Same with things like medical and dental expenses. I remember a time when I had a few cavities and couldn’t afford to do all the fillings at once….Down the road, that turned into a root canal and crown.
This is the really unfortunate thing - it is expensive to be broke. If you can’t afford an immediate, unexpected expense - and many people can not - then you end up paying several times more later. It’s really awful and keeps people trapped in debt.
That is what I think. I know some parents, for various reasons, may feel they don’t want to disclose their (possibly complex or tentative) financial situation to their minor children. However figuring out how and where to go to college and how to pay for it (at a time when even many, many graduates from excellent schools cannot find employment) is NOT a kid’s job. She deserves adult information if she is expected to navigate an adult situation.
Some parents simply want their kids to stay local and go to CC.
The parents don’t necessarily owe the kids an explanation. We don’t know their family dynamic.
It may simply be their wish.
Maybe not an explanation, but at least a clear statement. We don’t want to pay, but will if we have to, up to X amount vs. We are not financially able to contribute more than X vs. We really are unable to contribute anything at all so let’s give FAFSA a try and see if you get enough need-based aid vs. We are able but unwilling so you’re on your own and don’t count on any need-based aid, end of story.
Perhaps. Staying local even though the job prospects are dismal is certainly the norm in my tiny outpost of a community. It seems so outside the norm of NOVA or MD affluent suburbs of DC in a situation where a child is in a competitive STEM school though.
That they put them in a strong local school doesn’t mean they want their young one at a four year school or an away school.
I have no idea what they want or don’t is the point.
A lot of speculating.
OP needs to find out and make a plan which may not include a four year school.
Exactly. If they don’t want to disclose anything or offer anything then at least OP, as their child, deserves to have them run the numbers privately and tell her what SHE would be expected to go in debt for (not that she could get such a loan without their help) for any given college even though it’s called the parental contribution. Or OP could plan to get a warehouse or fast-food job after high school graduation or CC. Or maybe get EMT training? Really, it boils down to this or full rides if they can’t or won’t disclose anything.
UMDCP, Towson, Howard, Catholic, American and UMBC could be roughly considered commuter schools for OP if there is a way to pay for tuition and deal with a difficult high-traffic commute.
If parents do not want to disclose their financial situation, then they least they can do is (a) give a price limit), and (b) run the net price calculator on each college of interest and tell the student whether it is within the price limit.
It is generally the case that parent constraints (most commonly financial) are the main limitations on a high school student’s choice of college. The student’s own achievements and credentials only matter within the parent constraints.
https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/teachers/lessonplans/Current%20Washington%20Metro%20Map.pdf suggests that several colleges and universities are near Washington Metro stations, so they may be possibilities for a non-driving commute. However, getting enough scholarships to make them affordable is another story, although commuting does some some money versus living at the college.
I agree! That is why I think this student deserves to have parents do at least a bit of investigation, analysis and soul-searching, and communicate something more concrete to this student before senior year. Especially since they are referring to such things as ED, it seems they do expect their child to go somewhere.
They may also think that if they say they won’t pay, then that opens up need-based aid.
It probably depends on what they are hearing from others as well as their own past experiences either long enough ago that college was affordable or from another country where tuition metrics are / were very different than here and now.
I have seen many first generation in USA parents who had no idea about college cost and made some ridiculous statements. One dad said, that his child will get to top school on scholarship because he attended some top public and won some competitions. The parent had zero understanding about FA, cost of colleges etc. I am not sure that is the case of OP, but MD STEM magnets are full of kids with parents thinking that if their kid got to magnet, they are guaranteed spots at top colleges with free ride. Most students are also delusional about competitions between each other and inability to get merit at top schools.
My sister is very well educated, her oldest child is the same age as my youngest. When I told her my daughter was turning down Villanova due to cost, she suggested her undergrad university. She was floored to find out it was around $85,000 a year now. Financially she could manage college for all of her kids, but definitely needed a lot more money in the college accounts that she had originally budgeted (her daughter ended up going there). She was absolutely shocked.
Central Michigan has the Centralis Scholars award which is a full ride. They have a medical school as well.
OP - you need a full ride merit scholarship. My advice is to prep for the SAT and/or ACT and apply to schools where that may happen. Note: they will not be the schools on your current list.
Medical school is very, very expensive. I would think about a backup plan just in case it’s not affordable or you do not get accepted. I would also put it on the back burner right now.
Right now I would focus on testing. Hopefully you and your parents will have a discussion about all of this soon.
