<p>I’m struggling with trying to figure out how strongly I should push my 11th grade D to pursue only those colleges that offer merit aid. </p>
<p>We have about $200K budgeted for her future education, which would include undergrad and then hopefully something else like grad or medical school in the future.</p>
<p>The FAFSA we did this year showed a high EFC and I estimate that it is unlikely we will qualify for financial aid in the future. (We did the FAFSA in February for our other D, a 12th grader, who will be at RISD in the fall.)</p>
<p>We are Texas residents but D2 really, really wants to go to college somewhere out of state. </p>
<p>Her stats and ECs are good, and my hope is that she could get some merit aid at a reputable, high-quality school.</p>
<p>Not knowing much about grad or med school costs, I’m wondering how people would recommend we spend that $200K - mostly on undergrad, mostly on post-undergrad, half and half? The balance would presumably be in student loans.</p>
<p>According to the April 2009 issue of The New Physician, which is the magazine put out by AMSA, the AAMC says that average medical student debt upon graduation is now $150,000. Some students graduate with no or little debt. Other students graduate with $250k or even $300K plus in debt (this includes debt from undergrad as well as medical school).</p>
<p>I suggest that your daughter apply broadly to schools that offer merit aid. There are private schools like Harvard which are very generous with money, and there are public schools like the University of Delaware which offer substantial merit scholarships even to OOS students.</p>
<p>I would think the best course of action would be to spend as little money as possible on undergrad. If she does have solid stats, she could probably get full-tuition at a decent state school. Hopefully this wouldn’t cost much, and she would still have most of the money left over. Medical school is definitely expensive, but she could maybe come out debt free with that kind of money (if she doesn’t spend much on undergrad).</p>
<p>If we knew with near 100% certainty that your daughter would end up in med school at the end of 4 years, I think the answer is a no brainer - spend as little on UG as possible and save the rest for med school.</p>
<p>But since I think generous estimates would put at most 15% of freshmen pre-meds into medical school (most simply because they realize medicine is not for them), I think you need to really discuss what the options are in case your daughter decides to do something else. If it’s another expensive grad school option like law school, no big deal, but what if she decides to go into communication studies and then gets a job with a PR firm or becomes an elementary school teacher? I think that changes the dynamic of holding on to that money for later.</p>
<p>With that in mind, I think the smart strategy is to have your daughter apply broadly to a mix of schools that give a variety of aid packages, see where she likes the most, who gives the best aid package and then be willing make up the difference for any UG bills so she ends UG debt free. Then, if she still is headed towards professional school, the remainder can be used to limit the amount of debt she draws down, and if not, you need to decide on exactly what use of the remainder is an acceptable alternative, or if she even gets the remainder. Certainly with that amount of money set aside for her, you’re interested in helping her start out on the right foot, but I don’t know how you feel about just giving her large sums of cash (say you only have to pay for 4 years of undergrad at $10k a year…it’d make me pause to say “here’s $160k” even if it was in the form of a trust or something). Perhaps material gifts like a nice (used) car, homewares for her first real apartment or a portion of a down payment on a house are viable options…</p>
<p>Thanks for your responses. DocT, yes, we do have the $200K - most of it is in a 529 savings plan for D2. (Actually, we have one for D1 and one for D2.)</p>
<p>Bigredmed, thanks for your detailed response. If there were any remaining funds - what a great problem that would be - we’d have her keep the money in the 529 to use for future educational expenses for either herself or for a qualifying family member (her future child, spouse, basically anyone related to her who is under 30). </p>
<p>I agree with you guys who said to have her apply to a range of schools and see what aid is offered at each. </p>
<p>Note to self: D2 and I need to visit more schools that offer merit aid to increase the chances of her falling in love with one of those schools, versus the schools that sound great but don’t offer merit aid (such as Carleton, Haverford, Pomona, Reed, Swat and Tufts). </p>
<p>Because you are a resident of Texas you should plug the value of Texas medical schools into your equation. Two of the best in the US, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Southwest are incredible values for Texas residents.</p>
<p>Although your daughter wants to go to college out of state, if she has the qualifications for Swat she should not overlook the possibility of a Trustee’s Scholarship at Rice.</p>
<p>Apply to texas medical schools, or go for your Ph.D. If you go to med schools, tuition and stuff is <20k/yr, even at Baylor, a private school. For Ph.D.'s, you get paid to go. Idk about the first two years which are mostly classroom, but when you’re a Ph.D. student, you get paid. Not much, but you do.</p>
<p>Don’t always trust the FAFSA though. I’m going to Cornell and their family contribution (between me and my parents) was 20k, down from a supposed 32k the FAFSA predicted. Depending on where you go, some can be really generous with need based financial aid.</p>
<p>@wobudong, thanks. I wish wish wish my D would consider Rice - she just really wants to get out of Texas. I will consider it a major accomplishment if I can get her to even visit Rice.</p>
<p>@ZFanatic, thanks for the info on tuition on Texas med schools.</p>
<p>I suppose I should also thank you all for your helpful advice. And I know I should listen to all of you and my lovely mother regarding merit aid; I just keep spending my time on applying to these ridiculously selective and expensive dream schools and promising myself I’ll deal with it all later. So thanks for a healthy dose of reality.</p>
<p>And thank you so much for your excellent advice, BRM, on the variety of schools. Though personally, I think the 160K in cash would be excellent incentive for schools with merit aid…just saying…</p>
<p>One last thing: for the record (I have to answer to this), perhaps it would be easier to find time to visit Rice if there was not the minor scheduling hazard of planning a visit right after I get my wisdom teeth removed. I doubt at that point I would have said yes to a visit to Willy’s Wonka’s Chocolate Factory combined with Disneyland with zero travel time, for free.</p>
<p>zfanatic is being a little conservative on his numbers for Texas med schools.</p>
<p>While in state tuition and fees is currently around $13K annually you must also consider living expenses and neither Houston nor Dallas are inexpensive places to live especially anywhere near the medical schools.</p>
<p>UTSW estimates the annual cost of attendance (tuition, fees, books, living expenses, misc) for an instate student to be about $34K this year which is pretty accurate. Living conservatively it will still be a stretch because apartments typically lease for 12 months and the living expenses are calculated based on 9 months. Many do research over the summer after their MS-1 year and good projects pay $2500-3000 for the summer but it is still tight.</p>
<p>I do not see anything wrong with pursuing Merit scholarships. Keep in mind that this is just one benefit that top student will have at school like that. These kids are treated like stars that they are.</p>