<p>I don’t stop considering a college due to cost. In fact, when I look at a college, the very last thing I look at is tuition. I will do anything to attend the college of my choice. I will get a job on campus, keep my grades high so I can get scholarships for college students, and anything else that will get me into my college of choice. Since my mom makes $60,000+, I have no idea what my EFC is going to be, especially since my mom has 3 other children to raise. I’m willing to put myself in debt. Besides, I’ll be able to pay everything back once I graduate from med school. I’m a PA resident, and only 2 schools (Penn State and Temple) are instate. The rest (UDel, UMD, UConn, UGA) are out of state. So is this a good attitude to have towards picking a college?</p>
<p>This is a typical attitude from kids who haven’t done the legwork. And, sounds trollish.</p>
<p>this is horribly naive and a recipe for disaster.</p>
<p>1) YOU can only borrow the following amounts:</p>
<p>$5500 frosh
$6500 soph
$7500 jr
$7500 sr.</p>
<p>2) To borrow higher amounts requires a willing and QUALIFIED co-signer. Your mom’s income is not high enough to co-sign, and she probably would refuse anyway.</p>
<p>3) The schools that give the best aid will also consider your father’s income and assets.</p>
<p>4) If you want to be a doctor, then you need to have minimal debt for undergrad.</p>
<p>5) Scholarship awards WHILE in college are rare and small.</p>
<p>6) The best scholarships are given to INCOMING freshman to attract the best frosh class. Continuing students and transfer students rarely get great aid or merit.</p>
<p>7) The schools that give the best need-based aid are very hard to get into.</p>
<p>8) Most schools do NOT have much money to give. Most will gap and give loans for aid. </p>
<p>Let us help you come up with a succesful strategy…not one that will ruin your life.</p>
<p>What are your test scores and GPA?</p>
<p>Those OOs publics that you’ve listed are not likely affordable. They don’t give great aid or merit to OOS students.</p>
<p>Your attitude is fine as long as you have some colleges on your list that you know you and your family can afford and that you know will take you. You have to understand that though you might be willing to do anything, coming up with the cost of OOS tuition and living expenses is a lot of money to raise and most people can’t do it. If you are a PA resident, you have a lot of other school that are state schools, some much less expensive than Temple and Penn State to investigate as well. If you are a good student with good test scores the Robert Cook Honors College at Indiana U of Pennsylvania might be a school to check out. If your stats are way up there, Pitt has some full rides in the Chancellors’s awards. Again, if your test scores are very high and your grade very good as well, those OOS public school might cough up some money for you, but bear in mind that they will cover the financial need of their own state residents first, as a rule. </p>
<p>Hopefully, you’ve worked and earned a lot of money this and past summers as part of your doing anything. Make sure you reimburse your mother for your costs and have her open an account in her name and SSN for your savings since any funds in your own name will be assessed at 20% flat by FAFSA and your mom will get some exemption allowance and only be hit up 5.6% over that. What you and your family has managed to earn and save in the past is a good indication of what you will be able to do in the future. You will be limited to only $5500 in loans in your own names, $4K if your mother applies and is denied a Parent loan, so borrowing tons of money is not going to be possible as an undergraduate, not on your own.</p>
<p>*PA Resident
Race: Black
Gender: Male
First Generation student</p>
<p>HS GPA: 3.1-3.4 (HUGE upward trend)
F-Year:2.7
S-Year: 3.4
J-Year: 3.6
HS Type: Academically excellent Catholic school in the Philly suburbs</p>
<p>SAT: 1430 Total (I’m going to retake it and try to get it up to at least a 1700)
M: 440
CR:480
W:510</p>
<p>EC’s
-Marching Band
-Drumline
-Percussion Ensemble
-Drumming lessons every week
-Semi-pro Baseball*</p>
<p>Your current list of schools will not likely work.</p>
<p>your stats wont’ likely get any merit money, even if you increase to a 1700. I’m not even sure if being a URM will help unless your SAT is much higher.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Both foolish and naive.</p>
<p>Doctors do not graduate from med school and start pulling down the big $$$. They must first undertake another 3-10 YEARS of additional training (residency and fellowships) before they start earning a “doctor’s salary”. During that training period, you’ll be earning less than what your mom earns now.</p>
