I posted here a few days ago trying to decide between a few schools, and have thought a bit more about my situation since then. I have narrowed it down to a couple of choices, and I am sort of between three schools. My top school right now is Amherst, but they gave me no aid, and have my parents down as “full pay” despite the fact that I’ll have two other siblings in college next year and their net price calculator expected me and my family to pay around 60k. I love Amherst, the people there, the environment, and the overall community. It’s great. My family and I crunched the numbers and my parents have determined that through loans and what we have saved that they can pay about 60 out of the 80k a year that Amherst is asking for out of pocket. They’ve also agreed to take out ten thousand dollars in loans, and I have agreed to do the same. So by the time I graduate, my parents will have about forty thousand dollars of debt in their name, and I’ll have forty thousand dollars of debt in mine. I’ll also be doing work-study on campus.
On the flip side of the coin, I could attend William & Mary or Bucknell University, and graduate debt-free. I don’t like either of these schools nearly as much as I like Amherst, but I would be graduating without any debt. So it kind of comes down to how much debt is appropriate for a degree from a school like Amherst. I fully intend on getting a Computer Science degree upon graduating from college though, and Amherst has a pretty great alumni network + CS program, so I’m sure I’ll be able to land a pretty high-paying job after graduating. But overall I definitely like Amherst a lot better than either of these schools, and I feel like a degree from there will absolutely be helpful as I enter the working world.
Any advice would be seriously appreciated- I am super stressed out thinking about this and would love some insight.
The maximum that you will be able to take out in government loans during your four years is about $27,000. For perspective, a good friend didn’t get her $36,000 in student debt paid off until aged 35, just after she had her first child. It takes years, maybe even decades to pay back a big student loan. It might be possible for you to earn the remaining $13,000 while you are at college, but plan on earning the bulk of that during your summers. I imagine Amherst will only allow you to work a max of 8 hours or so a week, quite common for many colleges.
If you have any grad school plans, you should consider that too. Personally, I love W&M. It’s beautiful and a top notch school. I’d choose that debt free over the others in a heartbeat. Bucknell is a good school too.
I love Amherst, but I don’t like debt. I am always one to encourage young people that have a choice, to make the most of the college experience at a a good school that offers you the most $. Once you have debt, it tends to drive the choices you make. You have less freedom and opportunity when you have loans to pay or worry about. Bucknell and William & Mary are fantastic schools in their own right.
One last thing is if your heart is set on making Amherst work, talk to their financial aid office and see if there is anything that can be done. I wish you the best!
Debt free is always the best option if you’re doing computers. That’s more money in your bank account. Speaking from experience, prestige is a non-factor in this line of work, because skills are based exclusively on hands-on experience. When you graduate, you get an entry level job based on whatever the market rate salary is for that particular job. If employers go higher on the salary, they could just get an experienced professional to do the job. As you gain experience over a couple years, you become that experienced professional and your value increases. I would recommend going with the debt-free option.
I have some scholarships that would help me cover the cost, but I have to see exactly how much they’d give me, plus I’ll be working summers to help out as well. But I’ll absolutely keep that in mind, thanks so much!
It feels like too much money to pay for your family even for MIT given the finances.
Amherst is great, but for CS Bucknell will be NO WORSE, and probably better than Amherst.
And it’s a better choice over WM
Do not burden yourself or your family with unnecessary student loan debt when you have such great debt-free options.
Many wrongly assert that there are no debtor’s prisons anymore; this is incorrect as debtor’s prisons have just changed form from being locked-up in a single location to dragging a burdensome, psychological ball and chain where ever you go & in whatever you do.
It will be helpful. But it won’t be any more helpful than one from Bucknell or W&M. There are no objective metrics that puts one of those universities meaningfully over the others in terms of overall education, alumni network or social, educational and vocational opportunities.
Most of us have said 'ooohhhh, I really like that one- but we have bought the other one, because that is what we can afford and it is good enough for what we need, v what we want.
I get that you like Amherst best. I get that you waaannnnnnttttt it. I get that not getting what you want b/c it’s not in the budget is hard. And, yes, a CS degree should get you employed quickly- and if you are reasonably good, reasonably well paid.
But: you have two top-drawer schools that are different enough that you can find a happy place at one of them- and can graduate from debt free.
Right now the money is monopoly money to you: you really can not get your head around the difference between servicing debt and being debt free. That’s not a slam: it would be unreasonable to expect you to understand it in a meaningful way at this stage of life. But hand on heart, the debt that you are asking your parents and your future self to take on is not worth it.
You can only take about $27k of debt without a cosigner, so really $53k of the debt will have your parents’ signature on it.
Given that they really do not have the money, is that really a good idea for either them or you?
What will you say to them when your parents tell them that their college price limit is much lower than yours because they are spending so much money and taking on debt for your college?
That does not look like a good situation to put yourself and your family in.
The computing industry occasionally has downturns during which it is difficult for new CS graduates to get jobs. Of course, many high school seniors will not remember such a thing, since the last one was before they were born (2001-2003 – a nasty surprise for the graduates who started their college majors in CS a few years before when the job market was hot).
I’ll take a slightly different approach here. Reducing it to dollars and cents, $80,000 in loans amortized over 10 years at 5% interest is roughly an $850/month payment. Your blended rate may be slightly higher or lower and there may be financing costs that you either pay upfront or roll into the debt, but the $850 is a good reference point. Now will you assume the full debt even though your parents are taking 50% initially or are your parents comfortable carrying the debt and in essence it becomes a down payment on your inheritance? I ask this because it will affect your personal cash flow by about $425/month. CS entry level salaries are about $70k, so depending on your specific tax situation (including state taxes) your net after tax take home will be somewhere between $52-56k a year or $4,300 to $4,700 a month. Expect your salary to go up over the course of 10 years and let’s assume there is no salary benefit in CS going to Amherst vs the other 2 schools. My conclusion is if this is your likely path, $40k in debt is manageable absent living in some crazy high CoL region. Also to clarify, is the price differential between Amherst and the other 2 schools just this $80k in debt or is it a greater amount, e.g. $320k over 4 years for Amherst vs say $120k for the other 2 where we really need to look at a $200k differential vs $80k.
Separately, what are the prospect of additional Amherst aid when your siblings start school? You should clarify with the FA office. What are the prospects of requiring less debt through summer work?
Now ask yourself is the Amherst experience going to be worth it? Do you think your chances of succeeding and being happier at Amherst are much higher than the other 2 schools? What if your interests change – you want to switch to another major, which school offers a better opportunity then? You and your parents could rationally conclude Amherst is worth it or not worth it depending on how you value and assess all these factors (and maybe more factors).
Will your siblings be in college when you’re a sophomore, junior or senior? Email Amherst and ask how that’d affect your FA.
But all in all, although Amherst is really good, it’s not worth debt when you have two excellent other choices. In addition W&M and Bucknell are different enough in environment and vibe (intellectual/preprofessional, historical town near population centers/pretty village in rural area, plus
Bucknell definitely work hard-play hard) that you should be able to have a favorite.