stay in 1 city or move/fulltime or parttime/loans

[samdaria]

Hi all! Just made the decision to go to med school. Here's the intro: I'm 25, got my BS in 2004, and I have a fulltime job, no kids, no mortgage, basically, I'm pretty moveable. However, in considering the med school track, I feel really strongly about staying in Chi, b/c I don't want to have to go back to living with or off of someone else.

Question 1: Stupid decision? I know I should be flexible, but I really don't see the benefit in going somewhere else when really Chi has what I need, with maybe the exception of a variety of post-bacc progs's

Q2: Is there REALLY a difference in post-bacc progs or just taking classes on my own besides cost?

Q3: I talked with an advisor @ UofChi and she told me to just take the plunge and do everything fulltime, part-time is a waste of time...true or not?

Q4: If I did fulltime and took out a loan (and loans aren't payable until after you are done w/program), does that mean I would start paying it back during glide year, or while in medschool, or would they just tack it on to my medschool expenses?

Q5: And also, you typically start paying loans when you start your residency, right? Not before b/c you're still in school...

Thanks for your responses in advance! I'll b all over this board b/c I have a TON of more questions, but I know they don't really belong here. See you later!

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[drizzt3117]

What are your stats? That's going to make a difference. Also what was your undergrad major?

 

[samdaria]

not sure what you mean by stats (I'm a newb) but...I had 3.26 ugpa and my major was Justice Systems (it's like Criminal Justice) from Truman State Univ in MO, super small school.

 

[drizzt3117]

Stats when referring to undergraduate postbac programs is typically GPA/SAT/ACT/GRE, since most of those people haven't take the MCAT. That said, I think if you wanted to do the part time program at NU that the other poster was talking about, it sounds doable, and probably a better decision financially. You'll be likely incurring a lot of debt in med school as it is, better to start out in as good of financial shape as possible. That said, since your uGPA is pretty low, you're going to to want to make sure you do well in all of the classes you take.