<p>My parents have not set a limit for how far away I can go, and although they don’t like the idea of Bishop’s as much as a school here in the U.S., they have agreed to financially support my end decision. </p>
<p>I first found out about McGill by looking a list of top schools, and I researched that school a bit because I thought it was interesting. Unfortunately though, I found that going to school there would cost too much. Before coming to this decision, however, I met with a college representative from McGill who came to visit my school. This representative told me about Bishop’s and told me to look into the school because she believed it would be a good alternative to McGill for me. </p>
<p>So, I began looking into Bishop’s casually, and I found that the school really appeals to me. It’s far away which I like, it’s not far from Montreal, many of the professors at Bishop’s graduated from McGill, many students from Bishop’s wind up going to grad school at Bishop’s too. I also like how their program looks and that there is a research hospital right next to the school which interacts with the school. Also, the price is right. I would only be about 12k or less in debt if I went there. So far from what I’ve heard on this thread is that if I stay here I won’t have tons of options open to me because of financial hurdles. To me it sounds like I would have to either attend a public university here, or an out of state public close by. This is really not what I want to do, and going to Bishops allows me to go somewhere that I would enjoy without accumulating massive amounts of debt. And anyway, why is just wanting to go somewhere because it would make you happy not a good enough reason? If going to Bishop’s would make me happy, is affordable, and will still provide me with a good education, isn’t that a good enough reason?</p>
<p>Just sort of an update I guess…According to the EFC calculator my parents EFC this year was somewhere around 34k, and once my sister is in college it will be around 17k I believe. Will this open up more options for different colleges, or is an EFC of 17k still pretty high?</p>
<p>OP, you mention “biological sciences”, are you interested in a clinical career? If so, have you considered The University of Texas as San Antonio? They have an interesting program integrated with the medical school …</p>
<p>I’m interested in Biological sciences with more of a health concentration. So I guess biomedical sciences. The school I’m looking at right now calls it Biology Health Science. </p>
<p>And I’m not interested in the UTSA at all. I’ve visited the campus and it’s awful…it almost looks like an airport to me…</p>
<p>Oh also, another question. How common is it for Colleges to include large amounts of loans in their Financial Aid packages and then claim that they are meeting full need? I’d rather not take out more than the stafford loan limits, but is it possible for a university to also include parent plus loans and other loans in the package too?</p>
<p>I’m not even sure I’m applying to school’s other than Bishop’s this year. My plan was to apply to Bishop’s and look at other schools. Then once I get into Bishop’s decide if that’s where I want to go or if I’d rather stick around my community college another year to take more core classes that are transferable to U.S. schools but not to Bishop’s.</p>