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2019-2020 Applicants


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On 9/21/2019 at 11:59 PM, PAlife1787 said:

Current student here, there are obviously good things about the UNMC program. I'm going to talk about a few financial facts that I wish I knew before enrolling. This mostly pertaining to out of state students. If paying for PA school is not a concern or if you are a resident then the below does not apply. 

1. As an out of state student you have to be aware that you are paying three times as much as in state student and you will NOT ever get residency status unless you marry a Nebraskan resident. (When my class matriculated, we were told neighboring states will get in state tuition and this was revoked.)

2. Non-resident tuition scholarship is a tuition discount for out of state students as the name suggests, the money comes from the school's extra revenue. Faculty usually advertise it to new students as a sure thing each year but that is not true. Some students get it, some students don't, it is completely up to the program with unknown method of determining how the money is disbursed. (Faculty has said that they do not want students to find out about each other's out of state tuition assistance because students that did not receive anything would feel it was unfair that their classmates got a lot of money and they didn't. To give you a ballpark, some students got $10k some students got $0, some students got 30k. Is this fair? you decide.) 

- Even if you get the scholarship during your first year, you may not get it the second year or vice versa. Unless it's in writing, don't believe whatever you're told.

3. Scholarships. Lots of Nebraska resident students with competitive grades can receive multiple scholarships, one of which is $10K per year of scholarship for which out of state students are not eligible. (It's a VERY good financial decision to apply to UNMC if you are a Nebraska resident. You can potentially pay only a few thousand dollars for the entire program. ). This means even if you maintain a 4.0 GPA, you will pay the full tuition. 

4. Support. There is no space for PA students. This is one of the few PA programs in the nation where the PA program is not a part of school of medicine but a part of college of allied health. This means you are not welcome to any of the medicine specialty interest groups and activities such as Emergency, surgery, OB. You never interact with Med students, you also do not get academic support. There is minimal inter professional activity as well. 

5. Program director. Have not had one since January 2018. 

6. Tuition. Subject to change anytime for any amount for any reason. The tuition is NOT locked in. Right now it is $120k+ fees for the program, right after you matriculate and lock in it may become $140k. You never know, and this has actually happened.

7. Rotations. Some of the other programs out there offer rotation housing reimbursement if the rotation does not have housing. UNMC is not one of those programs. Have funds set aside to pay for housing during clinical year as well as paying the same amount of tuition as didactic year. As an out of state students, it will be hard for you to already have friends or family in the Nebraska cities you are sent to. 

8. Retention rate. If passing PA school is something that you are worried about. I recommend you try to find students who had to repeat and ask about their experiences. If you want an honest response, ask these students outside of the interview time. The students at the interview will be first year students who really can't tell you much. The best information is from 2nd year and 3rd students. 

9. Faculty student relationship. With the exception of one of the faculty who enjoys talking to students casually, most of the faculty are strictly professional. This is not an issue unless you would prefer a more close-knit relationship with your faculty.

To summarize:

Be prepared to pay over 130k for tuition alone and understand that you are not eligible for most of the scholarships and do not count on the Non resident tuition scholarship to make it more affordable. Talk to the financial aid office to get an idea of what exactly to expect, PA program faculties do not have any financial information (they actually give false information, this is not intentional because they really just have no idea, the only reliable sources is the financial aid office). 

Here's for some positive,

US news ranking of PA schools does not matter in real life at all, what matters is passing and getting your degree. UNMC does a great job at this, the passing rate has mostly been 100%. 

If you have specific questions, feel free to PM

Yikes, that's good to know. Do you feel that the program is worth it despite all of this?

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  • 2 weeks later...
17 minutes ago, brand805 said:

Just offered to be on the interview alternate list. I'm not from nebraska or from a neighboring state so I'm not surprised as they seem to favor that majorly. 

I also offered to be on alternate list, I'm out of state too. Do you think we have a hope ? How many student will be on alternate list ? any idea  ?

Thanks!

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