Top ten school or state school with full scholarship?

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E

EC

Hi Everyone,

This is a hypothetical question that has been somewhat discussed but I'll ask it again: assuming you would be happy at either, would you rather go to a top ten school or a state school (not in the top fifty according to US News) with a full scholarship?

EC
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state school full scholarship. i live in CA though. :p
 
Top Ten school! I'd go there even if I had to shell out everything myself financially (loans)
 
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Hi E'01,

Why would you choose the top ten school? Reputation, prestige, more famous research programs?

EC
 
I would pick the full scholarship instead.
 
State school with the scholarship, no doubt.
 
EC...it depends on what type of medicine you ultimately want to practice. Some people want to gun for the top research, derm, ENT, ortho programs, etc. If that's your goal, top ten without question.

But if you're thinking about practicing family medicine or primary care like I am, I think it wouldn't matter if you went to the state school. You'll graduate in a much better financial situation and can practice soon after with a stable lifestyle. In any case, if you know you want to stay in that state, then you still leave your options open in terms of getting a good residency there.
 
but how can we know for sure which path we'll be taking? i mean, those of who haven't gotten to med school yet.
no one can say they are sure at this point...

so that brings me to my opinion. i'd go to a top 10 school.
even quite possibly over my state schools in CA.

•••quote:•••Originally posted by LizardKing:
•EC...it depends on what type of medicine you ultimately want to practice. Some people want to gun for the top research, derm, ENT, ortho programs, etc. If that's your goal, top ten without question.

But if you're thinking about practicing family medicine or primary care like I am, I think it wouldn't matter if you went to the state school. You'll graduate in a much better financial situation and can practice soon after with a stable lifestyle. In any case, if you know you want to stay in that state, then you still leave your options open in terms of getting a good residency there.•••••
 
EC,

Are you assuming you have to shell out the entire
tuition to a top ten school through loans? A lot
of top ten schools provide a generous amount of
financial aid to make them very attractive to
students accepted to their state schools. Harvard, UCSF, Stanford are a few that come to mind. Of course, there are others that are not
as generous (from what I've heard) such as
Penn and Wash U. I wouldn't mind paying ~75K for a top ten school rather than a full ride to
a no-name, non-top 50 school. Of course, that's
just my opinion given that I'm interested in
academic medicine. In any case, I can understand
how a free ride would make it very difficult for
someone to pass up, especially if they're interested in primary care.
 
•••quote:•••Originally posted by EC:
•Hi E'01,

Why would you choose the top ten school? Reputation, prestige, more famous research programs?

EC•••••Prestige and reputation are really important factors to me in determining where I go for med school. Thats just my own personal reasoning - there are others who will disagree, but I think it just opens up more doors in the future (i.e. competitive residency programs, fellowships)
 
From what I've heard, medical schools do not offer any scholarships at all, right? What "full scholarship" are you guys referring to?
 
medical22 yes schools do have scholarships. I think someone on here got a full ride to NJMS. I was also given a partial tuition scholarship.
 
Yes, I too find a full scholarship for a regular MD somewhat odd. It's not like medicine has to compete for amazingly qualified applicants. Not that I don't believe the OP, I'd just like to hear more about it, if at all possible.
 
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Hi Medical22,

Medical schools, depending on the school, do offer scholarships, including full scholarships. Some offer only need-based while others offer both merit and need-based.

aesculapian,
I am assuming that I wouldn't receive financial aid. I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't qualify for aid at most schools, but at the same time, $50,000 a year would be quite a financial burden for my family.

EC
 
I'd go to the state school. A doctor friend of mine once told me that 5 years after you're out of residency, no one cares where you went to med school. Some of you may disagree, but I find truth to that statement. He convinced me to attend my state school in the event I got accepted there. Why would you want to put yourself into debt to go to some fancy private school when you can go to med school for free? It's the smarter move in my opinion. The state school will get you where you want to go just as much as the private ones will. It's a tough decision, but I'd pick the public school if I were you. But, I'm not in your shoes and I don't live your life. You need to make the best decision for you and your future. Best of luck!

Peace
 
I had a friend turn down a full ride at UMich to go to Hopkins. I also had a friend take a full ride to UPitt over UPenn, Hopkins, Duke, Yale, and Harvard. I really think it depends on the program and the person. Honestly, if someone has the intelligence to earn a full ride at any medical school, despite its reputation, they have the capability to succeed in that program and get a top-notch residency.

