Talk me off a ledge

[Anonymous]

Villanova has EA, but the Colgate and Lehigh do not, so it's a fair question, OP, if your kid has some sort of hook (athlete?) that led to a likely letter.

So 180k, you are looking at 45k/year?

What type of school is preferred? How about someplace like Loyola Chicago? Lots of premeds at LUC, lots of merit. Or some mid-size schools that are lower in rank that might be willing to take a late application of a high stats kid, maybe a Gonzaga or Loyola Maryland, etc?

[Anonymous]

As long as it doesn't matter for admissions to med school, I don't see the issue. Why would you want more debt instead of less, especially if your child is happy with the school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many of you urging OP’s DD to go to ESU would send your own kid there, turning down Lehigh?
My concern would be that your DD may not be able transfer, coming from ESU, regardless of her grades.

I had my kid turn down Lehigh for a lesser school. Not East Stroudsberg but not too far off. Kid graduated with a $110k finance job. It’s not the school, it’s the kid. A smart, humble, hardworking kid will go far. That combination is in short supply today.

100% correct. Your DC has the work ethic, drive and ambition and unless there is something dramatic to change that, do you have reason to believe that your DC will not be as equally successful at ESU?

Now, think about taking that 180k you have and investing it for your DC. Your DC has a full 4-year ride, is successful in the health-related field, lands a job (or gets into a good graduate program) AND has a nice investment portfolio that is growing. That is the smart way of thinking about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many of you urging OP’s DD to go to ESU would send your own kid there, turning down Lehigh?
My concern would be that your DD may not be able transfer, coming from ESU, regardless of her grades.

I'm not one of the posters encouraging ESU, but to be fair, my kid plans on turning down Annapolis if he's accepted.

[Anonymous]

So no money for athletics? (Since I agree with another poster that it sounds like she has a likely letter from those other schools.)

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t let my kid go to ESU. Yes, gpa matters for medical school but the quality of the undergrad school is not completely irrelevant. If that’s how you feel op, take it off the table now so she has a chance to get her head around her other options, including those she dropped for vibe.

[Anonymous]

This was probably something that should have been discussed before a coach encouraged her to apply.

[Anonymous]

I get it. My kid is involved in a sport with surprisingly few NCAA teams. D3 would be the only option and we would have a lot of hesitation about it b/c you have to like the school if something happens tomorrow and you can't play/compete anymore. It sounds like yor kid likes ES, though, and a full-ride is not something to just toss away w/o serious consideration.

[Anonymous]

If you have $180K saved then I'm not sure why choice has to be between East Stroudsburg or other schools that are 80K a year. There are hundreds of school in between that might be a better fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t let my kid go to ESU. Yes, gpa matters for medical school but the quality of the undergrad school is not completely irrelevant. If that’s how you feel op, take it off the table now so she has a chance to get her head around her other options, including those she dropped for vibe.

Not from the area, but is ESU not just a regional public PA college? Why would that be considered bad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t let my kid go to ESU. Yes, gpa matters for medical school but the quality of the undergrad school is not completely irrelevant. If that’s how you feel op, take it off the table now so she has a chance to get her head around her other options, including those she dropped for vibe.

Not from the area, but is ESU not just a regional public PA college? Why would that be considered bad?

Ask the poster who was asking about Purdue Fort Wayne a few weeks ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pre-health as in nursing, PA, medical school, dental school, etc?

OP:

Not nursing but yes.
Budget in 529 is around $180K but we could bankroll a bit more than that w/o loans. The other schools would require at least some loans (and those are $80K or so per year schools).

The mids are ones that, after we visited, were too fratty/greek/preppy or just "wasn't feeling it" types of responses. These were the schools like Dickinson, W&J, Denison.

Zero interest, also, in the big state schools like Tech, MD, UVA, etc. Maybe for grad school but not interested for undergrad.

For a kid planning to go to any sort of medical school I would not turn down a full ride to take out loans to put them through Colgate, Villanova, Lehigh or the like. How do you all plan to pay for medical school? Worst case scenario she starts at ES and then determines she won't get the placement outcomes there she's hoping for and transfers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If she is really pre-health, this is idea. No undergrad tuition!!! Get a super high GPA, lean into whatever health opportunities exist in the area, and set yourself apart. Do well on MCAT and boom. I understand how you feel, but this may be a tremendous opportunity. For a business degree, I would have a different opinion.

This is the big fish/small pond approach. I went to a seminar given by college admissions officers - full disclosure it was a long time ago in a professional capacity -and they endorsed this approach to graduate school admission. If your kid is at the top of their class at ES, and they do great on the MCAT they might have an advantage over a kid who did just ok at Lehigh or Villanova.

[Anonymous]

Tough one. Has she visited ESU? I’d encourage her to take a second look at the “middle” ones she rejected, and have her take a hard look at the differences in opportunities and the quality of faculty and course offerings. Maybe even see if you can set up a call with an admissions officer so she can learn more about being pre-med there, maybe talk to alumni or seniors. And have her go stay a weekend at ESU. Basically she needs to have a better basis for rejecting the middle tier options than “too preppy” or whatever. She needs to actually inform herself about the differing opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How have you heard from Villanova, Colgate, and Lehigh already? You haven’t.

I don't know why you feel the need to sleuth it out but, for specific reasons, yes, we have. And, no, I'll not be adding any more context as it's not relevant to the question. Sorry.

I’m not sleuthing, but these are schools with ED, in which case you’re bound, or RD, notifying in March or April. If you’re fudging the details and the caliber of schools involved, which you clearly are, the question isn’t very interesting.