<p>Just my opinion, but go to the cheapest school possible! </p>
<p>Everyone that posts on this message board seems like they're in top 2% of students academically. You all would probably be shoo-ins at your state schools, which are going to have the same opportunities/facilities/great professors as the rest of top private schools(with the exception of you guys living in states like Montana, sorry). If you feel like you're too good for a state school, try their honors college. Trust me, debt really sucks- especially a lot of it.</p>
<p>If you guys have rich parents or a scholarship... then disregard my advice.</p>
<p>I don't have one. I'm happy at my private school, it's really good academically and they treat us like kings. 50 thousand a year is quite a price to pay though. If I had to do it again, I would've gone with UCLA or Berkeley.</p>
<p>Just giving something to think about- price wasn't really a factor when I was looking at schools. Judging by reading most of these posts, it's not a factor for most of you either. I'd advise everyone to make it a factor in deciding.</p>
<p>I see that you're in PA (Pennsylvania). This is easy for you to say because in PA, there are several decent public universities. It's unlikely that a student would be a poor fit at all of them.</p>
<p>Many states focus all their energies on a single flagship. The flagship might be highly ranked as a result. But all the "directional" schools are often weak in this case. In these states, a student has no good options if the flagship is a poor fit for them for any reason.</p>
<p>There are also quite a few states without a single good public university.</p>
<p>Even if there is an in-state public university which is good and is a good fit, its reputation might be regional. This might make it more difficult if you want to relocate to another part of the country.</p>
<p>BTW, if you're not a California resident, Berkeley and UCLA are not going to be significantly cheaper than private universities.</p>
<p>Note that I already mentioned students living in states with limited/not great public universities... </p>
<p>(although Montana might not have been the best example; I just wikipedia'ed it and it seems like UMontana actually has decent resources,has produced a lot of Rhodes Scholars, and has a 78% medical school acceptance rate.)</p>
<p>Guys, I don't think the OP has ulterior motives here. If he's a California resident, he probably can't even imagine the kinds of inferior options some of us are looking at if we don't come up with big bucks to go to private or out-of-state public universities.</p>
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Is this a poorly thought out attempt at discouraging applicants to try to reduce competition and improve your chances?
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<p>lol. What the hell?</p>
<p>I'm a junior in college. You can look back at my post history to confirm this. </p>
<p>I'm not just talking about UVa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Texas, UNC, Michigan, and the UC's here; I think many people severely underrate their state schools due to the amount of mediocre applicants these schools select. Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Iowa, Minnesota, Florida, Penn State, Ohio State, Georgia Tech, Clemson, Indiana, Rutgers, Colorado, etc. are all among schools that run with the big boys when it comes to resources and academics.</p>
<p>The poster is trying to give you all some sound advice. You need to listen. Look at all your options. If you are able to get into a first tier school, a second tier may give you substantial merit scholarship.
Students who do not qualify for need based aid should be careful to consider all options and make finances a factor.<br>
Graduating with an undergraduate degree and a substantial amount of debt is not a good idea.<br>
If you look at the financial aid pages you will see posts with some estimated figures. I'll try to remember roughly one of them.
If you borrow 100,000 for college, your payment is about 1200 dollars per month for eight years.<br>
How many students are going to graduate with an undergraduate degree and the salary to pay that kind of money per month, plus living expenses, etc?</p>
<p>I've actually been considering this lately. I could go to UF for free (assuming I get in) and then go to a more prestigious grad school and not be strapped down by undergraduate debt.</p>
<p>I think the OP has a good point, however, I would change it to this: go to the cheapest school possible that is a GOOD FIT FOR YOU. For many people, an instate university may be a good fit, but for many people, it's not.</p>
<p>My state honors college--Penn State Schreyer Honors College--is $20,000. I can't afford that, and their finaid is negligible. I HAVE to find a private college with good finaid. So I think people should keep in mind that often private colleges can be cheaper than public universities.</p>
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go to the cheapest school possible that is a GOOD FIT FOR YOU.
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<p>I completely agree. Saying to just go to the cheapest school was an overstatement, sorry. I see a lot of posts here about the prettiest campus, best food, hottest guys/girls, etc. Biggest bargain should be another factor students should seriously look at. But yes, of course, best fit should always be the #1 factor.</p>
<p>Some of our in state schools are ridiculously priced i.e. UIUC - 28,866 for in state tuition (right from the UIUC handbook) and they give no automatic scholarships....it will be cheaper for me to go out of state or private for my education.</p>
<p>flipinpancakes: UIUC is relatively expensive as public universities go, but it's not quite that expensive. (The figure you provided might be the total cost of attendance.) The way UIUC calculates tuition is complicated, but it is at most $16,392 for in-state students. Tuition and fees for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences is at most $12,240 for in-state students. Details on how UIUC calculates tuition and fees can be found at: U</a> of I Admissions: Tuition & Fees</p>
<p>Possible alternatives which would not cost dramatically more for an Illinois resident include McGill (despite being an international student) and any SUNY campus (despite being an out-of-state student.)</p>