Is the debt worth more than the wait?

[Prkitkat]

My name is Pamela and I was recently accepted for the January 2021 semester at Ross University. I am struggling to choose between fulfilling my life-long ambition to become a Vet OR wait to hear back from other in-state schools I applied to for the Fall 2021 cycle (Illinois, Iowa, Lincoln Memorial and Western Health Sciences) because it is scary to imagine getting over 300,000 dollars in loans at Ross (plus interest), but I am also afraid to miss an opportunity to become a Veterinarian in case these other schools do not accept me. What would you do in this situation?

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[Quigly]

You need to compare the cost at Ross to the cost at your in-state school or other schools your are considering. Then you need to take a realistic look at your chances of getting into those programs. I don't think 300K of debt is ever a good decision for a veterinary degree, but obviously a lot of people see it differently.

 

[Angelo84]

My name is Pamela and I was recently accepted for the January 2021 semester at Ross University. I am struggling to choose between fulfilling my life-long ambition to become a Vet OR wait to hear back from other in-state schools I applied to for the Fall 2021 cycle (Illinois, Iowa, Lincoln Memorial and Western Health Sciences) because it is scary to imagine getting over 300,000 dollars in loans at Ross (plus interest), but I am also afraid to miss an opportunity to become a Veterinarian in case these other schools do not accept me. What would you do in this situation?

First of all congratulations on your acceptance!
I would suspect that if you were to not accept your offer at Ross for Jan 2021 and chose to wait to hear back from the other schools you applied to this year you could still reapply to Ross for the Fall 2021 cycle. I think it is unlikely that if you refused the Jan offer and reapplied for Fall 2021 ( if you didn’t get in anywhere this year) that you would be rejected from Ross on your second application. In your offer letter does it address this— Ie is there any wording that states if offer not accepted you are barred from applying for X timeframe.
So I think if you were to refuse the Jan offer you most likely are just delaying your start of vet school to fall Ie when you would have started if you went to a us school.
Assuming your other options are cheaper than Ross I would wait.
When is the latest you can accept the offer— maybe wait as long as possible to see if you get interview invites/acceptances in the interim.

Good luck with your decision

 

[johnthomasmd]

Knowing many people who went to Ross for their MD, I would avoid any Caribbean option until all US options are exhausted. I have heard horror stories about Ross and other Caribbean schools on the MD side. Profit is the only motive of these schools, and I'm sure its the same on the vet side.

 

[JaynaAli]

Knowing many people who went to Ross for their MD, I would avoid any Caribbean option until all US options are exhausted. I have heard horror stories about Ross and other Caribbean schools on the MD side. Profit is the only motive of these schools, and I'm sure its the same on the vet side.

It is not the same. The Caribbean vet schools are AVMA accredited and provide an adequate education. There are issues with attrition, debt, and logistics of and island education to consider, but Caribbean vet education is much less stigmatized than the human med side.

To the OP, I think you have to weigh how upset will you be if you were to decline this spot, not get into a US school, and then not get back into Ross. I am a firm believer that you should go to the cheapest option, but you also have to weigh a “sure thing” against something that might happen but is not guaranteed.

 

[DVMDream]

You can also ask Ross to defer your start date until the typical fall start time. Sometimes they allow it, sometimes not. But then you would have your acceptance to Ross and could wait to see if any of the state-side schools give you an acceptance.