Cornell vs Full Ride to Honors Program

Marian
Sat, 05 Apr 2008 10:17:00 +0000

I’m a parent of a Cornell freshman.

I know several kids who were faced with the decision of whether to attend a Cornell-caliber school or whether to take a full-ride at a state university honors program.

Some made one choice; some made the other.

In general, the pre-meds tended to go for the state university. The reason is simple: money. You say that money isn’t that big an issue, but I think it might be, if you and your parents consider the full cost of your undergraduate education plus medical school.

When you say that money is not a big issue, I’m assuming that you mean that you would not have to take out loans to go to Cornell. That’s great. But what happens when the time comes for medical school? Will the amount of money that your parents had budgeted for your education have run out by then if you go to Cornell? Will you have to take out loans to pay for the entire cost of medical school?

You may also want to ask your parents what they are willing to pay, not just what they are able to pay. Not all parents are willing to contribute to the cost of a child’s education beyond a bachelor’s degree. Views on this issue vary from family to family. You need to know whether, if you go to UDel, your parents would be willing to hang on to the money that they would otherwise have spent on your undergraduate education and let you have it to help pay your medical school bills, or whether they would have other plans for that money.

I love Cornell. It’s a great school. But my daughter is not pre-med. The financial situation of students who know that they are headed for medical school (or law school) is different from that of other students because they have more years of college/professional school costs to pay for. Talk with your family, and make sure that the decision you make is financially sound as well as educationally sound.