Some obstacles

[kasoy]

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Hello, a Junior In high school speaking and just have a few questions about going into the medical field.
I am a fairly good student i have a 3.75 GPA and got a 30 on my ACT. I volunteer at a hospital close to my house every friday.
I have wanted to be a surgeon for some time now and even shadowed my friends dad at Edwards hospital once and have decided that thats the lifestyle and job that i want for myself.
Unfortunately i come from a not so rich family, i moved here when i was seven years old and my family just bought a house so they do not have any money to help me pay off collage expenses, to further my worries my mother over the summer had a baby which also strains the financial budget. If i were to go into collage and med school i would not be able to go to my family for financial support. I believe that i meet the requirements for financial aid but i still don't know how i would be able to afford to attend collage and Medical school.
If anyone could tell me the path and hopefully the scholarships that could be offered, that i could take from my senior year to reach my goal of becoming a surgeon without putting myself in financial ruin that would be greatly appreciated.
I live in the Chicago land area if that helps in any way.
Thank You

 

[DrYoda]

Scholarships for undergrad are the best way to cushion the financial blow, as they are much easier to come by than med school scholarships. A part time job can also help you get through undergrad with no or minimal debt. Choice of school is also important, seeing as the price difference between private and public schools can be astounding. Those are probably the three most important things to consider financially.

The sad truth is that the majority of medical students leave med school deeply in debt. The most common way of financing both medical school and undergrad is to take student loans. It does suck, but I wouldn't go as far as to call it a state of financial ruin.

There are several progarms that pay for medical school in return for later service. One is through the military which requires you to work for the military. The other is through the National Health Service Corps which requires you to work in an underserved area.

My non-financial advice is to enjoy both you last year of highschool and your four years of college.

 

[HeadOverToes]

Trust me, I know the boat you're in. I recommend you do what I'm doing, which is to look for undergrad schools with excellent need-based scholarships. To be honest, taht's the first thing I look at nowadays- I skip over admissions and academics and take a gander at their financial aid. Luckily, a lot of private schools have adopted grants/scholarships (That you don't have to pay back) over loans. I have no illusions about med school being cheap in the least, but I'm hoping taht this cushions the blow even to make it feasible. Good luck! :3

 

[kasoy]

yeah my friends were telling me about some of those programs were you have to work in undeserved areas and stuff like that, but recently i've been hearing about people taking out student loans and paying them back like a morgage over 20 years and doing jsut great with it. I am considering doing this but i am hesitating right now because in the future the economy might worsen and who knows what might happen in the job industry and even banking. any thoughts?

 

[EyEnStein 07]

Your grades (GPA and ACT) seem pretty good. You might be interested in applying to schools in your area such as; UofIllinois-Urbana (state school cheap perhaps? loans can be easier on you), Knox College (they have unusually high med school acceptance rates), Illinois institute of technology, Depaul, and Loyola.

I believe that Loyola might be a great school that you can receive good financial and scholarship package from. I suspect that most of these schools will offer you something your ACT scores are pretty good.

 

[DrYoda]

yeah my friends were telling me about some of those programs were you have to work in undeserved areas and stuff like that, but recently i've been hearing about people taking out student loans and paying them back like a morgage over 20 years and doing jsut great with it. I am considering doing this but i am hesitating right now because in the future the economy might worsen and who knows what might happen in the job industry and even banking. any thoughts?

Well, unless the recession really does turn into the great depression number two; this recession will have ended before you finish college.

 

[seelee]

Well, unless the recession really does turn into the great depression number two; this recession will have ended before you finish college.

Even if the recession doesn't end by that time, it is going to take a lot for banks to stop giving medical school loans. It is almost a 100% guaranteed return on your investment.

I worried alot about the amount of debt I would take out (about 300 grand in my case). I was talking to a physician friend of mine about it. He reminded me that I would be making a total of about 10 million throughout my entire career. That puts the initial 300 grand investment in perspective.

 

[kasoy]

yea what i have been hearing and what im thinking of doing is taking 2 years community collage course and than transfering to uofillinois or lyola and than applyign for med school as the cheapest and most efficiant way to save money.
but some doughts in the back of my mind are what if i get like a 3.0 gpa in collage and a low MCAT score like 23 or something and med schools dont want to accept me, than i pretty much threw away money going through collage.
that a possible senerio?

 

[seelee]

yea what i have been hearing and what im thinking of doing is taking 2 years community collage course and than transfering to uofillinois or lyola and than applyign for med school as the cheapest and most efficiant way to save money.
but some doughts in the back of my mind are what if i get like a 3.0 gpa in collage and a low MCAT score like 23 or something and med schools dont want to accept me, than i pretty much threw away money going through collage.
that a possible senerio?

That is a risk that everyone takes. The way to avoid this is to keep your options open. I majored in Chemistry (a harder route than the more common biology major) because the employment outlook is better. I think it is important to pick a major that will give you some marketable skills that will help you find a job, in case med school doesn't work out.

Also, DO schools are less competative and will take lower GPA and MCAT (though not as low as you are projecting). Also there is podiatry, pharmacy, PA, and several other advanced degrees that you could get if you wanted to stay in health care.

Bottom line, if you have the tools and you work hard, you should be fine. If you don't have the tools, you should probably find something else to do.

 

[huskerdye]

It sounds to me your a pretty good student.. I would guess you could probably score a full ride at a state college in Chicago somewhere, room and board is what is starting to become really expensive..

Are there any colleges/university's nearby your home? If you could stay home and go to school you would save quite a bit right there.. Your talking $6,000 or so a year in room and board..

And eh, no doubt college is expensive and I would guess that there probably isn't a whole lot of users on this websites whose families paid for 200,000++ dollars of education.. Yeah you will probably have to take out hundreds of thousands of dollars in students loan during your 4 years in residency.. But..

You need to remember those loans are a pretty fairly low interest rate..

You also need to remember that after your residency you will be earning one of the top salaries in the United States, money should not be your motivator.. You have a good 13-15 years at least to be a surgeon.. But once your a practicing physician, those loans wont be AS hard to pay..

Enjoy your senior year, mine flew by so fast I didn't know what hit me.. And apply for as many scholarships as you possibly can..

 

[kasoy]

Oh yeah i live in naperville and i'm pretty much surrounded by Universities i will probably apply for all of them and hopefully get in. So room and board wont be a problem i can just go home.
One of my big concerns is keeping up a high GPA in collage and med school. For big tests and stuff i can study for a couple days and apply myself and do good, but just maintaining a decent GPA in high school is very hard and takes up most of my time after school. If its only gets harder from here then would i be able to handle collage?