Princeton, Columbia vs USC full tuition

[viv94]

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My D got into Princeton and Columbia with no financial aid at all. She is also admitted into USC with Mork scholarship (50K/yr). She is majoring in Biology, planning for medical school later on. She really like USC but also very excited at the possibility of getting top education at either P or C. The question is if top Ivy undergrad education is worth $200k more? Especially since she will go, hopefully, to medical school one day which make undergrad school become less significant in the over all picture. I will pretty much drain all of my saving to send her to either P or C. We also have a younger D that is planning to go to UOP next year which will cost a lot too. My plan is if she is going to USC, I will help paying for part of medical school cost too since I only have to pay $10K/yr for USC. Anyway, really appreciate your inputs and I will show D all of your comments to help her making final decision...

 

[Cephal0pod]

Personally, I would go for USC in a heart beat. Full tuition is hard to turn down, especially since she wants to go to med school, has a younger sibling you will be paying for soon as well, etc. These are all big factors to seriously consider. It's awesome that she got into Princeton and Columbia (congrats to her!) but USC is hardly a school to sneeze at either. If she's concerned about her undergrad institution affecting her med school application, I've been told many times throughout the course of this year that college is what you make of it, and med (or in my case, vet) schools look at what you make of it a lot more than where you went.

In short, I would recommend going to USC. 👍

My situation is actually not too different from hers. I have two younger siblings and my parents don't want any of us to have any undergrad debt, so they plan to help us with paying for college as much as possible. I plan to apply to vet school; I was actually just yesterday looking up tuition costs at some schools I might one day apply to and, as I'm sure you both know, it's expensive stuff. I applied to 7 colleges, accepted to all of them, offered varying degrees of pretty substantial scholarship money, etc, but I am choosing to live at home and go to a school that's about 30 minutes from my house. While it has a great program and I am genuinely excited about most likely going there, another big part of that decision for me (and for my parents who are paying, haha) was the fact that I would be going into vet school sans undergrad debt, and my parents will still be able to pay for my siblings' college as well without going broke. I guess what I'm trying to say is to not ignore the financial aspect just to go to an Ivy school, especially if your future plans involve med school.

Best of luck to her 🙂

 

[I'm No Superman]

If she's going to med school for sure, then USC, no contest. But if she changes her mind and pursues something like business, than an Ivy league name would help a little bit. Also, USC isn't an unheard of no name state college, so it's not like it would be holding her back by any means.

 

[deleted357625]

USC. undergrad doesnt matter, depends on how well you do such as GPA, MCAT, research, EC such as volunteering, shadowing etc.

There are people from state universities that make it to top 10 med schools.

Again, it depends on how well you do in undergrad, there are many students from ivy leagues that bomb the mcat and end up going to a lower tier med school than the person who went to their state school and did well on it.

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

USC. Free tuition trumps all...

 

[Kahr]

USC. Free tuition trumps all...

Absolutely, this is your answer hands down. If "D" can get her undergraduate education at a good school like USC, and then enter med school (or even do anything post-undergrad) debt free, then that is just wonderful and an unbeatable opportunity.