Wouldn’t he have had to pay the OOS rate for UNM med?
It’s not for everyone but the service academies might work. Potential doctors are valuable. So are engineers and nurses. Especially ones that can swim.
I had a cousin who was accepted to MIT. Parents wouldn’t pay a dime. He attended one of the academies. He ended up with several PhD’s. Eventually a dean of engineering after a military career.
I also had a classmate become an MD going that route.
If your ultimate intention is to pursue MD / DO or a combination MD/X degree - AND - you believe you will have no financial assistance from your parents or family at any point -AND- you are a high stats extracurricular student (4.00+ GPA with test scores pending) here are thoughts:
(1) Once you are in medical school, and especially once you graduate / residency / out in the world - where you went to undergraduate will matter very little other than if you choose to stay in academia and want to have a little ‘add on’ on your bio provided on powerpoints or during introductions as a speaker…
(2) The amount of debt you accumulate in undergraduate and graduate school will absolutely follow you and inhibit your quality of life whether it’s the actual payments or having $ 500k in unresolved educational debt sitting over your head for 20-25+ years.
Things you’ll need to make an informed decision;
(A) FAFSA completed and parental tax returns
(B) NPC for each of the schools you’ve listed above (every school has a link to calculating NPC for their school) using (A) above
(C) Broaden your horizons for schools not on your list above which may not be what you’d consider first tier but offer generous merit awards.(Alabama has been mentioned above as an example).
If your ultimate goal is an MD, then your -first- objective is to attend an undergraduate which saddles you with the least amount or NO DEBT. This may take the path of 1-2 years in community college / Ju-Co or a school that isn’t a ‘named T 25 or even T50’. If you’d be a top tier student at a T25 going to a top medical school, then you should be a top tier student anywhere… and professional schools attendees come from all over the academic map. Where you go to medical school matters way way more…
That could encompass a pretty wide range so you’d need to be rather specific - there are schools that offer tuition breaks for family income of $ 200k or less…
You could look at Duke or Wake Forest - as they have specific thresholds for family income which makes them tuition free or completely “free”. Similarly search out other family income thresholds which apply to you - as an example UNC has a tuition waiver for instate students with family income under $80k (though instate tuition is ‘only’ $9.5k/yr it’s still almost $40k you wouldn’t have to pay or add to your educational debt load).
In a word - YES. Sort of.
What I mean is certainly you can get federal loans for undergraduate, but then under the current situation you’d have to go for private loans for graduate/professional school (I believe). If you take on both and end up with $ 400-500k or more in educational debt, depending on the loan type (Direct Subsidized or Direct Unsubsedized etc which are dependent on qualifiers such as your parental income…) plus private loans you are likely to accumulate interest during undergraduate, medical school, intern, residency (and anything you pursue after that) - you will find this to be a major quality of life stressor that you cannot possibly full understand at your stage in life right now.
Open you mind to undergraduate degree options which absolutely minimize your debt to as close to ZERO as possible. Medical school is a minimum of 5 1/2 years away and alot can happen to the status of Graduate / Professional School loans in that time frame, I wouldn’t put too much stock on not being able to pay for medical school with your medical degree you can, it just will eat into your earnings for 6-10 years… but paying for both a $ 250-400k undergraduate degree plus a good/great medical school all on ‘loans’ is a huge issue.
It depends on the student’s circumstances.
If the student has lived in NM for 6 months prior to admission (even as full time student) and has not been listed on their parent’s tax return as a dependent for 1 year or longer, they are considered in-state for tuition.
Those who have lived OOS since graduation from UNM will be considered OOS for tuition for the first year of med school and pay the higher OOS rate. However, once they have lived in NM for 6 months, they can petition for a change in residency status and pay the in-state tuition rate for years 2 thru 4 of med school. Many states do not allow this so UNM is quite generous in this regard.
Additionally, If a student’s spouse/partner goes to work for certain NM employers (like any state public school system, certain state agencies, the Indian Health Service and certain other federal agencies, including military service) then the med student is automatically considered in-state for tuition, even if they have lived OOS for several years post graduation.
BTW, UNM’s OOS med school tuition is still less than in-state tuition in at UMD SOM.
Also when it comes to getting into med school, Maryland is even harder than California when it comes to gaining an in-state med school acceptance. Only 12% of Maryland med school applicants get an in-state med school acceptance. For California is 17%. See Table A-5 2024 FACTS: Applicants and Matriculants Data | AAMC