Hi all! Heeding wise advice from Dr. Gray and this community, I am looking to commit full-time to school (vs. working full-time and chipping away at courses at a local college on the weekends) to complete requirements for MCAT preparation and school applications.
Obviously, there are cost benefits to staying in-state. But I am curious if there are any cases/schools where it may be more valuable or cost-efficient to look at schools out-of-state?
Are there circumstances where out-of-state might be advantageous?
If so, any recommendations on schools to look at?
As always, immensely grateful for any input and this community.
I can think of a few advantages if money isn’t an issue. It may be worth going out of state if a school has a linkage program between post-bacc and med school but the in-state school doesn’t. It could also be the case if your state just doesn’t have a good program or if you don’t want to live where the good program is. While it’s possible to make the best of a bad program, I’d personally rather just start with a good program if I had that option, even if it means moving out of state. The other possible advantage is if you’re looking to go to a public med school and moving for the post-bacc will help you establish residency in a state where you’d like to go to school.
Sorry, you did mention cost being an issue. Well, you can see if there are scholarships to any programs out of state. It will probably always be more cost effective to go in-state if you don’t get a scholarship, but if the cost is close or maybe just a little bit more for out-of-state, then you may want to weigh the points I made above. Do you live near a state border? If so, you may want to see if schools in a neighboring state offer discounted regional tuition. This is what my school does–out-of-state residents within a certain radius pay a rate that is still more than in-state but lower than out-of-state.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and helpful reply! Your point about establishing residency for possible schools is a great point, and I was not aware of the possibility for discounted “regional tuition.” I will look into this!
I wouldn’t over-hype the “quality” of undergrad-level prereqs based on the location at which you get them done. The most important thing is that you do well wherever you are, and really that you learn the subject areas that the MCAT will test you on. An A at your local school will be better than a C at Harvard… Get a good grasp on the underlying concepts so you can apply them to question stems on the MCAT. Aside from that, the basic information covered in prereq courses will be pretty universal. Sure, some schools may teach better than others, but you’ll really get out of the course what you put into it. My prereqs came partly from my undergrad at an engineering school, one class from a local state school, and 3 from online courses.
I would not spend exorbitant amounts of money to take the prereqs. Sure, if you can get into a school with a linkage program, that would be beneficial. But the reality is that even schools with linkage programs don’t take everyone from those programs, and there’s a good possibility that you’ll be applying to schools at-large anyway.
One other benefit would be to move to a place like TX that has a strong bias towards residents and has a ton of schools. Most places require living in-state for at least a year to qualify for in-state tuition. However, I’m not sure if moving to attend a school before medical school will qualify you. Lots of states include a caveat that if you move for school, you’ll pay the out-of-state rate the whole time you’re there. Loop hole, I guess, would be to work and do school part-time. Maybe worth looking into, but this method is pretty extreme.
Really appreciate this important perspective, Kennymac. The priority of getting good marks is the bottom line, as you note. So with that in mind, I feel that the questions I need to consider are:
Where can I be most successful.
What can I afford.
I am comparing some in-state and out-of-state options, and with that, different models for curriculum and financing.
Thanks so much for all this help guys!
[quote quote=268080]I wouldn’t over-hype the “quality” of undergrad-level prereqs based on the location at which you get them done. The most important thing is that you do well wherever you are, and really that you learn the subject areas that the MCAT will test you on. An A at your local school will be better than a C at Harvard… Get a good grasp on the underlying concepts so you can apply them to question stems on the MCAT. Aside from that, the basic information covered in prereq courses will be pretty universal. Sure, some schools may teach better than others, but you’ll really get out of the course what you put into it. My prereqs came partly from my undergrad at an engineering school, one class from a local state school, and 3 from online courses.
I would not spend exorbitant amounts of money to take the prereqs. Sure, if you can get into a school with a linkage program, that would be beneficial. But the reality is that even schools with linkage programs don’t take everyone from those programs, and there’s a good possibility that you’ll be applying to schools at-large anyway.
One other benefit would be to move to a place like TX that has a strong bias towards residents and has a ton of schools. Most places require living in-state for at least a year to qualify for in-state tuition. However, I’m not sure if moving to attend a school before medical school will qualify you. Lots of states include a caveat that if you move for school, you’ll pay the out-of-state rate the whole time you’re there. Loop hole, I guess, would be to work and do school part-time. Maybe worth looking into, but this method is pretty extreme.[/quote]
I didn’t mean to suggest that it was necessary or even favorable to seek out a “good” program so much as to use caution when considering “bad” programs. If you have the luxury of actually choosing which school to attend, truly consider the quality of each program and see how that meshes with your expectations and what weight it carries for you in the context of other factors. Some schools don’t deliver on what they promise, and then you’re left filling in the gaps yourself. This is my current situation–having to read five chapters over the summer that my class never got to. This is hopefully an uncommon experience, but buyer beware. It sucks tho pay $1700 for a course and textbook and still be left with work at the end of the semester.
That being said, you can make any program work. Maybe there are other reasons that make an easy school your best option. For example, my school is small and has pretty good advising. I’m not getting lost in the shuffle and am able to forge relationships with professors and administrators. A few quick e-mails got me into three classes that I needed this fall, keeping me on schedule. That’s pretty nice to have and probably wouldn’t happen at a bigger school. At the end of the day, you decide how much effort you put in and what you get out of it. Just do your homework and know what you’re getting for your money when you sign up.
Appreciate the follow-up KRinMD! Indeed, quality of a program is going to hold outsized weight. So sorry to hear about your experience with what sounds like a course that was poorly-planned. That’s really inappropriate.
Love your points about looking to those other aspects of a program that could help you succeed, such as size and availability of support.