Midwestern vs Utah

[happyyellowturtle]

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I have been accepted to Midwestern already and received an interview invite for Utah. Being that it is an in-person interview it would require me to fly there, get a hotel, get transportation, etc. I am so grateful to even get an interview invite, but at the same time now that I have my first acceptance I want to be mindful about my decisions going forward. For me now in this cycle every interview that I pursue, specifically if it's in person, I want to make sure that in the event that I get in to that school that I would rather go to that school over Midwestern or any other schools that I may get accepted to. So for this specific scenario, I am trying to decide whether Utah would be a school I would rather go to over Midwestern. I know Utah is cheaper (both are OOS for me) however it is quite a new program so that's kind of my biggest debate.

 

[JaynaAli]

Utah’s total cost of attendance is listed as 293,000 and Midwestern’s is 481,000. That’s a huge difference, especially with the new student loan restrictions where you can only borrow 200,000 in federal loans and the rest would have to be private which don’t have as flexible income based repayment options.

To put it in perspective, a standard 10 yr repayment on Utah’s cost would be like 4200/mo and Midwesterns would be 7300/mo. That’s extremely high on the average vet salary…my base salary is 200k an my base take home pay is only like 10,000/mo. Total cost of the loan factoring in interest over those 10 years would be like 575k vs 825k. Stretch that out to a standard 25 year repayment to get lower/more realistic payments closer to 2300 and 4700, respectively, and total cost of the loan balloons to like 875k vs 1.4million because of your interest. 200k from federal loans could be in an income based repayment plan like the new RAP, but your private loans on the remaining 93k vs 282k would not be eligible, so it’s hard to estimate what that payment would look like. (And disclaimer, my estimates are assuming private loan interest rates are similar to federal, sometimes they’re lower but rates may increase if there’s increasing risk of default with these new changes, we just don’t know what the private loa companies will do yet).

All that to say, yes, I would absolutely invest several hundred to a couple thousand dollars now to try to save yourself literally hundreds of thousands of dollars down the line. Midwestern may provide a good education, but the cost is exorbitant. The cost of Midwestern quite frankly seems unfeasible to me, but I suppose everyone’s financial situation is different.

 

[happyyellowturtle]

Utah’s total cost of attendance is listed as 293,000 and Midwestern’s is 481,000. That’s a huge difference, especially with the new student loan restrictions where you can only borrow 200,000 in federal loans and the rest would have to be private which don’t have as flexible income based repayment options.

To put it in perspective, a standard 10 yr repayment on Utah’s cost would be like 4200/mo and Midwesterns would be 7300/mo. That’s extremely high on the average vet salary…my base salary is 200k an my base take home pay is only like 10,000/mo. Total cost of the loan factoring in interest over those 10 years would be like 575k vs 825k. Stretch that out to a standard 25 year repayment to get lower/more realistic payments closer to 2300 and 4700, respectively, and total cost of the loan balloons to like 875k vs 1.4million because of your interest. 200k from federal loans could be in an income based repayment plan like the new RAP, but your private loans on the remaining 93k vs 282k would not be eligible, so it’s hard to estimate what that payment would look like. (And disclaimer, my estimates are assuming private loan interest rates are similar to federal, sometimes they’re lower but rates may increase if there’s increasing risk of default with these new changes, we just don’t know what the private loa companies will do yet).

All that to say, yes, I would absolutely invest several hundred to a couple thousand dollars now to try to save yourself literally hundreds of thousands of dollars down the line. Midwestern may provide a good education, but the cost is exorbitant. The cost of Midwestern quite frankly seems unfeasible to me, but I suppose everyone’s financial situation is different.

This is some excellent insight! Thank you so much!