School cost? Where does the $ go?

[Vista04]

I'm sure there has been a post about this before and that the answer might very from school to school, but I'm curious about the general breakdown of where all the tuition dollars go. If I'm paying ~$40,000 a year tuition at a private school, where does most of this money end up? Facilities, faculty (i thought they were supported by their own grants), the dean's paycheck, shiny admissions folders?

If anyone has any insight into this, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[mlw03]

trying to figure out med school accounting would seem pretty daunting to me. but if you think of it in the purest sense, money in has to equal money spent. for money in i figure there's student tuition, research grant money, and any money from med school clinical sites. for money out there's everything: salary for faculty, administration, and staff, supplies, equipment, building upkeep and utilities, and pretty much everything we see. but if you do the math: 40K x 150 students/class x 4 years of students = 24 million dollars. man... when you look at it that way, that's a lot of freakin' money! where's my lobster tail and steak lunch and my own personal electron microscope?!

 

[liverotcod]

My understanding was that tuition accounts for only a very small portion of a medical school's outlay. It's pretty complicated, though... Here's U Minnesota's data.
Briefly, tuition accounts for 4.6% of their funding, and salaries account for 51.8% of their spending. About a third of funding comes from physician clinical practice and another third from grants for research programs.

 

[CatsandCradles]

I'm sure there has been a post about this before and that the answer might very from school to school, but I'm curious about the general breakdown of where all the tuition dollars go. If I'm paying ~$40,000 a year tuition at a private school, where does most of this money end up? Facilities, faculty (i thought they were supported by their own grants), the dean's paycheck, shiny admissions folders?

If anyone has any insight into this, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but don't the schools have to pay for your clinical rotation sites?

 

[synapse lapse]

They showed us a graph breaking down where funds come from, and tuition was like 2%. Most money comes from clincal income, research dollars, state/federal funding, and private donors. Private donors were a substantial amount if I remember correctly.

 

[liverotcod]

Private donors were a substantial amount if I remember correctly.

Yeah, in the UMinnesota pdf I cited above, private donors were 6%, almost half again tuition.

 

[MN81]

This should give you the info you are looking for:

http://www.amsa.org/meded/tuition_FAQ.cfm#1

 

[liverotcod]

Nice link, MN81.

 

[Vista04]

This should give you the info you are looking for:

http://www.amsa.org/meded/tuition_FAQ.cfm#1

thanks for the link. it was very helpful.

 

[Flopotomist]

They showed us a graph breaking down where funds come from, and tuition was like 2%. Most money comes from clincal income, research dollars, state/federal funding, and private donors. Private donors were a substantial amount if I remember correctly.

Hmm.. if tuition is only 2% of the total revenue stream - they should just make tuition free, take a small 2% hit on their total revenues, and be the most sought after school to attend! If any school takes this idea - I want full credit, and it can be called the Floppy grants in my honor.

 

[deleted77919]

Hmm.. if tuition is only 2% of the total revenue stream - they should just make tuition free, take a small 2% hit on their total revenues, and be the most sought after school to attend! If any school takes this idea - I want full credit, and it can be called the Floppy grants in my honor.

Mayo does this to some extent, everyone recieves substantial "scholarships" which is basically just saying to donors, more money = less poor students. They have taken the burden off of students and put it on donors . . . nice. Wish the med school I'll be attending did this . . .

 

[liverotcod]

Yes, but maintaining a significant tuition virtually guarantees that members of lower socioeconomic groups will continue to be underrepresented in medicine (even if we could fix home support and elementary, secondary, and college education in these groups). Yay!

 

[Trail Boss]

It doesn't matter where the money goes. They charge it because you (and I) will pay it. They could put it in a big pile, pee on it, and then light it on fire and we would all still happly pay them whatever they want. Just keep reaching for that brass ring and don't worry about the **** you can't delta.

 

[BlondeCookie]

Profs' salary, facilities, research

 

[MacGyver]

DO and MD schools are profoundly different in this regard.

DO schools use tuition as their PRIMARY REVENUE STREAM, up to 60% of their total revenues come from tuition

Which is why we see this absolute explosion of new DO programs. These greedy hacks are building FOR-PROFIT medical schools.

 

[Taus]

DO and MD schools are profoundly different in this regard.

DO schools use tuition as their PRIMARY REVENUE STREAM, up to 60% of their total revenues come from tuition

Which is why we see this absolute explosion of new DO programs. These greedy hacks are building FOR-PROFIT medical schools.

While I don't necessarily agree w/ all the expansion either....I think you should look into the funding of ANY PRIVATE medical school, MD or DO. If its not a public/state school and only has modest money from research grants, where do you expect the money to come from?

 

[Trail Boss]

DO and MD schools are profoundly different in this regard.

DO schools use tuition as their PRIMARY REVENUE STREAM, up to 60% of their total revenues come from tuition

Which is why we see this absolute explosion of new DO programs. These greedy hacks are building FOR-PROFIT medical schools.

Shame on you MacGyver, you should know better than to say anything that is not positive about DO schools (even on the allo forum). You may as well paint a target on your forehead and invite all the DO's with an inferiority complex over to throw rocks at you.

 

[45408]

Yes, but maintaining a significant tuition virtually guarantees that members of lower socioeconomic groups will continue to be underrepresented in medicine (even if we could fix home support and elementary, secondary, and college education in these groups). Yay!

I disagree. There is more than enough loan money available for med school. The under-representation arises earlier in the game than paying for med school.

I agree, if our money is such a small portion of their income, why the burden? Many of the higher-ups in medicine are MDs who probably hated having to pay their loans, so why not cut us a break?

 

[Taus]

Shame on you MacGyver, you should know better than to say anything that is not positive about DO schools (even on the allo forum). You may as well paint a target on your forehead and invite all the DO's with an inferiority complex over to throw rocks at you.

relax...no inferiority complex here bud....re-read what I wrote below....

 

[cdql]

Tuition money?

It's eaten by a hungry monster.

And by hungry monster, I mean thieving, conniving con men who are running the school. Amazing we were up nearly 25 million just 4 years ago. Not somehow, we find ourselves in "financial crisis"

Swell

 

[Trail Boss]

relax...no inferiority complex here bud....re-read what I wrote below....

No, it does not seem that you have a complex. I can not say the same for some of your compatriats on other threads. There is nothing wrong with being a DO, some of my best friends went that route by choice and they are happy. I just assumed that by now this thread would have been ravaged by the angry DO gang. No insult to you intended.