Actually, you don’t have to name the SUNY, but how long would it take you to commute to the SUNY near your home?
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OP may want to be in NYC at all costs - and that’s fine.
But the travel costs - and a one way flight - are ample - including on Southwest.
Travel costs will be a lot less than other costs.
But if OP only wants NYC then it’s fine.
Whatever the costs are at the CUNY schools - if any - that’s a trade off the OP would choose - and no issues.
But I wouldn’t knock the free gifts due to travel costs.
Besides SUNY/CUNY, the student can include any full ride schools and then compare costs, pros and cons etc.
I believe SUNY and CUNY have a system where you pay 1 application fee for multiple schools.
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It’s also worth it for OP to run the NPC on a couple “generous meet need” colleges like Brown or Princeton in case they are affordable without parent contribution - since these are no loans colleges, if the parent contribution is lower than federal loans (5.5k freshman year) then they become affordable for OP.
But all in all SUNYs and CUNYs (with Macaulay, Sophie Davis, the Stem scholarship, and the Honors programs) are OPs best shots. New Yorkers are lucky to have so many solid, affordable universities. 
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Don’t the SUNY and CUNY colleges also have a free application week at some point?
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Very close to NYC but not in
I am much closer to CUNY schools, which is why I’ve been considering them more heavily.
I don’t think I’ll be going out of state due to parents’ wishes
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If my school does not offer a language this year, what should I do?
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If the language isn’t offered at level 3, make sure to include the information in your “brag sheet” for your GC to include in their report.
Prepare to take more Foreign language in college - some have a placement test, some look at highest level reached to place you. Not all require a foreign language for college graduation but if you come in with a “deficiency” they may ask you to remediate it and meet their minimum level by a set date.
(“Brag sheet”= document given to counselor or teacher where you recap information that will help them write a personalized recommendation - include anecdotes front moments you remember from their class or that show your intellectual curiosity, resilience, kindness, creativity, or whatever applies.)
Run the NPC on Skidmore, Hamilton, URochester, Columbia (+ Barnard if you’re a girl). All are in-state and meet need. You want to see a net cost of 5.5k or less. If you don’t see that number, then focus on SUNYs and CUNYs only.
(Would your parents budge if you got into specific colleges they know?)
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They have wishes yet they’re not willing to pay ?
Tell them - your NMF lets you go free elsewhere.
In the end, it’s a family issue but restricting you funds wise sort of limits where you can go without taking on debt - unless you can get free tuition and live home.
You don’t want debt.
So in this case, you need to be flexible.
Seems odd - won’t pay for college but then dictating where you go.
But it’s your family. So you all have to work together.
Good luck.
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Are you on Long Island? Did you look into
LIU as a very inexpensive option?
Sorry if I missed this but to help give advice, what do your parents want you to do? Do they want you to go to college? Do they want you to stay home? Why are they unwilling to pay anything?
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Take URochester off your list. The Handler requires providing your family’s financial information. Unless your family is very low income, you won’t qualify.
Federal student loans will continue but with a new lifetime cap of $200,000 (including any undergrad loans) and a max annual cap of $50,000. Grad Plus loans will no longer exist starting 2026.
Private loans for med school are available but carry many disadvantages, including double digit interest rates, immediate repayment requirements and ineligibility for most loan repayment/loan forgiveness programs.
Med schools will also require parental financial info for scholarships/ financial aid–even at the most generous of med schools.
One round of med school applications will cost several thousand dollars. There is a special program for low income students (Fee Assistance Program) that pays for MCAT prep and up to 15 med school applications, but to qualify, a student must provide their parental financial info UNLESS they have been independent on their federal taxes for at least 3 years.
I will note that NYU SOM is NOT free. (Though people persist in saying that…) Both NYU and Mt Sinai give 100% tuition scholarships to all their students, but students are still responsible for paying for the housing, meals, health insurance, transportation.
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free application week
Good point.
SUNY does have a free application, which in actual implementation usually becomes like 10days - 2 weeks. They will announce it in the fall, probably late September to early October for the announcement. The free “week” is usually somewhere around late October - early November.
CUNY also has a free application period, normally much longer than a week, maybe 4 weeks. 3rd week in October - mid November?
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I don’t think they’d budge, as much as I would like them to. They think I’ll learn financial responsibility by taking out loans, especially since they took out loans to go to college. They do want me to go to college and are excited that I want to become a doctor.
I don’t know what to do but I really wish I wasn’t so limited
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What you will do is go to a CUNY or commutable SUNY and knock the cover off the ball.
The folks posting here with random suggestions are from out of town and do not understand the academic strength of the top tier public U’s in NY. You do not need to go to Oklahoma to get a fine, med school worthy education.
Keep doing what you are doing!!!
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And then there’s this $1500 annual scholarship for which I suspect you are eligible, for up to 5 years if you attend a CUNY or a SUNY:
You must be nominated by your high school, so talk to your guidance counselor
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The question I have is any of the cuny or suny schools truly commutable for op. Traveling to nyc daily from Long Island or westchester is ugly, similarly to stony brook. It may make sense to go to Alabama or u Tulsa for free (and cheaper) rather than dealing with the commuting.
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True.
OP- are you on LIRR on a close-in stop, MetroNorth, or NJ Transit? And how long would the commute be to various CUNY campuses?
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I live pretty close (within an hour train) of a few CUNY schools
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Another excellent option for OP is UT Dallas, which offers every NMF a full-ride (Scholarship Package & Benefits - UT Dallas Honors College), an auto-admit to its honors college (Collegium V Honors - Hobson Wildenthal Honors College | UT Dallas), and a pre-med experience that includes volunteer/research/shadowing opportunities at the highly ranked UT Southwestern Medical Center (Pre-Med at UTD - Hobson Wildenthal Honors College). UT Dallas is also a lot easier and cheaper to get to from New York compared to Tulsa and Alabama. DFW is less than 30 minutes away.
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People commute into NYC from LI and Westchester every day of the week. It’s very doable. My niece commuted to Sophie Davis at City College for 7 years. No problem. She’s a practicing physician today.
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