<p>I am a college graduate who accepted a full ride scholarship to a liberal arts college on the “second tier” (currently ranked somewhere around #75) over Emory, who accepted me but didn’t give me very much financial aid. Like you, had I chosen Emory, even if i had been able to afford it I would’ve been plunged deeply into debt. By the time I graduated I likely would’ve owed over $100,000. Columbia was my dream school for undergrad, but I didn’t even apply because I knew my family couldn’t afford it and I didn’t want to torture myself.</p>
<p>I LOVED my experience at my LAC. I made a lot of friends; I thrived and grew there. I got involved with research, which I have discovered is a passion of mine. I had a lot of fun – I partied, I stayed with my local boyfriend (we’re engaged now!), I studied abroad. All the things that you can do at virtually any college across the country. The idea that if you go to a college at which your credentials exceed the majority of students, you will be unchallenged, is a myth. My undergradate college challenged me in so many ways; it transformed my thinking in the tradition of the liberal arts college. One thing that you will learn in college and beyond is that your high school GPA and SAT scores just DO NOT MATTER in the grand scheme of life. People’s scores aren’t written on their foreheads, and I don’t see my peers in undergrad as any different from the undergrads that I see here at Columbia. </p>
<p>I graduated with honors last spring and I am currently pursuing a Ph.D at – guess where? – Columbia! I absolutely love it here, but I am glad that I did not come here as an undergrad, because now I get to have the experience of New York as a certified self-supporting adult, and plus I get to have it as my Ph.D institution on my CV/resume when I am looking for jobs in 5-6 years.</p>
<p>The truth is, your undergraduate college matters much less than what you do there. If you have “high dreams of discovering, researching, or leading” and you have the talent and ambition required – or at least the motivation to acquire the skills to do so – then you will do it regardless of where you go! A vast number of leaders in all fields did NOT attend Ivy League universities for undergrad. The idea that graduates of colleges outside of the Ivy League and other expensive private schools are destined for mediocrity is a false one, borne out by people with little experience in the world. (Case in point: the majority of the graduate students that I know here did NOT attend Ivy League universities or other top elite privates for undergrad.)</p>
<p>However, let me tell you something about being debt-free. I borrowed a small amount of loans for miscellaneous expenses – far more than I needed, in retrospect, but still much smaller than what my peers were borrowing for their education at my LAC. My loans are currently in deferment and I had to borrow a little to get me started here in graduate school. When I graduate, even if I get a job that pays $50,000 a year (which is lower than what I expect with a Ph.D from Columbia!) I can still pay off my student loans in 5 years, which is my goal. No 10-year repayment for me and no huge monthly payments! If I pay my loans off in 5 years, my monthly payments will be just short of $400 a month. This gives me the freedom to choose from a large range of positions within my field that are available to Ph.D graduates, not motivated by salary considerations. It is great not to have student loan debt the size of a mortgage looming over my head before I even get started in life, really!</p>
<p>I’m not telling you to pick Pitt (it may seem llike it, but I honestly am not). I want you to pick where you want to go, and what seems the best for you and your family. But, I want to reassure you that you shouldn’t feel bad for turning down Columbia (for now) because you and your family can’t afford it. You can get a fantastic education for you at Pitt, if you want it. And turning it down now will possibly open up possibilities later for you that you couldn’t afford if you had gone to Columbia and gotten yourself into debt (ex - I thought about teaching abroad after college, and I didn’t even think about my student loan debt. Student loans don’t go into deferral just because you take a low-paying job, but my payment would’ve been less than $100 a month.) And I’m not convinced that going to Columbia will open up so many more possibilities that outweigh the debt.</p>