<p>BTW, the average salary for a primary care doc (pediatrics, OB/GYN, family practice, psychiatry, general internal medicine) is only around $90,000-$120,000.</p>
<p>From Internet: 2010 [medical school] graduates averaged $145,020 in debt. The average debt burden jumps to nearly $204,000 at the schools where students shoulder the heaviest debt burden [i.e. expensive medical schools].</p>
<p>So, do you want to borrow more for you undergraduate?</p>
<p>I will add that with recent and predicted changes in medicine, physician’s salaries will not be huge. I don’t think med school costs will change much.</p>
<p>it is OK to attend CC for two years to help with costs. I know plenty of qualified students who got accepted to 4 year colleges and chose to attend CC to save costs. They then successfully transferred to 4 year schools. </p>
<p>Merit aid is reserved for students at the very top of the admissions pool for a school. Some schools are more generous with need based aid than others, and each school handles it a bit differently. </p>
<p>Look for schools where your stats are in the range of acceptance, that are committed to need based aid (as you have no idea what your expected contribution is) and also schools that are most affordable to you. Apply and see what happens, but do your research first- there are only so many essays you can write…and apps to fill out. Then see what happens and do not rule out your local CC’s.
There are many paths to med school.</p>
<p>Here’s AMCAS (the organization that oversees medical education in the US) latest data on medical school debt:</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/152968/data/debtfactcard.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/152968/data/debtfactcard.pdf</a></p>
<p>No – the best attitude is that you will find the best possible college for you that you and your family can afford. Fortunately you can major in just about anything and go to just about any college and still go to med school. Med school is expensive so you want to limit the amount of undergraduate debt that you are carrying into med school. Figure out what the attributes are that appeal to you about the colleges you named and then go find colleges that are affordable that have similar attributes. You alone, will not be able to finance your education with the exception of possibly two years at a community college. Any other financing will have to come from the college in the form of grants or scholarships or from loans that are co-signed by a credit worthy adult. The only debt that you will be allowed to take on by yourself as others have said is the maximum federal direct loans each year that mom2 posted.</p>
<p>Wait, that’s not really a 1430- it’s 920/1600.
Admissons based on pre-med interests and the ability to manage those courses…I don’t know. The bottom 25% of freshman did better, at Temple. That usually means faculty kids, athletes, some kids who are, say, brilliant at Math and scored high, but blew the CR. Not your ordinary applicant. This is a case where URM will not tip. For the non-U Park campuses of PSU, you’d be in the bottom 25%. </p>
<p>OP, if your goals are serious, look at the standards at all those colleges, take a keen analytical look at your qualifications (not your dreams.)</p>
<p>It’s hard to read you are willing to “do anything to attend the college of my choice,” but seem not to have done some research into them, costs, financial aid options, EFC- and all the other components. That is part of being motivated.</p>
<p>Possibly OP is a baseball recruit?</p>
<p>OP, you’re going about this the wrong way. Right now your stats aren’t good enough to receive merit aid at the schools you listed. How do you plan to pay for those OOS publics who won’t give you a dime? What will your plan be if you go to college then decide that med school isn’t for you? Your mom has 3 other children to take care of. What if they want to attend college in the future as well, but can’t because of you? Your mom doesn’t qualify to take out huge loans per year (since you’ll need a cosigner), so who will cosign for you? Don’t just apply to a college and say, “Oh, I’ll just pay off this $250k later. No big deal.”</p>
<p>I think the OP is doing the best he can and is posting here for advice. It’s not easy to be a first generation student and get all the FA aspects right away. Even for families who have been to college- it’s a lot to absorb. I believe the OP is motivated as evidenced by his posts.
