<p>Earlier, I posted about my financial dilemma. I've written letters, emails, made phone calls, visited the financial aid office and more to try to negotiate for a better deal at Swarthmore. I've contacted both the dean and the director of financial aid in hopes of squabbling more money. Unfortunately, my efforts failed.</p>
<p>The more I looked to make Swarthmore affordable, the more it seemed impossible. Ever since my visit to RTT, I've been trying to convince myself that maybe I'll be just as happy elsewhere, slowly pushing Swat away. Undergrad is simply what I make of it, and med school will be what really matters in the end. </p>
<p>But as I spoke with my family tonight, we've started to consider that maybe my parents can pay to the best of their abilities while I take out $10k+ of loans in my name. My parents have always been about sacrifices, and I feel bad having to put this sort of financial pressure on them if I choose to make this decision. Binding myself to $10k+ in loans per year does not ease my anxiety either.</p>
<p>I suppose what I really want to know is...</p>
<p>Is it worth accumulating over $10k+/year in loans to attend Swarthmore? I feel that Swarthmore is truly where I want to go, the college I'd be happiest. But something tells me that it's more important to help my family out.</p>
<p>I'd like some advice from current students and any parents who are experiencing a similar situation or who are knowledgable about loans.</p>
<p>I'm not very educated in loans and such, but I do hope to make a wise decision.</p>
<p>Please please help as I only have this last day to really make my decision.</p>
<p>Swarthmore is great. And I don't have an answer for your loans question. But if you are serious about going to med school, you have to consider the cost of that as well when budgeting your family's money... </p>
<p>That said, most of the kids that are planing on premed going into college change their mind by the end of their freshman year (if not earlier).</p>
<p>We can't really offer what we would do in your situation if we don't know what situation you are in--what other colleges have you been accepted to and with what sort of money?</p>
<p>I was, in a way, faced with a similar dilema as yours. I had been accepted to UChicago where the total cost (loans included) for my family was $20,000 a year. Miami (Ohio) only expected me to take out something like $2500 in loans and to get $1500 from the federal work study progran. I wanted to think the appx $20,000 a year versus the $4,000 a year was, in the end, an investment in my future, but I don't think that this is necessarily true. Yes, a school like Swarthmore will help your future more than a not-so-prestigious college will, but I think a study (studies?) have suggested that in the end, it isn't necessarily the education you receives at an Ivy-leage caliber school that makes you successful, but rather the fact that you got in to such a selective school that makes you successful. Maybe someone knows of the study I'm speaking of? It basically weighed the $160,000+ total cost of going to an Ivy league school versus the much cheaper cost of going to a public school. In the end, the Ivy league grad didn't make enough more in their lifetime than the public school grad to pay for the increased cost.</p>
<p>I know the hype on this board would make you think that you have to go to an Ivy-league caliber school or you will be practically a failure, but the facts suggest that just having gotten in Swarthmore means you will probably be very successful in life.</p>
<p>This probaby doesn't help much, but as for me I was fortunate to get great financial aid from Swarthmore so I never did have to decide between Miami and UChicago, but until I received my aid offer from Swarthmore, I was thinking that I would have to end up at Miami. Looking a little while back, I'm sure that if things hadn't have come through at Swathmore, I'd be very happy ending up at "just" Miami.</p>