Lil' Help? (Picking a school...)

[Keg]

Hey y'all, I need your assistance. I am in the position where I have to choose between 3 schools, each of which has its pros and its cons. Since I've been asking everyone else, I figure asking y'all couldn't hurt. Here's my story:

I'm a senior at Vanderbilt, from the Nashville area. Family is all here. Girlfriend is from Chicago (north side) and her family is there. She's probably going to follow me wherever I go (she has an education degree) unless she gets into neuroscience grad school.

Choices (in alphabetical order, with expected amount of loans I'd have to take out each place):

1) University of Chicago, $52,647 in loans over 4 years (all subsidized)
2) Vanderbilt University, $61,730 in loans over 4 years (75% subsidized)
3) Washington University, $80,000 in loans over 4 years (all subsidized)

As soon as I make a decision, I'll drop the rest, I promise! Thanks for the help, y'all!

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[Its_MurDAH]

Hey y'all, I need your assistance. I am in the position where I have to choose between 3 schools, each of which has its pros and its cons. Since I've been asking everyone else, I figure asking y'all couldn't hurt. Here's my story:

I'm a senior at Vanderbilt, from the Nashville area. Family is all here. Girlfriend is from Chicago (north side) and her family is there. She's probably going to follow me wherever I go (she has an education degree) unless she gets into neuroscience grad school.

Choices (in alphabetical order, with expected amount of loans I'd have to take out each place):

1) University of Chicago, $52,647 in loans over 4 years (all subsidized)
2) Vanderbilt University, $61,730 in loans over 4 years (75% subsidized)
3) Washington University, $80,000 in loans over 4 years (all subsidized)

As soon as I make a decision, I'll drop the rest, I promise! Thanks for the help, y'all!

sorry to hijack this thread but guys i need some help picking a school too. so plz any suggestions would be awesome!

1) harvard hst full ride
2) hopkins full ride
3) Umich nice scholarship !
4) did i mention harvarD???!
5) Yale full ride
6) Stanford...no money from these f*ckers! but its okay im still a badass

so plz tell me cuz i am so undecided my mom wants me to do dentistry now but i told her i got into all these nice nice med schools but she wont hear any of it. its weird i told her ill stick to medicine which is when she slapped me and thats when i said "Ma!" but she said "I dont have a son!" then she ran away crying...oh well atleast harvard wants me!

 

[-Goose-]

sorry to hijack this thread but guys i need some help picking a school too. so plz any suggestions would be awesome!

1) harvard hst full ride
2) hopkins full ride
3) Umich nice scholarship !
4) did i mention harvarD???!
5) Yale full ride
6) Stanford...no money from these f*ckers! but its okay im still a badass

so plz tell me cuz i am so undecided my mom wants me to do dentistry now but i told her i got into all these nice nice med schools but she wont hear any of it. its weird i told her ill stick to medicine which is when she slapped me and thats when i said "Ma!" but she said "I dont have a son!" then she ran away crying...oh well atleast harvard wants me!

get bent

 

[browniegirl86]

Hey y'all, I need your assistance. I am in the position where I have to choose between 3 schools, each of which has its pros and its cons. Since I've been asking everyone else, I figure asking y'all couldn't hurt. Here's my story:

I'm a senior at Vanderbilt, from the Nashville area. Family is all here. Girlfriend is from Chicago (north side) and her family is there. She's probably going to follow me wherever I go (she has an education degree) unless she gets into neuroscience grad school.

Choices (in alphabetical order, with expected amount of loans I'd have to take out each place):

1) University of Chicago, $52,647 in loans over 4 years (all subsidized)
2) Vanderbilt University, $61,730 in loans over 4 years (75% subsidized)
3) Washington University, $80,000 in loans over 4 years (all subsidized)

As soon as I make a decision, I'll drop the rest, I promise! Thanks for the help, y'all!

I know you

Man, it's so tough, and I don't have much advice since the only one I know about is WashU. PM me when you do choose and I'll do the same.

From what we talked about at WashU second look it seems like you might be ready for a change from Vandy. But between UC and WashU I just don't know.

 

[funshine]

personally, if I grew up in Tennessee and then went to Vanderbilt, I'd want a complete change of scenery for med school. I'd choose UChicago b/c I like that city a lot and the students seem pretty fun. WashU is awesome, but the students are super intense from what I hear. Oh, and are you sure your gf is going to "follow you wherever you go" ? Where is she applying for neuroscience?

 

[-Goose-]

Go to WashU.

Why?

1)you've always wanted to
2) It is the 'best' of the three in terms of overall and residency pd rankings
3) their gen surg residency is highly touted (assuming you're still interested in CT)
4) You've lived in the Nashville area for 21+ years. Get the hell out.
5) The debt. Come on. The difference b/t the three is fairly nominal. You'd be able to pay back the difference after your pg year or two (assuming your s/o is generous with her salary) or a couple of years of practice.
6) If you live in St. Louis, you might actually stop saying 'ya'll'

 

[Charles Murphy]

I'm confused.

