I would stay on campus vs. live home. Going away to college is awesome.
You don’t want your parents taking loans at all if they don’t have to. The $200K federal loan limit - undergrad is part of that # - so the more of the $200K you can preserve, the better. If you end up in a different grad school major, it’s only $100K - except medicine and law.
My understanding is that I have until May 1st (tomorrow) to decide. While I don’t want to wait until the last minute to pay the enrollment deposit and accept my admission, I’ve been busy visiting campuses, speaking with students and faculty, and keeping up with my high school homework and AP prep.
Thank you for the wonderful insights!
As an aspect to consider, Santa Clara’s science lab facilities appear to be especially well regarded:
How to deal with AP or college credit from high school is a complicated subject that is the topic of a sticky thread in the premed section of these forums. One of the issues is that repeating a college course or AP credit can mean marking “repeat” on the medical school application, which can be looked at negatively.
@WayOutWestMom an you please comment on the reliability of undergrad medical school reported acceptances
If Santa Clara and UCRiverside are the same price for you I vote for the college where you can live away from home. Future physicians need to learn resilience, self-reliance, and independence and to develop mature decision-making skills.
If UC-Riverside is the less expensive school that would definitely be my vote. There is an adjacent med school, plenty of research opportunities, an early admission to med school program, and lots of local opportunities to do community service.
There’s no need for on on-campus clinic for you to volunteer at. Pre-meds need to get off campus and outside their comfort zone. They need to learn to work with people who are very different from themselves. Your future patients will come from a wide variety of social and economic statuses, different races and ethnicities, different religions and belief systems, different life experiences, different educational levels…
There are plenty of ways to make a large campus seem smaller. UC_Riverside offers special affinity housing for pre-meds In Glen-Mor. (Sophomores and up). There’s also an Honors hall (which you qualify for) plus several living-learning communities that welcome pre-meds.
Much of the college experience for upper middle and upper class families is the residential aspect of college. Although that increases the costs over living at home, one is unlikely to have the same connections and closeness with one’s peers if one does not live on-campus/very nearby with students. If building a social network (aka, networking) is important to you, I would not recommend thinking about the commuter path, at least not at Santa Clara. If you want to do the commuter route, then I’d consider San Jose State instead.
Can you share what it is about Saint Louis that hasn’t been attractive for you? Personally, it seems to hold a lot of possibilities for what you say you’re interested in. If I were in your shoes, it would be getting serious consideration.
Like Santa Clara, it’s a Jesuit university (if that is something that attracted you to Santa Clara). It’s even larger than Santa Clara with a little over 10k undergrads, since you have the concern that Santa Clara might be too small for you.
The bio department page mentions various research opportunities including in faculty labs, the SLU medical labs, and sometimes sister universities (several options in Saint Louis!), as well students part-time jobs at Bayer or the Human Genome Project. SLU is so interested in research that it created The Research Institute to really build out this aspect of the university and the school touts
In 2002, Saint Louis University joined visionaries who predicted St. Louis could become a hub of bioscience and technology innovation, founding Cortex, an innovation community fueling scientific discovery, entrepreneurism and economic growth in the region.
The SLU Research Innovation Group turns SLU discoveries into startups that aim to cure deadly pulmonary fibrosis, alleviate pain without addiction, treat cancer, diagnose hepatitis C, and fuel airplanes more efficiently. (source)
Per that same source, at SLU there’s currently a research focus on addiction/opioids as well as on vaccines, all things that seem like they could be of interest for a student interested in med school.
And in the honors program, you’ll also do a senior capstone project, yet another possibility for research.
In looking at the bioethics major page (which I realize you did not indicate an interest in), it indicates that they have service-learning courses which take place in different healthcare settings. Being able to get school credit and assistance in coordinating these types of opportunities is great for someone thinking about med school, as it helps to get both time in healthcare settings and in service work at the same time.
Should you shift gears like @thumper1’s kid, there’s also a biomedical engineering degree here.
And because Saint Louis is a major city (with much less sprawl than in SoCal or the Bay Area), there are likely to be shorter distances/transportation times for shadowing, service opportunities, etc.
Between United and Southwest, there are 2-3 nonstop flights per day between Saint Louis and SFO, so travel need not be an insurmountable obstacle (and when the COA is $12k less than UC-Riverside, that’s a lot of trips every year). And that leaves money so no loans for the family and potentially extra money to help for grad school.
I’ve done a virtual tour of Saint Louis University, but it’s the only school I haven’t been able to visit in person. Since I was born and raised in the Bay Area, I’m not very familiar with the Midwest or the city of St. Louis, especially compared to the East Coast. The net-price aspect is compelling, I’m not sure if I like St. Louis or not.
While I don’t personally have a religious inclination, I am very interested in learning about different religions and ethics as part of the university’s curriculum.
I don’t know how easy it is to switch IN to engineering now…my kid chose to double major at SCU, adding Biology.
I’m a California resident and if I’m considering out-of-state undergrad, but I plan to return for med school. Will my California residency status (for CA public med school admission) be at risk? Do I need to spend my summers in California to prove my intent to demonstrate ties to California? My parents were told we should avoid getting out-of-state driving license or signing leases. Also, would doing research or an internship (paid or not) or clinical shadowning/volunteering in another state during summer weaken my ties to California in the eyes of admissions committees?
Your residency won’t change. It will still be CA…BUT many many CA med school applicants go OOS to medical school because there simply aren’t enough seats in CA for all the CA applicants @WayOutWestMom can elaborate.
This won’t matter.
Not unless you establish an independent domicile in another state after college graduation. If you return to California after graduation live and work there, you’ll be considered a CA resident.
