Honors colleges at most decent universities are exceptionally good. A friend's daughter went to the honors college at Ole Miss and had a great experience. I would not think too highly of Ole Miss, but her daughter was a top student at a local private, and got a free ride there. Our guidance counselor at our private says the honors colleges offer a great education at a greatly reduced price.

I would go for UVM!! Your child will have a great experience, and a free ride is hard to beat!

This is so stupid. Take the money OP.

Definitely go for free undergrad, especially if you plan to continue your education. As a lawyer, no one cares where I went undergrad.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some friends of mine (from NY) have a child who was offered essentially a free ride at Lehigh to study chemistry. The child was accepted at Dartmouth, as well, and wanted to go there instead, no aid, or very little compared to Lehigh. So now she's at Sartmouth and the parents are mortgaging their house.

Take the money, kids.

Gonna have to disagree with you there. An Ivy versus a second tier school. That's nice of the parents to do.

+1

They probably just used the mortgage because there are great rates right now and they get a mortgage deduction on taxes. I would do the same for my kids.

Maybe they did a cash out refinancing? No big deal for those with good equity.

Ha! So true!!

Greater chance of going to med school from UVM. For some reason students (particularly women) who go enter UVA talented in science/math come out as teachers.

Anonymous wrote:The only people who say that undergrad doesn't matter are those who went to crappy schools.

Actually, no. I am HYP and have been researching this for my DC who wants to do pre-med and go to med school. The sites I've been on may be wrong, but they pretty much all say the school doesn't matter much (up to a point I am guessing). They look for challenging course loads and high grades. In addition to, of course, excellent MCATs, volunteer work, doctor shadowing experience, and "passion." Research experience is also a plus.

I went to UVa. It's not worth the money. Everyone I know who started out pre-med ended up switching out, anyway. I'd go where the money is. A top student is a top student.

I vote UVM - It is a lovely school and environment and to enter Med school debt free would be the way to go - my nephew expects to owe close to $300,000 upon graduating Med School - and that is ALL from Med School - ouch! Our DC toured UVM last spring and the marketing materials and tour specifically mention how excellent their medical school placement is. Something to look into perhaps.

No brainer - FREE and DK should get highest grades possible in whatever major DK ends up in - leading to great grad school entrance. Plenty of DCUMers went to state universities and landed at Ivy or top grad schools. Save that debt now for grad school later.

I would take the free/scholarship offer. The undergraduate degree school "name" does not matter as much as the work the student does and what they learn.

Congrats to your DC, OP. A nice problem to have. If it were my DC, I would counsel him/her to take the UVM offer. Free is AMAZING. College debt is such a weight on your shoulders. All of the money saved for undergrad can go towards paying medical school which isn't cheap!

Anonymous wrote:I would pick UVA for $10,000 a year. Better school and for medicine it does matter where you go to undergraduate. If it were more, I'd say the free school, but otherwise let your child pick.

No, no! The OP will get a $10k stipend from DC towards the full OOS cost of attending UVA. The net cost to attend UVA will be $44k per year (at least--the cost will increase each year). That compares with $14k/year at UVM.

So let's break this down.

Tuition, room, board, and fees at UVA for this year was $54,172 (OOS). Taking out the DC stipend, that's a minimum of $44,172 per year for 4 years or $177,000.

I'm assuming the full tuition scholarship at UVM means you'd be paying room, board, and fees. Those totaled $13,782 this year. So, a minimum of $55,100 for 4 years.

That's a difference of more than $30k per year or $122k. That's a lot of money.

My personal biases:

(1) I do think UVA is a better school than UVM, with a higher caliber of student (on average). Do I think it's $122k better? Eh, probably not to me, but the answer to that question obvious depends in part on family income, etc. For my family $122k is a hell of a lot of money. For other families, it's not so much.

(2) Do I think going to UVA will *materially* improve her chances for admission to a good medical school? I sincerely doubt it.

So I guess the question I would ask is:

Do you have this kind of money, or would this be a real stretch for you?

Anonymous wrote:The only people who say that undergrad doesn't matter are those who went to crappy schools.

That said, UVA isn't all that. I'd go UVM in OP's case.

(Greater disparity between Lehigh and Dartmouth)