I thought you got:

University of Chicago - "Interviewed 11/28; Accepted 1/30 with 'Dean's Scholarship for Outstanding Promise in Medicine' ($212,912 over 4 years)"
University of Tennesee - "Interviewed 10/31, Accepted 11/23 (Email); Withdrew 11/30 After Vandy Acceptance"
Vanderbilt University - "Inteviewed 10/21, Accepted 11/30 (Phone), Offered 'Canby Robinson Scholarship' on 3/1 (tuition + $3000 annual stipend)"
Washington University in St. Louis - "Interviewed 11/15, Accepted 12/19 (Express Mail), Offered Guttman Scholarship ($33,520 annually)"

So, you have a full ride basically at Chicago, a full tuition + money at Vanderbilt, and a full tuition award at Wash U. Why do you need to take such massive loans? Are fees, room and board, etc really that expensive?

If going mainly by money, I think Chicago would be awesome. Plus your gf's family lives there. Win-win. Chicago is a top notch med school. Vanderbilt is also a good school, but I think more well-reputed in the South than nationally. Not sure on that. Wash U is awesome and you're getting money from them. I think it should be narrowed to Wash U and Chicago in my opinion. Get out of Nashville...experience the world and see other cities (not that you haven't, just for med school it might be nice to leave TN).

All good choices; you can't go wrong with any of them. My opinion though is that Chicago and/or Wash U would be the best bet. Good luck.

 

[Keg]

sorry to hijack this thread but guys i need some help picking a school too. so plz any suggestions would be awesome!

1) harvard hst full ride
2) hopkins full ride
3) Umich nice scholarship !
4) did i mention harvarD???!
5) Yale full ride
6) Stanford...no money from these f*ckers! but its okay im still a badass

so plz tell me cuz i am so undecided my mom wants me to do dentistry now but i told her i got into all these nice nice med schools but she wont hear any of it. its weird i told her ill stick to medicine which is when she slapped me and thats when i said "Ma!" but she said "I dont have a son!" then she ran away crying...oh well atleast harvard wants me!

Thanks for your kind words and constructive suggestions.

 

[Keg]

So, you have a full ride basically at Chicago, a full tuition + money at Vanderbilt, and a full tuition award at Wash U. Why do you need to take such massive loans? Are fees, room and board, etc really that expensive?

The way I calculated the loans was to take the projected four year cost, subtract out the scholarship, and then the rest would come in loans. Cost of attendance most places is ~$20k over tuition, so with just full tuition, it'd come out to be about $80k in loans over four years. My mother makes $12k a year, and I can only work this summer (plan on doing med school related stuff next summer, and then you don't get a summer anymore), so I'll have to depend on financiers to cover the rest of my expenses. So I plan on taking out whatever they say I can and using the rest to pay down remaining loans at the end of the four years (assuming I go somewhere subsidized; if not, then I'll pay interest on the unsubsidized loans at the start).

 

[ND2005]

Honestly, I'd think after 20+ years in the same place it might be time for a change.

Those schools are all great though (and i'm chillin on the waitlist at 2 of them), so you can hardly go wrong.

 

[etf]

i've lived in san francisco for 21 years, and would have spent the rest of my life here if ucsf hadn't been so picky...

 

[PariPari]

WashU, it's like the most "well-rounded" school

 

[phenylalanine]

keg!

oh my gosh!!! that's amazing what you are getting!!

you know I love Chicago, and it would be so cool if you are going too.. but honestly, I would totally choose Wash U before U of C and Vandy. 10- 20- 30,000 difference is absolutely NOTHING NOTTTTHHHIINNNNGGG in the long run. you have the opportunity to go to Wash U and on top of that, a great big scholarship to WASH U, I would not miss that for the little money difference.

 

[GasGuy2010]

keg!

oh my gosh!!! that's amazing what you are getting!!

you know I love Chicago, and it would be so cool if you are going too.. but honestly, I would totally choose Wash U before U of C and Vandy. 10- 20- 30,000 difference is absolutely NOTHING NOTTTTHHHIINNNNGGG in the long run. you have the opportunity to go to Wash U and on top of that, a great big scholarship to WASH U, I would not miss that for the little money difference.

I don't know if washu has much of an advantage over u of c if at all. If you want to go into academic med U of C has to be the place. I think behind Johns hopkins, U of C has more people in academia. It's also Chicago vs. Stl.

Also the students I met at WashU seemed ....unique. U of C seemed way more well rounded. It also seems that the 2nd year at WashU is very cutthroat where as at U of C it is not competitive at all.

Lastly, I have heard many U of C students affirm to the massive amounts of experience they get in the wards. I feel that at U of C you would get much more exposure working with the middle class/poorer populations of the south side as well as with the high end tertiary care available, but at Barnes you may not get as much exposure just because it is such a massive clinical institution with so many physicians, fellows, and residents above you on the ladder.

 

[Tinsley55]

I absolutely love both Pritzker and Wash U so I had a really tough time with this one. I ended up voting Pritzker because the place is incredible and I assume your lady friend would really appreciate being around her family again. However, if I remember correctly you said something along the lines of wanting to go to Wash U since really early on so that should probably make the decision for you.

If I was you I would completely ignore those debt levels because the differences are insignificant. Best of luck.

 

[Keg]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I'm aiming to go into CT surgery when it's all said and done... if that sways anyone's opinions.