Federal loans pay for most of us going to medical school. Either in part or in whole.
Many people don't feel comfortable going into credit card debt/taking out a private loan to apply to a ton of schools where the chances of having it be a wasted investment are fairly high. If you're already in a poor financial situation, the prospect of borrowing thousands more isn't too appealing.
And then there's the large amount of people who don't qualify for FAP, like myself, but certainly have difficulty affording the application process, since those application fees you mentioned are outrageous.
Bingo. You totally get how I feel! <3 I get a little peeved when people insist "Well, how will you pay for medical school if you can't afford to apply?!" I just paid thousands of dollars for the MCAT, prep classes, general applications, secondary applications, DO applications, DO secondaries - man, my credit is MAXED out. I guess I was kinda wimpy only applying to a handful of schools - if I have to re-apply, at least I know now how expensive it really is, and can potentially take out a private loan to cover it. Still, owch.
🙁
Bro, fellow FL resident here.
I've only gotten one interview invite (from a FL school). So much for that (apparently heavy) in-state love, huh? 🙁
I hear ya. But good luck!
🙂 I'm jealous of your one interview invite, hope ya nail it! One is all you need, really.
😉
I'm not sure why people think that it is easy to live in FL. I only have one IS interview invite as well and I have many friends who have one FL interview or zero. It is very competitive in the state of Florida. I hope that you get interviews soon though!
Thank you, best of luck to you too! Hearing from people who don't have many IS interviews makes me feel at least a little better.
Maryland, Florida, California. They get so many applicants from OOS or don't have a state-imposed quota for how many IS/OOS students they have to accept so these state schools do not show very much IS love lol I would hang in there though, if you're an average applicant (as you said) they're probably gonna wait to invite you until all the higher stat and above average applicants are over with. This is how people get those Spring interviews. I'm hoping for one from my state school too cuz I'd like that IS tuition lol good luck to you!
Man, IS tuition is looking so attractive right now. Good luck to you too!
I was in your position. I had quite a few OOS interviews but only 2 FL school interviews (Both wait lists). I ended up lucky getting into 1 last minute. If you're waitlisted, don't give up hope of getting off the waitlist!
My advice is to definitely expand that list by a lot and be ready to have to move out. Average number of schools people apply to is about ~15 and about ~50% of Florida premeds end up having to go OOS. As someone said, FL isn't like Texas and only requires about ~65% of students to be in state. It sucks, but FL has A LOT of state colleges and a few of them have a large number of students attending them (I believe FIU and UCF have one of the largest student populations in the US). I got more love from schools that I thought were outside chances than most FL schools which aren't even ranked/ranked highly 😕
Yeah, I had always thought that the in-state love was the real deal, and if I were to only apply to a few places in-state seemed like the best choice. That, and I adore living in Florida.
😍 It really makes me so happy to hear about your waitlist luck though - I have friends on waitlists and I'm anxious for them, too!
Thanks all for the responses.
🙂