My advice would be to make a list of schools that are both academic and financial fits. Consider your own financial needs and look carefully at the FA section of each school. Include a “reach for the stars” if you like, but do not apply somewhere that is likely to be out of financial means. The schools that are likely to be more generous are those whose admissions statistics fit yours, have holistic admissions policies, and possibly score optional. Consider your in state options, private colleges that give good FA, and also your own local options where you can commute and save costs (including your CC) Avoid debt as much as you can. Apply and then wait to see the acceptances and financial bottom line- then make a wise decision.</p>
<p>Here’s the dirty little secret that explains why life is so hard for families:</p>
<p>You won’t know the cost of attendance for YOU until you a) apply to the college, b) fill out the FAFSA/CSS and c) it is April of your senior year in high school. </p>
<p>Until those three steps happen, it is all smoke and mirrors. You will be encouraged much but promised little. </p>
<p>We had a tippy top student in S1. We told him he had to play some poker – he, like you, had some nice strong cards to play – but he didn’t have Four Aces (Four Aces would be to be a 4.0 GPA, a 2400 SAT, An Olympic Gold medal and a name like Bill Gates III).</p>
<p>So to play college priceline poker, you need to keep your heart and mind in a nice, cool frame – no falling in love with Wonderful College that you know, know, know that you would adore. You apply to Wonderful College. You apply to Big State University. You apply to Ivy. You apply to Sports R US College and you apply to Happy Valley/Suburban Branch College. </p>
<p>You carefully play the role of the prettiest girl at the party. You are polite and charming to everyone – but don’t leap in the arms of the first handsome fellow who flashes a smile. No, no. You want the promise of undying love AND the behavior that shows you are immensely respected (and the college can show you immense respect by delivering a very nice financial aid package to you). </p>
<p>Once all the offers are on the table in April of senior year, THEN you decide who you love. </p>
<p>Good luck. Don’t be starry eyed – be very smart.</p>
<p>^^What a great analogy. . .and soooo true! DO NOT FALL IN LOVE WITH ONE SCHOOL! Apply to a wide variety of schools. Apply to schools where YOU will be at the top and can get merit aid, apply to schools that have generous financial aid. Apply to a school that NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, you can afford to go and will want to go. And sure, apply to some dream schools. But you will not really know the score until it is too late to apply anywhere else (April in your senior year.) So, it is great that you are thinking of everything now and this forum has great advice. I am sure there are many, many students who wish they had had the advice of people on this forum before it was too late and they were looking at a whole lot of options that were truly unworkable for them and their families. Be smart about your choices.</p>
<p>I’m wondering if this young man should be considering some of the HBCU’s that give the best aid? </p>
<p>Or maybe some LACs that need more male AAs??? </p>
<p>He should also look at some of the Catholic univs that give better aid (not like ND, G’town, or BC which are hard to get into)…maybe Loyola Maryland?</p>
<p>Do you go to a Jesuit high school? </p>
<p>Right now, he really only has one “ace”…his male URM status. His cum GPA will be about a 3.0/3.1 and his Math+CR is 920…that’s rather low. </p>
<p>he really doesn’t have the “aces” to play “priceline poker” with colleges that a student with a high GPA and test scores can. </p>
<p>He really needs to get his M+CR well over 1000</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies everyone!</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids I do! I just started my senior year there today 
I’m only considering like 2 or 3 HBCU’s because they don’t offer much diversity. My high school has people from all walks of life, and that’s how I want my college to be. </p>
<p>I’m pretty confident that I can get my Math+CR score over 1000. I’m starting an intense 4 week SAT course this Saturday. Plus, my GPA should be very high this semester because I’m going to do every assignment and study like I’ve never studied before. Finally, I made a smart move: Seniors at my school are only required to take 5 classes. Most take 6. But I filled my roster up with 7 classes with one (Even more soon) being honors. This is going to SIGNIFICANTLY increase my class rank. I’ll probably be in the 70’s-100’s/357 by the time school’s over. </p>
<p>Thanks again for all the advice :D</p>
<p>Olymom, your analogy in post #15 is brilliant. This is absolutely the way to go. Please follow this great advice, Futuredoctor31, and take to heart the other guidance given on this thread. DON’T end up waist-high in debt. It will ruin your life and limit your choices. It will close windows.
Forever.
Best of luck. Keep us posted. We’re rooting for you. :)</p>