My grandpa has offered to pay for my full college tuition to become a doctor (4 years of undergrad and then 4 years of med). I live in a different state of the school he wants me to go to so I would have to leave my senior year of hs to go there to get the residency fee. My only problem is that this school is not as top notch as all of the other schools and I am worried that i will not have the full preparation i need or the proper research opportunities. Am i being selfish or is this the reality I am facing? TIA
A few questions:
- What is the school? No one can give you good advice without that specific info.
- Do you want to be a doctor?
- What are your GPA and test scores? How are your math & science grades?
- What happens if you change majors? Many pre-med students wash out of pre-med.
- Why can’t he just pay for the state flagship in the state you live in now?
University of arizona
Yes
My gpa is very high 4.2 or so and I havent taken act or sat yet
Took calc as a sophomore
And he believes the UC system in california (where i live) is too competitive and I will flunk out
Thank you!
‘Going there to get residency’ is unlikely to work. Where do your parents live? THAT’s where you’ll have residency. Parents and grandparents don’t understand that.
Go to the webpage for the school and look up the requirements for instate residency. It might direct you to a state statute. It will likely say that a parent must be a resident for 12 months before residency will be established for instate tuition purposes.
Thats what he wants me to do. He wants me to leave my senior year (im a junior now) and go to some private school so i get arizona residency
UA is fine for undergrad, and med schools value GPA the most so if you can get a 3.8+ from UA then you would be fine. He is giving you solid advice.
Agree, you just going to HS in AZ probably won’t get you residency unless your parents move.
What about a compromise – maybe go to a different school, but he contributes up to the UA in-state amount?
I saw one of your other posts – there are tons of college you can get into med school from. And trust me, if you can’t get through the UC system as a pre-med, you can’t get through JHU, either.
But he wants me to also go to grad school u of a. I was even considering the offer for undergrad but I dont want to graduate grad school from u of a. Am i being unreasonable?
I am not the one doubting if i can get into one of them lol he just thinks teh uc system is too competitive and doesnt know much about other states!!!
http://registrar.arizona.edu/personal-information/requirements-resident-status is University of Arizona’s residency requirement.
You need to be financially independent of your parents, or you will be considered a resident or not based on whether your parents are considered resident or not. So it does not look like his plan for you to get Arizona residency will work.
Will your grandfather contribute an amount equivalent to in-state UA/ASU undergraduate and UA medical school toward the cost of whatever undergraduate and medical school you attend?
Or will he pay the out-of-state costs for you to attend UA/ASU undergraduate and/or UA medical school?
Nope. He is very strict about where I have to go. U of A for grad and undergrad and hs for 2 year for residency (I would be living with him and he would be paying so it would be considered residency accoridng to him). Is u of a that bad of a school though like are my demands too high???
UA is not a bad school like you seem to think it is.
However, your grandfather’s plan to get you Arizona residency is unlikely to work unless your parents also move there.
Also, medical school admissions is competitive enough that there is no way to guarantee that you will be admitted to UA medical school (or any other specific medical school, or any medical school at all).
His plan is that I live with him as my legal gaurdian for that one year of hs. I know that the mayo clinic hospital is a good hospital but is it worth graduating there or should i try and shoot for something higher?
I agree with @CU123 regarding both UA being fine for premed, and GPA being very important for getting into medical school. I agree with others that you need to check very carefully regarding whether you can get residency in Arizona.
I also tend to agree with your Grandpa regarding at least UCB and UCLA. It would be tough to get medical school worthy GPA from either of them unless you are an exceptional student. Premed is going to be very demanding at pretty much any universities (including UA).
I think that you and your parents and Grandpa need to have an understanding regarding what “plan B” is in case you decide against premed, or in case you don’t have the GPA to support medical school admissions. The large majority of students who show up for freshman year of university thinking that they will be premed eventually end up NOT getting into medical school, either because they change their mind about premed or because they don’t get accepted. It is a long and difficult path.
Graduating from medical school without any debt at all would be quite an accomplishment. However, it seems like a lot could go wrong with this plan.
http://registrar.arizona.edu/personal-information/requirements-resident-status says:
I.e. your grandfather’s plan is something that the UA in-state residency policy is intended to exclude.
It is not a matter of trying to “shoot for something higher”. It is that his plan is not supposed to be allowed. Even if he and you get away with it initially, if the fraud is discovered later, it could jeopardize all of your educational achievements at UA.
Thank you. I would have taken the offer up in a heart beat if it was just for undergrad but its also UofA for grad school too and Im not sure if i really want to have that title from that college. I know UA is a great school I just dont know if i should or should not shoot for somthing higher. And I am definitely going to stay in the doctor path as my grandpa is a doctor and i have alwasy wanted to be one. Its just a tough choice because i see both reasons liek the money cost bt on the other hand th school name and what they have to offer
All MD medical schools in the US are good, and all are highly selective.
So do not worry about the quality of UA medical school.
But do worry that his Arizona residency plan is likely to be considered fraudulent.
You are a genius thank you very much
This is the question on the FAFSA for guardianship v. custody. It is unlikely your parents will give up legal rights to you and that’s what’s going to be required. You need to be independent financially and that’s pretty difficult to do as a 16 year old.
I think the answer to your grandfather is ‘thanks, but it is not possible.’
Lmao thank you for finding this