So Hubs took Daughter for a campus visit to the safety/small state college she was accepted into. This is the school that offered her a 1/3rd tuition merit scholarship and is the only one that the pile of money we have set aside for her will cover the cost of the degree without lots of student loan debt. It is NOT her 1st choice school so she grumbled the whole way to the visit.
She came back fairly impressed with the school and the biology/bio-medical departments there. Her biggest concern seems to be now that this school is NOT in a large city like her 1st choice, so she thinks there will be nothing to do for fun. Kids.....
She will be bored for awhile but she won't be in massive amounts of debt when she is done there.
I think that's a pretty good trade-off.
Heck, knowing her, she'll be running this school before she's done!lolol
She also discovered that this school has a nice little perk. If she gets accepted into a special pre-med program there, she gets an automatic berth into an accredited medical school that is affiliated with this college. No having to interview or apply to medical school(she could still apply to other med schools if she wanted to)and no competing with the hundreds of thousands of other potential medical school candidates for the finite number of slots each year. There is having to keep her grades at a certain level through her undergraduate years but if she does, she's guaranteed one of the 5 automatic seats for graduates of her school into the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Well she will have to get a 24 on her MCats as well as pass the interview and get letters of recommendation too.
She has already sent in her application for this program so we wait to hear back. Please cross your fingers that she gets in....I'd appreciate it. ;-)
Of course, the $200,000+ she needs for medical school is another matter she can worry about 4 years from now.lolol
Here is some more information on this whole Student Debt issue. If you have any articles or stories to share on this issue, please leave a comment and links for us.
* A Video from Glenn Reynolds' talk give at the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism lecture series last fall on the 'Higher Education Bubble' HERE.
*A humorous column from George Will HERE.
* For the first time, Student Debt surpasses Credit Card Debt HERE.
* A podcast by Zac Bissonnette, who wrote a book about going to college without going into debt(while he was still a student!) HERE
* An article on saving on the cost of school by incorporating Community College into your plan HERE.
* If you put your college funds into a state plan or a 529, you need to go read this HERE.
Also, if you have a Coverdell Education Savings Account(not a 529), you need to know that they extended the tax breaks that were due to expire 12/31/10. The new end date for these breaks is 12/31/12...unless Congress extends the deadline again at that time.
This is something you should keep your eye out for in a couple of years if you'll have an ESA at that time.
Sluggy
