<p>I chose my school for many reasons regardless of my horrendous financial aid package. I don't regret it. </p>
<p>Anyone else in this same boat?</p>
<p>maybe you’ll regret it when you graduate and have huge payments just for interest</p>
<p>^This. I do know a few kids from my high school who chose various schools without the financial aspect in mind, but they were all sufficiently wealthy that their parents didn’t care. For everybody else…I think it might be wise to hold off on judging that you’ve made the right decision until you’re starting to pay off your loans.</p>
<p>No. I chose a school that gave me basically a full ride including all of my living expenses and I don’t regret it at all. I don’t have to worry about graduating with any kind of debt whatsoever and it turns out I really fit in well at the school, too. It may not be a prestigious school but it still has provided me with plenty of opportunities to get involved with research in areas of interest to me. I would hate to have to constantly worry about my finances just to go somewhere “better”.</p>
<p>I know many, many people who chose a school without regards to their FA package (ETA: I should say those who got bad packages- ie, they had to take out private loans). </p>
<p>I know 0 people who don’t regret it.</p>
<p>Yeah. In retrospect it’s a good thing I chose it (because it’s in-state!) but that wasn’t a primary concern of mine. But I am lucky enough to have parents who can afford it. If I was paying my way then I definitely would have chosen this school and likely would have gone to community college or into the military first.</p>
<p>Retrospectively, as a recent college grad, I can imagine a number of scenarios in which I would choose a college with a worse financial aid package. </p>
<p>It’s crazy how many employers are trying to recruit me now that I am officially affiliated with Stanford, who would have not even read my application coming from Bryn Mawr. Similar story for grad schools. I found out the hard way that some colleges do not have the resources to prepare their students for better graduate programs in some disciplines. I was lucky to have an Ivy nearby that made up for some of the academic shortcomings of a liberal arts college.</p>
<p>Of course it depends on your goals. An aspiring high school teacher might prefer the debt-free route whereas an aspiring financial analyst might be better off at Wharton.</p>
<p>Luckily its not a factor for me. Therefor I will be able to go any where i want as long as I can get in.</p>
<p>This is a silly thread. Yes, there are plenty of people who don’t worry about money when choosing a college. Where I’m from, we call them privileged.</p>
<p>I don’t think it is a silly thread, I think it is a fair question. For me, for instance, I didn’t come from a privileged family but tuition wasn’t my top concern when applying for colleges. I think it is perfectly acceptable to think about your FA package when choosing a school. BUT when you talking about top 25 schools, its a whole new ballgame. At this point, in my opinion, it just isn’t wise to say “I’m going to go where I got offered the most money”. </p>
<p>The way I see it, when you are a candidate for a top 25 school, you just cannot play a numbers game anymore. You have to think about what it can do for you in the long run. For instance, my sister chose to go to Harvard instead of various colleges that offered her a full ride, and came out of there with considerable loans. BUT she came out of Harvard making 160K a year, so my family thinks it was worth it. </p>
<p>I was in a similar situation when applying to colleges last year. I could have gotten a full ride at any state school easily. I actually turned down a full ride from Pepperdine and various other colleges. I decided to go to the ivy league school I now attend, and will come out with a lot of loans. People tell me ALL the time that I’m crazy and should have went to Pepperdine or somewhere else and will regret it. But I think it will be worth it 10 years from now.</p>
<p>I hope this doesn’t make me sound ignorant or like a snob, just trying to offer a new perspective.</p>
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<p>Ivy league grammar??</p>
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<p>No really. Take out $100k+ in loans (or whatever amount it is, but if you’re not from a well to do family, your loans are probably not <em>that</em> high) just because someone you know got extremely, extremely lucky with a job of that caliber. </p>
<p>And you seriously got into an Ivy league school with that kind of logic? No wonder student debt is crippling our nation’s young people.</p>
<p>ETA: I see that in another thread your parents make ~$85k. In most of the Ivies, you will not be graduating with significant loans.</p>
<p>Fair enough. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I’m not the kind of person who tries to start arguments on CC. I don’t think my loans are that significant either, but plenty of people I know think I am paying way too much for my education. Most of my friends go to community colleges to save money, and think they are doing it the right way. I know the example I provided was an extreme case, but there are plenty of similar cases that I have seen happen similar to that. If you don’t understand my logic, that’s fine. And I’m sorry if my grammar was poor, I wrote that post with a terrible headache and wasn’t paying attention.</p>
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<p>You’re right. The horror of not wanting to be strapped with debt for the next 20 years. Or not wanting to burden their parents with co-signed loans. It’s a terrible way to go about things.</p>
<p>I get the logic behind it, but unless you’re going to Wharton or Harvard Business (etc) and getting recruited by Goldman Sachs directly out of college, you’re not gonna be making $160K/yr or even $100K/yr. Borrowing tons of money in order to major in something that is not immediately profitable (e.g. engineering, accounting) is a good way to end up picketing in some park.</p>
<p>Anyone in the same boat? Everyone who goes to NYU.</p>
<p>Yeah, I decided on USC with a half tuition scholarship, which makes the cost of attendance roughly $5000 more per year than Berkeley or UCLA. My reasons for choosing USC were: 1) I am in love with this place 2) I can pretty easily graduate in three years 3) I got into the TAP prepharm program.</p>