<p>Hi, I'm going to apply for US colleges this fall and I had some questions about financing my studies. The colleges I'm gonna apply to are:
Yale
Duke
UVa
Dartmouth
Princeton
Wharton
Williams
Amherst
Stanford
Columbia
Harvard</p>
<p>As you can see they are all highly selective schools but i believe i have a good shot at getting accepted to at least a some of them. </p>
<p>I'm aware that Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Amherst are need-blind for all applicants so I will simply apply for financial aid when I apply to those schools. The problem I have is with the other schools, some of them meet full demonstrated need to all students and some not but all of them are need-aware when it comes to accepting international students which obviously decreases my admission chances drastically. </p>
<p>I plan to major in Econ or Business with a Finance orientation, depending on the school, with the intent of going in to investment banking after graduation (hence the ultra selective schools). I mention this because it's one of the highest paying entry-level positions with all-in compensation over 100k.</p>
<p>My question is if it's worth taking out approximately 160-180k of debt to be able to apply to those schools without asking for financial aid? </p>
<p>BTW the loans I would take are funded by my government and have interest rates between 1 and 2 % as well as very favorable repayment plans.</p>
<p>I would not need a co-signer and I really don’t think it’s optimistic to assume that a first-year investment banker would earn 100-120k.</p>
<p>I definitely value your opinion but could you please elaborate a bot more especially regarding about the whole “if the loans were 80k” thing since really don’t feel 80k would be too much.</p>
<p>1) Where, exactly, are you planning to work after graduation? Can you make USD 100,000 or more each year in investment banking in your home country? It is extremely difficult to get long-term work visas (category H1B) for the US. Whatever you study here needs to be able to get you a job somewhere outside the US.</p>
<p>2) USD 160,000 to USD 180,000 in debt will take you a very long time to pay off, even at extremely favorable rates and in your home country’s currency. Run the numbers through some loan re-payment calculators and see just exactly how much money you will have to earn in your own country for just exactly how long in order to get rid of this debt.</p>
<p>Over in the International Students Forum, b@r!um has written about her search for colleges and universities here that would offer the aid that she needed. Hunt down some of her comments, or better yet, send her a PM. She will have ideas for strategies that you can use to locate colleges and universities here that could work for you.</p>
<p>It depends on what your job prospects are going to be in your country and how able you will be to repay those loans. It’s not a simple answer. A student who has a family in good financial shape and able to handle loans is in a whole other situation than someone whose family is already financially struggling. In this country, most students cannot take out much in loans on their own. When you are asking a parent or anyone to cosign, you are putting their credit, their financial and job opportunities on the line for a long time. If something, anything happens to the student, the cosigner is fully responsible for that loan. It’s a not a little thing you are asking of a co signer.</p>
<p>I’m not familiar with other country’s loan and payback policies so I cannot help in your case. You do need to understand the terms and implications of these loans very, very well. I’m from the dark ages back when I was shocked when some international students were beheaded for failing some courses at a military academy and bringing shame to their country.</p>
<p>after graduation you will not be able to legally work in US unless your future employer sponsors you. In order for your employer to sponsor you, they have to prove that there are not enough US citizens or legal residents capable of doing the job, which is not true.
So, after all, it is unreasonable for you to expect to stay in US after graduation. Therefore it is unreasonable for you to expect that US bank will loan you the money.</p>
<p>Also, even if you were able to get a job in IB in US (probably in NY), how much do you think your monthly payment will be on 180K loan? How much do you think your living expense are going to be? What will be your take home pay after taxes?</p>
<p>Quite frankly, if you still did not figure out that 180K is unreasonable (unaffordable) amount for you to loan even with expected 100K wages, then you should not be in IB banking.</p>
<p>@happymom
1)Ideally I would like to work in New York which I know may be very hard to accomplish due to visa issues and whatnot. My other option would be London (as much of financial center as NY) and yes that would allow me to earn the equivalent of >100k USD</p>
<p>2)My first year repaying the loan the total sum would be around 9000 USD and the last year about 12000 USD with it increasing linearly over some 20 years or so.</p>
<p>And to clarify I’m wondering if these loans are worth the increased admission chances. Most of the schools I’m applying do offer good aid to internationals IF they’re accepted. I do not consider myself a super strong applicant.</p>
<p>@CPT
Like I said earlier I would not need a co-signer and my family is in good financial shape. I’d say we are upper middle-class but when my parents have saved money for me during the years they did not plan for me going to college in the US.</p>
<p>@lerkin
The loans would not be from a US bank but from my government. And yes i have done the numbers on take-home and it would allow me to repay the loans.</p>
<p>I’m assuming from your name that you are from Sweden. According to Wikipedia (“Student loans in Sweden” article) universities are free in your country and students can also get grants of about $3700 USD per year and loans of $7000 USD.</p>
<p>Why do you want to study in the US when you would have a free education in Sweden?</p>
<p>The reason I want to study in the US ( I’m also going to apply to the UK where it’s much cheaper) is that it’s very hard to break into finance from the universities in my country.</p>
<p>Given that your chance of getting a work visa for the US is very near zero, it makes more sense for you to study in a place where you will have work permission. Start with that, and see what your better options are.</p>
<p>This is a family decision to make. If I could afford it, and could make arrangements so that my students would not be trouble with such loans, I would certainly tell them to go for it. Heck, I 'd pay it myself for my kids if I could. But…if I could not, and I cannot as things are for our family, I’d have to regretfully tell my kids that this is a bad idea. Not knowing your family’s finances and how they feel about this and if they are able to do the calculations so that this is a calculated risk that they can afford to take and are willing, then it is fine. It’s not our opinions that matter, but your family’s. If they are not signing as coborrowers, they won’t be on the hook, but to take out that kind of debt, you are going to need some back up. What does the government do if you don’t repay the money, can’t repay the money?</p>
<p>Will Sweden really loan nearly $200k for a student to go to college in the US without a co-signer?</p>
<p>I find that hard to believe. I think I remember helping a Swedish student last year and he could only borrow a much smaller amount. </p>
<p>If it were that easy to borrow that much, it would seem like all the Swedish young people would be flooding out countries with their borrowed funds.</p>
<p>Over how many years would you be paying these loans?</p>
<p>And how much would your “after tax” income be? sounds like you’d be living in some high tax countries.</p>
<p>You have no guarantee of getting an ibankng job. Even at these top colleges, kds compete or these jobs and only a small percentage get them. You’d probably have a better chance for London at Oxbridge or LSE. And do look at recent bonuses in banking-- pay is way down.</p>
<p>Some employers are pulling the credit of their applicants. In some jobs, having a lot of debt is a liability because you could be open to bribes.</p>
<p>i was in the same situation last year and applied for f.aid - now i regret not taking the loans as the only offers i have are waitlists - no doubt i could have got in if i applied full pay. now i will probably have to wait a year to reapply full pay- dont make my mistake.
in short, u should apply f.pay for only the top end unis, not worth 200 grand for the bottom tier unis</p>
<p>Who told you would have been accepted if you hadn’t applied for financial aid? Admission’s officers? There aren’t an abundance of enrollment slots at these schools; what makes you think they were stingy?</p>