Midwestern vs University of Florida waitlisted

[JC177007]

Hello,
I am posting this thread in order to see other people's opinions. I am really grateful to have been accepted to Midwestern but I also got waitlisted to UF and wanted to see what other people would decide if they were in my shoes. Midwestern is my instate school. While that does not matter for tuition purposes I do have a strong support system here for instance friends that I have known for six years, a boyfriend and family. While people always say go to your cheapest school in this case Midwestern and UF would be the same price. In this case UF would be perhaps 5k-10k more expensive than midwestern due to the cost of moving across the country and plane tickets (for me and my pets) when traveling back home for vacation . The reason for this is because due to Midwestern being my instate school I am able to stay home with parents and commute to the school (I live an hour away but I have gotten advice from a midwestern student that I am able to do this for the next four years). I am interested in pursuing either exotics or specialize perhaps in surgery or pathology obviously this can change in the matter of 4 years.
Here's my math:
Midwestern is usually 471,807 for all four years, cost of living and fees vs UF is 316,526 for all four years, cost of living and fees
Due to being able to live with my parents I can save around 145,176 dollars. Therefore making Midwestern 326,631 with tuition and fees. While this is technically 10k more than UF I do not believe the AAVMC website comparison tool factors in the cost of moving across the country which I estimate can be 5,000 - 7,000 dollars. As well as perhaps 2500 for plane tickets each year to go back home for me and my dog ( thanksgiving, Christmas and summer) making it around 10,000 dollars. I am leaning towards midwestern more than UF but want to make sure I am making the right decision due to maybe wanting to pursuing exotics or specializing in surgery .

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[JaynaAli]

To be frank (and I’m not trying to be mean, just honest), you’ve only been accepted to Midwestern so right now it’s your only option. I’d mentally start preparing to go to Midwestern and not waste a ton of time agonizing over a ‘what-if’, especially because from your post it seems like you want to go to Midwestern anyway. Should you get called off the UF waitlist then yeah you’d need to choose, but from your post it’s clear you’re leaning Midwestern. We preach to go to the cheapest school and I firmly believe that, but 10k isn’t really an enough difference to matter. People from Midwestern pursue specialties and are competitive just like UF. Your school doesn’t matter a whole lot in the grand scheme of things…what is more important are things that are student driven like the connections you make at conferences, places you visit/extern, projects you are a part of, etc.

One thing I would verify is whether you can actually live this at far away from the school on clinics. My school required you to be at the school within 20 minutes if you were on call and got called in. Some of my classmates did live farther away and just crashed on someone’s couch or paid a little to use someone’s guest room when they were on call but I’d be sure living an hour away is really feasible and be sure to factor that in to your cost calculations. Maybe it won’t make a big difference or maybe they don’t have rules like my school did, but just be sure.

 

[JC177007]

To be frank (and I’m not trying to be mean, just honest), you’ve only been accepted to Midwestern so right now it’s your only option. I’d mentally start preparing to go to Midwestern and not waste a ton of time agonizing over a ‘what-if’, especially because from your post it seems like you want to go to Midwestern anyway. Should you get called off the UF waitlist then yeah you’d need to choose, but from your post it’s clear you’re leaning Midwestern. We preach to go to the cheapest school and I firmly believe that, but 10k isn’t really an enough difference to matter. People from Midwestern pursue specialties and are competitive just like UF. Your school doesn’t matter a whole lot in the grand scheme of things…what is more important are things that are student driven like the connections you make at conferences, places you visit/extern, projects you are a part of, etc.

One thing I would verify is whether you can actually live this at far away from the school on clinics. My school required you to be at the school within 20 minutes if you were on call and got called in. Some of my classmates did live farther away and just crashed on someone’s couch or paid a little to use someone’s guest room when they were on call but I’d be sure living an hour away is really feasible and be sure to factor that in to your cost calculations. Maybe it won’t make a big difference or maybe they don’t have rules like my school did, but just be sure.

Thank you for your honesty. The only reason I was thinking of the "what-if " scenario is due to wanting to make sure that there is no right or wrong choice when choosing a vet school if I get pulled off the waitlist. I know there may not be a chance of me getting pulled off but like you said it was thinking of the possible what if scenarios. You saying that “your school doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things” but it’s what you make out of vet school like you mentioned the connections, interns/externships and projects.
Do you recommend me calling the school in order to confirm that I can commute an hour away or ask other Midwestern students if I can commute that far?

 

[JaynaAli]

I’d probably start by asking students you know but it’s reasonable to ask the school if there are requirements in regards to call response time to consider for housing purposes. It probably won’t make a giant difference in costs because it’s not like you’re on call every night of fourth year. But I just brought it up because an hour commute wouldn’t have been feasible for fourth year at my school (which was not Midwestern obviously), at least not all of the time.