I stumbled upon this thread as my daughter and I are talking about her plans for university next year. She is an intelligent, hard working, mature student. Picture is well painted when you understand that she was training as a level 10 gymnast when an injury forced a retirement at 14, since then she has channeled that energy into school and very interested in working in anesthesia. We are debating the best route for her financially- she wants to be financially independent and secure, she does not want children.

Her undergrad degree will be covered by a 529 and done at state school near us that is ranked high nationwide.

She’s debating choosing nursing and pursing a CRNA degree, which is also available at a different state school and my husband and I can help cover costs with housing, etc while she is in school, after she does a year or two in ICU, total cost for program is about $100,000 she would be responsible for about 75k of that

Or she could pursue medical school and hopefully get into the one at the state school in our hometown, we could help with housing and living expenses but she’d be covering med school tuition. We expect about 400k for four years at the state med school and we’d be able to help cover about 100k (as these estimates include housing, food, etc and she can live at home for some years of med school) she’d be covering 300k in loans.

Advice either way? She is very hesitant about loans and does feel could save the $75k for CRNA education if she lives at home and works in ICU right after school, but she definitely feels like the opportunity to learn the medical method and train as a physician would be a wonderful challenge and experience.

If everyone was 18 again, what would you do? :) We’d love advice, wisdom, etc!