Unless you plan to get a degree in medicine, law, engineering or some other "professional" degree it's my opinion that college is as much, if not more, about the experience then the actual physical degree.

I do know that it is a world class city, truly, for medicine and biotech. 

And with the cost of phone, food, insur and medicine, even tv is no longer free, they may be living on the financial edge.So speak with them and let them know what the rent should be and how you plan to get there. 

It's becoming an extremely large medical research hub, including Nano-tech and regenerative medicines.

All interesting questions Joe, but they obscure the reality of the situation: the probability and severity of an event that causes loss of life limb or eyesight in REI is orders of magnitude lower in RE than in medicine, never mind open heart surgery.