It’s because residents and Fellows work a ton of hours. Their annual pay sounds decent until you factor in the number of hours per week or month they actually work. Point being…you won’t be saving during residency. You will be paying your living expenses, and that’s about it. Remember that out of any resident salary there will be federal income taxes, health insurance cost share, FICA, and any retirement account you might choose (strongly suggest you do a retirement account).
And in most cases, you will also be paying for prep materials and the tests for your board exams…not a bargain.
Are your parents willing to fill out the online net price calculators for the various colleges you might get into? They are anonymous so your parents don’t need to worry about that.
And if you are the oldest of 4, how many years until the next oldest kid will be in college? Will there be any overlap years?
I am asking for two reasons. One, some of the private CSS Profile schools may provide additional need-based financial aid when multiple siblings are in college at the same time. Two, if your parents co-sign loans for you and have to start making payments right away, will they also be doing that at the same time for a younger sibling. Also, if private loans are in the mix, there are some that specialize in college loans if that is of interest.
Filing out the NPC at Meet-need schools like Lafayette could be useful since the fact there are 4 kids and 6 people in the family will be taken into account - at those “free tuition for 200k income” it’s typically for a family of 4. If OP were to fall under a blanket “free tuition” policy he’d only have to pay for room&board and that would likely be less than full-cost Rutgers.
We have no idea if that is even a possibility - if this family’s income is 200k or 500k…
@kongo : you have to apply widely because you’d have to take whatever option is the least expensive and at this point we don’t know what that’d be (beside commuting to a community college with its honors program, saving whatever you can till you can attend Rowan or Rutgers. That would be your strategy if all else fails and it’s good you have one.)
A college like Princeton is out of reach but excellent “meet need” colleges as well as colleges that offer financial aid and scholarships can’t be dismissed off hand. Don’t undersell yourself: Your 3.7 unweighted being 3.778 is actually closer to 3.75-3.8, for instance. IF the NPC for the meet need colleges shows something affordable it’s worth it for you to apply.
And if the NPCs show 25k like Rutgers you can cross them off.
Wrt loans: it takes an average college graduate 10 years to pay back the 27k (31k with interest) that they borrowed for 4 years of college. It means that if you/your parents borrowed 100k it’d take you at least 30 years to pay that loan back. It means not being able to buy a house. It means having to choose whatever job is near a bus or train line because no bank will let you have a car loan. It means some jobs are off limits because such amount of debt is considered a risk by companies. And that’s compounded if you attend PA or Med school.
When you run the NPCs at the private colleges, I recommend doing them twice. Once for your freshman year when you are the only student in college and again as if three kids will be in college (ie simulating your junior and senior years). My kids’ colleges each gave us about 15k more in aid the two years they overlapped—and that was just for two kids in college, not three.
Note that the public colleges don’t provide any multiple sibling discount and only some private colleges still do. And of course that might change by your junior year and/or one or both of your siblings may choose not to go to college. But it’s still information that may be useful.
The other caveat is that when the NPC asks for the amount in retirement savings, they mean only the money in a 401k, 403b, IRA etc. they don’t mean money in a regular savings account that your parents plan to use for retirement. It has to be in a government-recognized retirement account . And then, also don’t double-enter that retirement money in the regular assets or investment box. They need to be separate. That is because the colleges ignore retirement assets and do not expect it to be used for college but they do expect a certain percentage of regular savings / investments to be used for college. I hav seen other people make this mistake, so just mentioning it here.
3.7 is A- whether on a scale that include 4=A or a scale that includes A+=4.3.
Colleges will use your transcript and the information on it, which is clearly spelled out.
Ok, 180k with 6 people should definitely fall under the free tuition promise and would likely be completed with a bit more aid.
Also, at Meet-need schools they’d adjust your FA package to reflect your 2 brothers in college when you are, ie., jr/sr year, offering more aid. (This may not apply at Rutgers which uses FAFSA and therefore may consider the change in numbers of students in college.)
