Should I stay or should I go: pre-med undergrad advice needed

[repoetic]

Hey everyone!

Right now I'm a freshman premed at Emory. The question that I wanted to ask the sdn community is your thoughts on what the best decision regarding my undergraduate career would be. My parents recently informed me that they are unable to keep paying entirely for my tuition and that it would be up to me to finance my undergraduate career minus the $20,000 they could kick in every year or I could attend either UW-Madison or UMN- Twin Cities and my parents would pay for my education in full. When I ran through the numbers, assuming that my financial aid package will be about the same every year (which the financial aid office said is safe to assume), the cost of me graduating from Emory would be $38,000 on my part. I love be a student here so much and am very proud of my school but that's about the cost of a year of medical school and I'm not sure how inclined I would be to pay for a year of undergrad rather than medical school (my parents told me it's up to me to finance medical school entirely.) Any advice is appreciated

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[Toutie]

Hey everyone!
Right now I'm a freshman premed at Emory. The question that I wanted to ask the sdn community is your thoughts on what the best decision regarding my undergraduate career would be. My parents recently informed me that they are unable to keep paying entirely for my tuition and that it would be up to me to finance my undergraduate career minus the $20,000 they could kick in every year or I could attend either UW-Madison or UMN- Twin Cities and my parents would pay for my education in full. When I ran through the numbers, assuming that my financial aid package will be about the same every year (which the financial aid office said is safe to assume), the cost of me graduating from Emory would be $38,000 on my part. I love be a student here so much and am very proud of my school but that's about the cost of a year of medical school and I'm not sure how inclined I would be to pay for a year of undergrad rather than medical school (my parents told me it's up to me to finance medical school entirely.) Any advice is appreciated

You can't find a job that will pay $8-10K a year to help with the cost of Emory? Even $4-5K a year would be a significant help in keeping the cost of Emory down.

 

[Pastamahn]

I would say go to UW-Madison, but I might be a little biased because I may or may not go there But having zero debt after undergrad would be a huge luxury that shouldn't be downplayed. Also, being at a public school like Madison or Minnesota definitely will not hold you back at all if you are a successful student.

 

[repoetic]

You can't find a job that will pay $8-10K a year to help with the cost of Emory? Even $4-5K a year would be a significant help in keeping the cost of Emory down.

Yeah, that's definitely an option but I feel like that could also be money that I could save towards medical school. I'd definitely prefer to accumulate money for the future rather than use it to pay for what I couldn't afford in the first place

 

[Toutie]

Yeah, that's definitely an option but I feel like that could also be money that I could save towards medical school. I'd definitely prefer to accumulate money for the future rather than use it to pay for what I couldn't afford in the first place

Well then, I think you have your answer right there.

 

[repoetic]

Well then, I think you have your answer right there.

But I love going to Emory, I really don't want to leave! I just don't know whether I love it $38000 much and was hoping that somebody who made a decision like this would be able to explain why they chose the cheaper/more expensive school

 

[Dandine]

@repoetic I'm commenting on a fairly surface-level basis, but being recently out of undergrad and reflecting on the price of higher-level education, here's my opinion.

Based on your current philosophy about saving money for med school, I would say it would be advantageous to go to a cheaper school. Since you are certain now that you want to save money for school/future you have the knowledge to organize from there.

On the other hand, certain schools may have specific programs that others don't, and for that reason some people choose to go to more expensive schools. But that may apply more to individual choice of study than pre-med in general (e.g. random example but certain pre-meds started out at arts/music-oriented colleges and used a joint program or post bac for their pre-reqs).

Looking back on my own plan of study, I probably would have benefitted from attending a cheaper school because of similar opportunities. The good news is that the experiences I had at the school I attended were unique to that location; from them I learned and grew a LOT. Would I have lost more from attending somewhere different? Probably not, but I'll never know. But at least studies-wise, I could have gotten a good education even in a cheaper school. (That last sentence is up-for-debate but at least for cheaper schools I had been interested in it applies.)

Hope that helps a bit. Best of luck to you!

 

[thatwouldbeanarchy]

My family was unfortunately in that sweet spot where we didn't really qualify for any significant amount of financial aid but we also definitely couldn't afford my expensive private university. As a result, I took out a truly insane amount of loan debt, much more than you're considering. I can't really give you a clear answer because I know how I would have felt if my parents gave me the option of transferring to a cheaper school. I wouldn't have wanted to and would have done anything in my power to stay. But I also had no real sense of what it would be like to graduate with a boatload of debt and how that debt would inform all of my future decisions (where I worked, where I lived, where I'll end up going to med school...). I think I have definitely benefited from graduating from my UG in real ways. But was it worth the debt? Well, the jury's still out on that one...

