Send Me Through MIT And On To Medical School!

Hello all and thank you for visiting my page! My name is Kyler Kocher, I was born and raised in Mesa, Arizona, a suburb outside of the greater Phoenix area.

This past year, I was blessed beyond words in my acceptance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA. This is a school I never could have imagined of attending, and yet here I am! I plan on majoring in Biomedical Engineering, with a minor in Mechanical Engineering in order to pursue my goal of becoming an Orthopedic Surgeon after graduating! I will attend school in the Fall of 2014!

I am also fortunate enough to be able to participate in intercolligiate athletics! I have played baseball my whole life, and was drafted out of highschool in 2014. My number one goal has always been to study engineering and go on to medical school, and so I turned down the offer in favor of attending MIT. But I have not given it up yet! I will play baseball alongside my studies for the length of my time at school, unless forced to do otherwise.

It all sounds great! What is the problem?

With my acceptance comes one of the most difficult obstacles I have had to face: an ever increasing amount of debt, to the tone of $63,000 each year. Yes, MIT is extremely expensive. Multiply this by four years and I am up to $252,000. Once finished, I then immediately have to work to obtain the funds to pay for medical school, which currently run around $50,000 per year in tuition alone. My parents did an amazing job caring for me my whole life, and always made sacrifices on my behalf. However, there was simply no way they could plan for the incredible financial burden that is MIT; the cost is far too great. Additionally, I have two younger siblings who will be reaching high school in a very short time, and they will bring with them their own financial burdens as well. My family will do the very best they can to provide funds for my education, and I am eternally grateful to them, but there is still so much more to go. That is why I have come here to ask for your help.

But why not attain a scholarship?

Sadly, MIT has a no-scholarship policy across the board. Meaning neither academics nor athletics will help me to gain any funds through the school's system. Outside of the school, I have merited myself $3,000 in the form of academic accomplishments and an award for athletic participation in college. I am unfortunate in that many of the scholarships I have been offered require me to attend school in my home state, and are therefore entirely unusable to me.

What about work?

I currently work full-time here in Arizona, have worked part-time for all of high school. Once I arrive on campus, I plan on attaining whatever form of work is available to me while at school to help as much as possible. However, playing collegiate sports will greatly decrease the number of hours per week that I am able to work. I have certainly considered quitting baseball in favor of increasing my work hours; however, when considering my application to medical school, being an athlete will help to set me apart in an extremely competitive field, and greatly increase my chances of being accepted.

What are you asking?

Anything at all! Any little bit will help temendously and will be greatly appreciated. I can not stress enough how any contribution at all will do wonders for me!

Again, thank you for taking the time to visit my page! I wish you all the best!

Kyler Kocher