3 - College

Higher education is an investment in yourself, it will enrich your life and it may help you to obtain a more rewarding and enjoyable career. Education is, without a doubt, worth going into debt for - so long as you use the time and the money you borrow to become more educated. What many people fail to appreciate is that you pay tuition to be given the opportunity to learn. Whether or not you get your money’s worth is your responsibility. You have to study in order to gain the knowledge and skills that will enrich your life and allow you to provide a valuable service to society. Higher education is not about spending money to get a diploma. A diploma is only as valuable as what it represents. What it represents depends on how much you had to learn to earn it. If all you want to do is party, I suggest taking a couple years off before you start college. The last thing you want to do is rack up a lot of debt and bad grades, neither of which will go away easily: bad grades will make it difficult for you to get a good job, the good job that you will need to pay off your debt.

There is nothing wrong with not starting college immediately after high school. Taking time to enjoy your youth and figure out what you want to do with your life is fine, so long as you don’t waste this time lounging in your mom’s basement. George Bernard Shaw once said, “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” Most people find their calling while doing something productive. Whether you start college immediately after high school or not – continue creating yourself.

Think about what you want in life. If you are like most people, you probably don’t know what you want in life, even if you think you do at the present time. Nonetheless, the pursuit of happiness and the human condition are beyond the scope of this book. Think about how many years you are willing to spend in school; think about whether or not you enjoy studying.

If you hate school and studying, but want a career in healthcare, I recommend pursuing one of the careers that requires only a 2 year associate’s degree such as:

• Registered Nurse (R.N.)
• Paramedic (EMT-P)
• Radiology Tech
• Diagnostic Medical Sonographer
• Surgical Tech or “Scrub”
• Cardiovascular Tech
• Clinical Lab Tech

If you don’t mind studying and are very goal oriented, go for the bachelor’s degree. With a meaningful3 bachelor’s degree you can move on to do the following:

• Physician (M.D. or D.O.)
• Dentist (D.D.S.)
• Podiatrist (D.P.M.)
• Optometrist (O.D.)
• Veterinarian (D.V.M.)
• Physician Assistant (P.A.)
• Clinical Psychologist (Psy.D.)
• Pharmacist (PharmD)

Fortunately, you don’t have to decide which path to take on your first day of college. Although you can minimize the time and money spent in college if you decide which path to take early on. All professional schools have required college courses that must be completed prior to applying for or starting their respective program. It is a good idea to figure out what these required courses are and figure out if there are any pre-requisites for these required courses. This way you can complete them in a timely manner and avoid losing time and spending extra money on college tuition. Required undergraduate courses for most medical, dental, pharmacy and physician assistant schools include: 2 semesters of general chemistry, 2 semesters of physics, 2 semesters of organic chemistry, 4 semesters of biology, 2 semesters of English, and 1 semester of calculus.

Most professional schools also require you to take some type of standardized admission test such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) or Dental Admissions Test (DAT). These admissions tests are extremely important, so you should do your best to take the relevant college courses, utilize review courses and study review books before you take these tests. For example, the MCAT covers general chemistry, physics, organic chemistry and biology. These courses are also required by most medical schools prior to matriculating. Therefore, one should take these courses and then allot time to study for the MCAT before taking the exam.

Ok, so let’s say you know you want to get a bachelor’s degree, but are not sure what you want to do after college. Yet, you want to keep your options open.

How do you decide which college to go to?

Consider the reputation, success of their graduates, cost, available opportunities, and how well you think you will fit in.

1. Reputation

Reputation matters. Your academic record will be interpreted by future employers and admissions committees in light of the university where your academic record was earned. A 4.0 GPA from a little known university where the average GPA is 3.8 will be less impressive than a 3.5 GPA from Harvard. By no means do you need to attend an Ivy League institution to be accepted into professional school; what you do need to do is succeed academically wherever you go and make sure your success is evident in your academic record.

2. Success of their graduates

Find out how successful each institution is at getting their students into professional schools. Many schools boast a higher than 90% professional school acceptance rate among their graduates, but such statistics are often artificially created. An acceptance rate is the percent of students who are accepted out of all those who applied. Universities can maximize this percentage by discouraging all the less than stellar applicants from applying, thereby decreasing the denominator more than the numerator and increasing their “acceptance rate.”

Go to: http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/table2-race.htm for information on which colleges supply the most students to U.S. allopathic medical schools.

3. Cost

The total student budget of an institution includes the cost of tuition, fees, room, board, books and supplies. The average total student budgets for the 2009-2010 academic year are listed in Table 3.1. You cannot accurately assess the cost of attending an institution until after you apply, are accepted and given your scholarship and financial aid package. So, before you factor cost into your decision, wait until you receive your scholarship and financial aid package. Private schools often advertise very high tuition costs; however, nearly all students accepted at these institutions receive scholarships. You may think this is strange: if they have so much money to give away in scholarships, why don’t they just lower their tuition? One reason is marketing. It is flattering to receive a generous scholarship from an expensive private university. After all, you won’t know that everyone else was given that scholarship until after you have moved in, started classes and made friends. Also, be aware of the generous scholarships that are not promised to you each year. What may seem like a reasonable cost for one year may not be so reasonable for the next three.

Remember to consider disparities in living expenses among institutions. For example, your cost of living if you were to attend Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota will be far less than if you were to attend New York University in Manhattan. Also remember that all the money you borrow will have to be paid back plus interest. If your parents saved up $100,000 for your college education, you don’t have to make sure it is all spent by the time you graduate. You may want to have some money tucked away for graduate school, professional school, to start a business, etc. It may be worth spending more to go to a more reputable institution; however, it depends on how much more you will have to spend and how much more reputable the more expensive institution is. It may be worth saving some money and going to a less reputable institution; however, it depends on how much you will save and how much less reputable the more affordable institution is. The variability of cost and reputation among undergraduate institutions is so great that there is no hard and fast rule to help you weigh out those two factors. Ultimately, the individual is more important than the institution. If you find the resources and study hard, you can impress an admissions committee, even if you are at a “less reputable” institution.

4. Opportunities

You pay tuition to be given the opportunity to learn; the learning part is up to you. It is important that you compare the opportunities available to you among the institutions you are interested in. Let’s say you want to major in neuroscience, minor in Russian, play cricket and research synaptic plasticity. You should probably attend an institution that has a neuroscience department, offers Russian and has a cricket league. If you have your sights set on a professional school, you should make sure that the institution offers all of the required courses you will need and has a good track record of getting their graduates...