They’d be reaches obviously but they could end up cheaper than Rutgers and thus worth pursuing.
I do not think Rutgers will be giving financial aid with that income, ours was similar when we had 3 in college at the same time and none of our kids, after applying to mostly publics and some privates, receive anything except having some of the federal loans subsidized. And we have 5 kids.
Yes, that’s what I mean when I say the (CSS) meet need colleges and definitely the “free tuition for 200k/fam of 4 with typical assets” may end up being cheaper than Rutgers. At least it’s worth a try for OP.
$180k is considered a lot of money. Some but not all meets needs schools, will likely help. But not to the level you need. And you may not be competitive at some statistically. Check out schools like Union, Connecticut College.
Truth is, education is an expense and investment and schools expect someone with that much money to pay something.
Here’s another thread that breaks down possible discounts/merit but I don’t see how they get cheaper than Rutgers lining alone outside of some competitive scholarships.
I’ve also reattached the schools that meet need list and a few others to look at.
Troy U Scholars Award - free tuition and housing. Apply!!
Reading this thread, you sound like a very responsible student who wants to do well in life and is willing to put in the work to do it, but are in a situation where the cost of university is going to be a huge problem.
To me it sounds like the best bet is probably to start at CC. Quite a few very strong students start at CC. This is often (not always) motivated by financial issues. It also sounds like the cost of medical school is just not going to be possible to afford. This leaves the task of finding a different career other than MD.
One option is nursing. You can go to CC for two years and get an associated degree in nursing. I think that this is enough (although others will know better than I in this area). Probably a better option is to spend two years at CC, then transfer to an in-state public university and get a four year bachelor’s degree in nursing. There are lots and lots of jobs available in nursing. This is a good career. It is also not all that far away from being at the top of the list of best paying bachelor’s degrees (the rest of the list uses the word “engineering” many times, with computer science and mathematics also often not that far from the top of the list).
Of course there are also lots of other possible careers that you can do with a bachelor’s degree. Some are medical-related. Some are not.
By the way, a number of years ago I happened to have a medical emergency not all that far from Lowell, Massachusetts. The ambulance took me to a hospital in Lowell. There were quite a few nurses who played a significant role in saving my life (with no long term problems at all, which was actually an unlikely outcome under the circumstances). As you might imagine, a lot of those nurses were graduates from U.Mass Lowell, which of course is not the “flagship” public university in Massachusetts. I did not care that I was being helped by people who had graduated from the number 2 public university in the state. I did care that they were doing a great job and helped me a LOT. I did thank many of them. These are former students who have a great career saving people’s lives without having attended their state’s flagship university. There are a lot of schools that can put you in a similar situation.
Ok discussed with my parents, and we figured out a plan for Rutgers. I will be able to attend that at least and pay for it. For med school, the plan is to work at a non profit that can pay it off, or at a low cost area. Thats if I get to med school, the ball is in my court now.
Probably not the answer some of you guys were looking for, but at least I’m down for that. All the other colleges are showing higher NPCs.
Thank you everyone for your suggestion. (I’m still applying to my CC)
I’m glad you were able to navigate that conversation and come up with a plan. If you and your parents can make Rutgers work financially, that is terrific. And you still have CC as a backup.
Often CC nursing programs can be competitive to get into, even though the CC generally is open-enrollment. You may want to do your due diligence on the closest CC RN program, just to make sure you’re meeting any associated deadlines to keep that option open.
Why not apply to Troy and Alabama A&M and get most, if not all, paid for.
Taking substantial loans is not ‘paying for it.’ It’s taking yourself hostage financially. The PLSG (working for a non profit) requires 10 years of payback b4 you are even eligible to ask for relief.
Have you considered the military ?
I’m not seeing a plan ? How will you pay for Rutgers ?
They’re not even reaches for me they’re lotteries.