shhh.... don't give LECOM any ideas. I don't want to smell feet during class. I'm not into that.
 
LECOM will do anything to save money. You mentioned nitpicky things...well they make their students buy and bring their own gloves for anatomy lab, they make standardized patients clean the rooms after encounters are over instead of a cleaning staff at night, and etc. etc.

The only reason the tuition is low is because they know they couldn't convince people to come there otherwise. All the threads you see and students you talk to pretty much admit that they either chose LECOM because of money or because it was the only place they got in.

There's a reason why there are like 50 LECOM threads and not even Liberty can top that
 
I understand that for most people cost is only one of several factors and going to a more expensive school might make sense if that school is sufficiently better. For example, going to a school that has more research opportunities or better rotations could help you land a more competitive specialty that you are interested in.

But what about for those of us who are interested in totally noncompetitive fields? Think of people who are shooting for things like FM, psych, PM&R. etc. which actually makes up a pretty good percentage of people going to DO schools.
How much importance should we be placing on cost in the final selection process? For us, should cost trump all other considerations?

And what $$$ amount in savings is significant enough to choose the cheaper school? Is it a savings of 30K or 50K, or does the price difference need to be more like 70K or 100K?

I go to the most expensive school in the country, I would say it is definitely a concern given its harder to match into competitive fields as a DO compared to MDs. If you get to go to a less expensive school, it might be in your interests to go there. However, costs should not be the only thing to consider, you need to consider the overall quality of the school, the type of curriculum, the facilities, and whether or not you would happy there for four years.
 
I'd pay extra to not have to deal with constantly hungry classmates.
 
LECOM-PBL life is the good life. Tough in its own right, but can't beat reaping the benefits of cheaper tuition + hardly being in class compared to others. The administrative issues really aren't that bad and they're constantly open to suggestions of improvement.
 
Yes, the decision I have to make is between LECOM and Rowan but I don't want to make this thread about my specific case. I feel like a lot of people end up having to make a selection on cheaper vs slightly better and I just wanted to see if there was some type of consensus. For me, even though I am IS at Rowan, on paper it's ~47K more than LECOM over 4 years taking into account living expenses, health insurance, interest, etc. And of course, it looks like as of now 50K is right where the plurality of people feel that the cutoff would be.

Personally, I'm still not 100% on what I will do but I'm considering paying the extra $ for Rowan. I realized that I could reduce that on paper ~47K price difference by aggressively lowering health insurance, housing, and transportation costs. This involves taking a couple of steps such as (1) opting out of student health insurance and instead signing up for NJ medicaid when I start medical school, (2) living somewhere with public transportation so I can sell my sports sedan and go car free or just buy a cheap beater, and (3) living with roommates.

After these measures, Rowan will still end up ~32K more than LECOM which is why I have a dilemma. 32K is a more manageable price difference to me but is even worth paying that amount more considering I want to do family medicine or psych?

Anyways, the focus of my original question wasn't so much about my decision. I just wanted to see where everyone thought the threshold of COA savings should be for people interested in noncompetitive fields. Consensus seems to be that 50K in savings is the point by which most people would choose to go with the cheaper school over the slightly better school.

32K more? Average family medicine salary is $189,000. So the difference is 16% of one years salary as a physician. I would go with the school you think you will be the most happy at.
 
Man... I usually take SDN's advice with a big ol' heap of salt but even I can't help being turned off LECOM now. I really wanted to keep my debt down but not at the price of hating my school and my life for 4 years.
 
Man... I usually take SDN's advice with a big ol' heap of salt but even I can't help being turned off LECOM now. I really wanted to keep my debt down but not at the price of hating my school and my life for 4 years.
None of my PBL classmates feel this way, myself included.
 
Man... I usually take SDN's advice with a big ol' heap of salt but even I can't help being turned off LECOM now. I really wanted to keep my debt down but not at the price of hating my school and my life for 4 years.

It's all about your attitude. I think that most people would be fine going to LECOM.
 
Man... I usually take SDN's advice with a big ol' heap of salt but even I can't help being turned off LECOM now. I really wanted to keep my debt down but not at the price of hating my school and my life for 4 years.

Don't worry about it. It's just the hardcore cry babies blowing things out of proportion by 100
 
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Couldn't charge me enough to not have to deal with LECOM's rules. I'm way too chill to deal with them, and probably would have gotten myself thrown out of school over drinking water in class or something.

what rules?? Lol


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LECOM will do anything to save money. You mentioned nitpicky things...well they make their students buy and bring their own gloves for anatomy lab, they make standardized patients clean the rooms after encounters are over instead of a cleaning staff at night, and etc. etc.

The only reason the tuition is low is because they know they couldn't convince people to come there otherwise. All the threads you see and students you talk to pretty much admit that they either chose LECOM because of money or because it was the only place they got in.

There's a reason why there are like 50 LECOM threads and not even Liberty can top that

This is EXACTLY how I felt. The two DO schools I interviewed at where UNECOM and LECOM- Erie. UNECOM students are the ones who greet you on interview day and everyone seems happy and content. The impression I got was of a school that always promotes professionalism and hard work but looks out for their students- academically, physically, and mentally. There is nothing more convincing during an interview day than 20 min dedicated to asking the HONEST questions of students and having them give you genuine answers- the good with the bad. UNECOM is very straightforward about their board scores, clinical sites, and match results- all of which are excellent.

LECOM was a scary place for me. And I am NOT trying to bash a school without good cause. The police at the front door with body armor on were not inviting and the food and water/dress code are borderline ACLU reportable. We were supposed to be able to eat lunch with the students, but it never happened. We NEVER spoke to a student the entire day. Furthermore, it scares me that a school could be that much cheaper than the rest- and the previous posts have explained why. I don't think even 100k less at the end of 4 years is worth the stern atmosphere and uncertainty in years 3/4. LECOM just bought its 3rd (I believe) assisted living/nursing home just before I interviewed. I don't understand why that money isn't used to secure the best possible academic training sites for its students. I also do not agree with anatomy being purely computer based for the PBL students. I don't think there is any substitute for working with a human body whether it isn't prosected, has unusual anatomy or not. We were told at UNECOM that the year long GA course integrates with the other core sciences in order to "make it stick"- an idea I am fond of.

I am not trying to bring down LECOM or promote UNECOM. These are simply my honest feelings from interviewing and being accepted at both places. I think tuition is an important factor when considering whether to major in Art History or Mechanical Engineering, but not when you will be obtaining a DO degree. If the debt was really a crippling factor, no one would go to the expensive schools. I believe at this level of education, you are getting what you pay for because the group of people critiquing the program are the smart doctors who graduate from it and get placed in quality residency programs.
 
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