As dependent student (until college graduation), your state of residence will the same as your parents.
But, as @thump1 mentioned above, CA is very difficult state for pre-meds. More CA pre-med matriculate at OOS med schools than all CA in-state public and private med school. CA is the single largest exported or med students in the US.
No.
No OOS driver’s licenses, but signing a lease in a college town then won’t hurt you. Buying a house, however—that shows intent to stay OOS.
No, but CA med schools do expected that you will have some CA community service experiences to demonstrate that you understand CA’s social and health inequities.
It will be cold but it’s a great city with tons to do - from the Zoo to passionate baseball fans to the arch (which is a 1 time thing) to the very crazy City Museum. And great eats too!!
The politics will be much more right leaning - not the city per se but the state.
Maybe you can ask to speak to a student ambassador - and ask for another couple days to decide? Of course, you do need to deposit somewhere by tomorrow - but you can do whatever you decide and if you change your mind in 3 days (if you get an extension), then switch (and you’d lost the initial deposit).
Other than a lack of familiarity with the area, it hits a lot of your buttons. You might get homesick as many do - but you were going to Pittsburgh or NJ - so the only difference is its closer.
Thank you for the advice and wonderful support. I made my selection and paid enrollment deposit just in time.
What was your final choice? Congratulations!
After weighing all options, I chose Santa Clara. I would like to explore out of state for grad school, for now I am familiar and would like to study in bay area.I will wait for the UC San Diego or Case Western Reserve waitlist, hoping for reconsideration if the waitlist clears.
Thank you very much for your advice.
Thanks for circling back to let us know your decision. Wishing you a wonderful time in college!
My Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) waitlist has cleared, and I have been accepted to join the Fall cohort. I’m interested in Biology (premed track).
While this is an exciting opportunity, I am currently facing a dilemma regarding the cost and location:
- Financial Considerations: The net price for Case Western is $74,000 per year, which already includes a $23,000 annual merit scholarship. This is significantly more expensive than my options at the UCs or Santa Clara University (SCU).
- Location and Lifestyle: I personally love the SCU campus. Staying in the Bay Area offers numerous benefits, including remaining closer to my parents and the professional opportunities within the region.
- Pending Decisions: I am still on the waitlist for UC San Diego, though I am uncertain if that will clear.
Most people I have consulted are recommending Case Western. My parents have expressed that they are willing to pay the additional cost if Case Western truly represents the best and fastest path to prepare for medical school.
In light of this, I would appreciate your perspective on the following:
1. Would you recommend that I commit to Case Western now while continuing to wait for UC San Diego?
2. Given my goals for medical school, does the program at Case Western provide a significant enough advantage to justify the price difference compared to SCU or a UC?
I have visited Santa Clara University (SCU) several times over the past week to better understand the pre-med academic rigor and the level of support provided for medical school applications. Unfortunately, I have found it difficult to gather detailed information. Based on my initial observations, it seems that most students there take the MCAT in their senior year and opt for a gap year before applying to medical school. It appears SCU has welcoming faculty and nice, but a bit deserted in premed space compared to other schools (Pitt, Rutgers, CWRU, or top UCs) I visited.
Thank you very much for your time and guidance on this important decision.
You need to take “fastest path” out of the equation.
Many students now plan on one or two “glide years” before applying to med school. They get a job working with marginal populations (homeless shelter, soup kitchen), or they get a job in a lab while volunteering at a hospice center, athletic program for kids with physical disabilities, shadow a few different physicians with different specialties who work in different medical settings (mobile van clinic for families in homeless shelters, in-patient psych ward, office-based primary care, etc.)
You may or may not be ready to apply to med school senior year of college. And if the goal is med school, you and your parents need to understand the timeline– it’s often better to slow down than to accelerate.
I think Case is terrific. But if the additional costs mean you won’t have any family financial support for med school, I’d be concerned. You can’t spend the same dollar in two different places….
I would say no, and no.
Case Western is a very good university. However… IMHO it would only be worth the cost for a student whose parents / family could afford to pay for the full cost of Case Western, plus at least another $100,000 per year for four years of medical school while taking on no debt and with no family hardship. As I understand it, this is not you (and also was not us).
I do not believe that your chances of getting accepted to medical school, or your chances of being well prepared to do well in medical school, will vary at all in any meaningful way regardless of whether you go to Santa Clara University or you go to Case Western (or if you had gone to UC Riverside for that matter). Ignoring cost these schools are all very good for a premed student. The only caveat is that you might have a bit of an advantage if you attend a university where you will be comfortable and happy, which it seems applies to Santa Clara.
I think that your chances of being able to afford to go to medical school will be better if you stick with Santa Clara. I think that the amount of debt you will end up with at the end will be better if you stick with Santa Clara. Eight or ten years from now I think that you will be happy that you chose the less expensive option.
I think that Santa Clara is a great choice. If UC San Diego comes through and if it does not cost any more than Santa Clara then it would be a great choice also. If it does not come through, then I think that you made a great choice with Santa Clara and I would not switch to anywhere that is going to be significantly more expensive.
By the way, one daughter attended a university that is ranked quite a bit lower than Santa Clara. She was pre-vet, so of course took the full load of required premed classes (the required undergraduate classes are the same). She found herself to be well prepared for veterinary school, did very well there, and is currently working as a DVM. At least two of her friends from those same premed/pre-vet classes found the same thing with regard to medical school and are currently MDs (one is probably still in her residency). They all had taken the more affordable / lower ranked option for undergrad, got a great education, and are all currently benefiting from the lower debt resulting from this.