Although it's not a top-10 med school, I'm currently debating between Einstein and my state school, Temple. It doesn't have to do with reputation so much as that I'm in a long term relationship where we both know we want to be in NYC and unfortunately, Temple pushes its students to staying in state. Therefore, I'm likely to overlook the 8K difference in tuition and potential merit grant to go to Einstein. If it weren't a location issue, I'd stay in state and just work my butt off for a NYC residency.
 
such elusive scholarships also exists for Cali schools. A fellow Libyan (go North Africa! haha) was the youngest person to ever start at UC-Davis [17] and received a full scholarship that he took over Stanford and east coast schools I now forget.
 
I got full rides from both NJ schools but turned them down to go to a top ten school where I am loaning everything! If you are thinking of psych, peds, IM, FP, etc. then take the full ride. But if you are thinking of really competitive specialites like Derm, Ortho, Plastics, Uro, Ophtho, ENT, etc. then I think going to the top ten school will help you in securing a good residency. But that is just my two cents.
 
Atlas:

I sent you a private message.

Spang
 
I graduated from Johns Hopkins with about $15,000 in loans. Not so bad, huh?

Here's something I recommend. If your goal of being a doctor governs most of your college-related decisions, get information about the premedical advising offices in the different schools that you are choosing between. I think that if those guys know what they're doing, they'll be able to lead you in the right direction no matter which school you attend.

I think the premedical advising office at JHU made a big difference during my medical school applications process. It is one of the main reasons that I'm glad I went there instead of my state school.
 
Uh BSG, I think everyone is talking about top 10 and state medical schools here, not undergrad. colleges.
 
I WOULD type something stupid for all to see.

Forgive me for taking up so much space for nothing. I didn't take the time to read everyone's posts, and I assumed that because this was in the pre-med folder, we were talking about undergrad stuff.

I did work very briefly in the office of one of the residency programs for internal medicine in a Maryland hospital (didn't want to get too specific there) and I got to see residency applications, including their recommendations, transcripts, and the reviews they got from the residency program. The prestige of the medical school that the person graduated from really made no difference. I don't know if this applies everywhere else, but it certainly would seem like it. A lot of the "high" applications were from foreign or 2nd tier schools.

I'd say go to the full scholarship school.
 
Actually Mayo gives a half-tuition scholarship at the VERY LEAST to all its acceptees. I think every student at Mayo is there on scholarship. I guess being that their class size is small and the Mayo Foundation has tons of money thats how it goes.
 
So, what if you have a full scholarship to a top ten state school?????

(I really don't know what to do because my husband lives in a different state 3 hours away and can't move!!)
 
•••quote:•••Originally posted by BrownSkinGirl:
•I WOULD type something stupid for all to see.

Forgive me for taking up so much space for nothing. I didn't take the time to read everyone's posts, and I assumed that because this was in the pre-med folder, we were talking about undergrad stuff.

I did work very briefly in the office of one of the residency programs for internal medicine in a Maryland hospital (didn't want to get too specific there) and I got to see residency applications, including their recommendations, transcripts, and the reviews they got from the residency program. The prestige of the medical school that the person graduated from really made no difference. I don't know if this applies everywhere else, but it certainly would seem like it. A lot of the "high" applications were from foreign or 2nd tier schools.

I'd say go to the full scholarship school.•••••Welcome, BSG!!! :D Don't worry about it, we're all among firends here. (Well, for the most part :wink: you'll see what I mean when you've been here awhile!). Thanks for your info re residencies. :)
 
A good friend of mine was accepted to the entering class of 2000 at USC and was given a full tuition scholarship.
I am debating the cost/reward for paying to go to a private school, and I am still not sure what I would do. Anyhow, right now I am leaning toward state school with $4K/year scholarship (leaving $4K/year in tuition loans) versus paying $30K+/year at some privates I have interviewed at. I have seen people escape from state schools and get into competitive residency programs like radiation oncology, albeit they had to bust their ass to get top notch board scores, grades, etc. It may be a little more of an uphill battle than if you went to a Top 10 school.
 
So when do you apply for the scholarships? Do the schools send you scholarship applications with the secondaries? I did not receive any with my applications? Do we have to request for them separately?
 
You can't apply for academic scholarships, some schools offer them to a few people they have accepted who they really want to come to their school.
 
There was a topic on scholarships offered by different schools a few weeks ago. Someone mentioned that WashU and Penn are notorious for not giving much aid. Well, at WashU, 14 full-rides are given plus there are ~20MSTP. So 34 out of a class of 120 pay nothing or are getting paid! There is a separate application for the 14 WashU full-rides but you have to be invited to apply. Penn also offers ~8 full-rides for MD-only applicants. I know that Vandy and Pitt have scholarships as well.
 
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