If you're not planning to take any gap years (it can be hard to know this in advance), it may not affect you as much as any debt you incur now will quickly be rolled into your med school debt with, at most, a few months of repayment. But if you're like me and plan to take time off before med school, I'd seriously evaluate what you'll owe and how you'll plan to pay it back with a meager just-out-of-college salary.

 

[7331poas]

Or you can take out loans like the rest of the US population.

 

[153fish]

@repoetic I suggest you talk to the Financial Aid Office of Emory. Find more about the Emory Advantage among others. Based on my experience, they're very helpful. Even though UW-Madison is a good school, I personally would never leave Emory for Wisconsin.

 

[JustAPhD]

But I love going to Emory, I really don't want to leave! I just don't know whether I love it $38000 much and was hoping that somebody who made a decision like this would be able to explain why they chose the cheaper/more expensive school

This is essentially what it boils down to. But here's the thing, we can't tell you if Emory is worth $38,000 because that's a personal decision that you have to make. We don't know all the intangibles (eg: your Emory friends) that would make Emory worth it or not to you.

 

[repoetic]

Right now it's basically fear that's keeping me at Emory. I know I want to take on as little debt as possible and I've been told (even by a medical school admissions committee member) that undergraduate school doesn't matter but... what if it does? What if I decide not to go into medicine and always regret my decision leaving an (almost) top-20 university?

 

[TallPreMed]

If you switch to a humanities major you won't make any money post graduation no matter where you go. (I can say this as I got my BA in comm studies and most of my peers make like half of what I do). Might as well be free of debt if you aren't making any money lol... I went the wrong way and went to a private school, paid out the *** in tuition even with an academic scholarship, and hate that $300 leave my pocket every month for loans. I could find a lot more fun things to do with that money than pay off my student loans...

 

[Lucca]

Hey everyone!

Right now I'm a freshman premed at Emory. The question that I wanted to ask the sdn community is your thoughts on what the best decision regarding my undergraduate career would be. My parents recently informed me that they are unable to keep paying entirely for my tuition and that it would be up to me to finance my undergraduate career minus the $20,000 they could kick in every year or I could attend either UW-Madison or UMN- Twin Cities and my parents would pay for my education in full. When I ran through the numbers, assuming that my financial aid package will be about the same every year (which the financial aid office said is safe to assume), the cost of me graduating from Emory would be $38,000 on my part. I love be a student here so much and am very proud of my school but that's about the cost of a year of medical school and I'm not sure how inclined I would be to pay for a year of undergrad rather than medical school (my parents told me it's up to me to finance medical school entirely.) Any advice is appreciated

That's all I needed to hear to vote stay.

 

[Mansamusa]

I would stay at Emory if you definitely know it will be $38K (I started my top undergrad expecting $26K in debt and it ended up being $35K) and if your loans will be entirely federal loans.

If you would be taking out private loans, jump ship. I would not really enjoy managing private loans during med school and you can't consolidate private loans with your med school loans, so you will be making 2 separate payments after med school

 

[repoetic]

If you would be taking out private loans, jump ship. I would not really enjoy managing private loans during med school and you can't consolidate private loans with your med school loans, so you will be making 2 separate payments after med school

Thanks for the input! Yeah, these would be private loans because Emory didn't give me hardly any loan offers

 

[Mansamusa]

Thanks for the input! Yeah, these would be private loans because Emory didn't give me hardly any loan offers

Oh that sucks. Try to get Emory to let you take out max stafford loans. My debt is max stafford + $8K in perkins (need-based federal). You could knock out a big chunk of the cost not covered by stafford loans by working and the the stuff left over cover with private loans that you pay off in one gap year.

Or if you get all private loans, make sure you have a clear plan on how you will manage them

 

[repoetic]

Sorry, I didn't realize what was meant by private loans other than that they aren't from the government. The loans would actually come from my grandparents and I don't know what sort of interest they would charge. Honestly, though, at this point I'm kinda leaning towards UW/UMN. I'll be upset leaving Emory behind but my thinking is that, if I work hard in my undergrad classes, I can save my money to afford their expensive medical school Being pre-med kinda sucks at Emory anyway (for those who didn't know)

 

[repoetic]

I know this topic has been talked about a TON on SDN but, when people on other threads say your undergrad matters in medical school admissions, will I be at a disadvantage in the admissions process with a UW/UMN diploma rather than the Emory one?

 

[intangible]

You can make college a beautiful, life-changing experience no matter where you go. But you have to want to make it a good experience. After a similar situation, I ended up going to my local UG institution, which I thought was dreadful at first...but I don't think I'd be the person I am now had I gone anywhere else.

That being said, don't worry about making the "best" decision...you won't find it. Make the smart decision.