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<p>What difference would it make? Would you still recommend she take out $140K of loans for Berkeley instead of $32K for Richmond?</p>
<p>$27K of the loans could be Stafford loans. The rest could be earned by working during all vacations and summers. $8000 for freshman year minus the $5500 Stafford for freshmen would be $2500 remaining which should be able to be earned by the student. What a GREAT opportunity for the OP…a terrific small university with a great financial aid package.</p>
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<p>The difference would be there’s a chance she may not get WS or have the time to do WS if she is in a demanding major and she may need to use her summer to do undergraduate research / internship and the like where the money she gets will barely be enough to cover her housing.</p>
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<p>No. This is a strawman argument. UoR may be the better option, but is it the best option? We don’t know for sure, which is the whole point of me asking how much debt would she be in since she can potentially be in from 0 to $36,000 in debt.</p>
<p>$8000 a year, minus the Stafford loan leaves a VERY reasonable amount for the OP to earn working during summers, during school, and during vacations. It does NOT have to be works study.</p>
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<p>We do know for sure. In the OP, the poster states that there are two options–Cal and UofR. There is no third door. That makes UofR both the “better” and “best” options.</p>
<p>Honestly why the hell would you want to leave Virginia? I love it there ha.</p>
<p>But seriously, with Richmond being just a couple hours away from D.C. and being the capital of Virginia, as a polisci major it makes a lot more sense if you even think of going into politics. Considering your GPA, I would think you could get into UR’s polisci honors program ([Honors</a> Program - Political Science - University of Richmond School of Arts & Sciences](<a href=“http://polisci.richmond.edu/program/honors.html]Honors”>http://polisci.richmond.edu/program/honors.html)) eventually. Get to know people while you’re there (young and old) and I guarantee you’ll do great. Anytime you regret it think of the money you’re saving. By your sophomore year you’ll realize how much money that really is.</p>