<p>Here is my situation: I have gotten into Brown, Princeton and University of Virginia. While UVA is a full ride, I do not qualify for any financial aid at Brown or Princeton and the ivies don't give athletic scholarships. I would love to go to Brown or Princeton, but the cost of attendance would be around $60,000 a year. My parents can cover $200,000, but the rest, around $40,000 or more I would have to take out in student loans. Is this worth it for undergrad? Should I save money for graduate school?</p>
<p>I tried to get into Stanford because they have athletic scholarships, but to no avail. So here I am at a crossroads. I want a great education, and I don't want to give this up for money, but I don't want to set myself up to have debt when I come out of college.</p>
<p>I could also look at University of California-Berkeley, but it is so close to home I was hoping for something different...</p>
<p>What are your thoughts? What would you do? I hear UVA is a party school, and I am everything but a partier.</p>
<p>Virginia is a top school in most subjects (which subjects are you interested in majoring in?). Is Brown or Princeton really worth $240,000 more to you, assuming the conditions to maintain the full ride at Virginia are not onerous?</p>
<p>I’m a bit confused, since applications to most schools haven’t even been sent yet.</p>
<p>Do you have a chance to visit the schools? These three are pretty different, and you want to be happy wherever you choose. What about looking at other schools where you might get athletic/merit scholarships?</p>
<p>Is this a transfer? For first year admission, decisions do not come out until Dec for those schools at the earliest. How did you find out already. I am confused.</p>
<p>Brown and Princeton are phenomenal, but so is UVA. So it all comes down to this (of course you also need to visit): is brown and Princeton worth 250K? If the answer isn’t immediately YES, then you should probably reapply for grad school.</p>
<p>UVA without a doubt. NO undergraduate degree is worth $240,000, especially when one intends on going to grad school as well. UVA is an amazing school, and Brown/Princeton are definitely not worth $240,000 more.</p>
<p>I don’t necessarily agree that “no undergraduate degree is worth $240,000,” but I would certainly agree that no undergraduate degree is worth more than an undergraduate degree from Virginia and $240,000 change.</p>
<p>Since I am an athlete, you can apply extremely early. I received a “likely letter” from Brown and P and a rejection from Stanford. The rejection from Stanford was difficult, only because I have friends who are athletes with lower grades, SAT scores and who are less talented athletes but I’ve accepted it as a sign.</p>
<p>For UVA I have not applied yet, but (another negative) as an athlete I can be instantly accepted. I am very academic, and many of the athletes who go to UVA or Cal for that matter are not as focused on academics as the rest of the student body. </p>
<p>Those who actually go to UVA, what are your thoughts? What is it about the school that you love? Being from Cali, UVA does not have the same reputation it may have in the East. I have visited all the schools and I did like it. </p>
<p>For a career, possibly international relations, advertising. I’m not exactly sure. I am not interested in math or science, though architecture could be a possibility. I am a pretty talented artist. This is one of the reasons for Brown, the dual program between the school and RISD. My childhood dream was working for Pixar.</p>
<p>Art practice may require time consuming studio labs which may be hard to schedule with athletic training (depending on the sport). Also, art practice is a capped major at Berkeley, where you have to apply to declare it after having entered Berkeley as a freshman.</p>
<p>If you want to work at Pixar or a similar type of company, it would probably help to combine art and computer science.</p>
<p>But also note that, in general, academics are more likely to be compromised in higher profile sports than in lower profile sports. So if your sport is one of the lower profile sports, you are less likely to be alone in having a strong academic emphasis.</p>
<p>Athlete or not, I’m skeptical that you are all-but-assured admission to schools like Brown and Princeton this early. Regardless, I think you need very good, specific reasons to turn down such an offer from UVa. Save your money for grad school.</p>
<p>By the way, UVa seems to be very strong in architecture.</p>
<p>I was in the exact same situation except I chose to come to UCLA. I have some regrets but since I am a partier, I’m not 100% sure Princeton or Brown would have been a good fit for me. At the same time, I probably would’ve gone if I only had to pay $40,000 myself</p>
<p>I’m not exactly who you’re looking for. I was a grad student at U.Va. a generation ago; that’s hardly the same as a current undergraduate. But since nobody else has replied yet…</p>
<p>I liked Charlottesville. Life there is reasonably easy and uncomplicated; parking and housing are cheap and plentiful. In the late '80s and early '90s, there was enough retail in town that you could get almost anything, but there was just one of most things (one mall, one upscale grocery store, one sushi restaurant…), so if they didn’t have what you wanted in Charlottesville, you probably had to go to Richmond (about a 75-minute drive). For a town its size, though, it was very sophisticated, not only because of the University, but also because of the smattering of movie stars and other uber-rich folks who owned horse farms outside town. The town has grown a lot since I left; it’s probably more expensive, and it probably has better shopping and dining. But it’s still going to have nothing like the traffic, the cost of living, or the cultrual and commercial resources of Washington, DC, or Boston or New York.</p>
<p>Undergraduates tended to live on the grounds (i.e., on campus) as underclassmen and to move off-grounds as upperclassmen. There was a lot of drinking–the Honor Code, which prohibited lying, cheating and stealing, had an exemption that permitted lying in order to buy alcohol–and a lot of value placed on having a nice car. It was, as I said, the Reagan/Bush years, but I doubt that has changed. On the other hand, there were serious academics for those who really chose to take their academics seriously.</p>
<p>U.Va. is steeped in history and tradition. I used to say that the only thing I could find in or near Charlottesville that wasn’t named for Thomas Jefferson was…the Martha Jefferson Hospital. Social life for undergraduates (at least, for the undergraduates you might consider the social leaders) is heavily Greek and guided by Southern traditions such as wearing a jacket and tie (or a dress and pearls) to home football games.</p>
<p>U.Va. back then did not strike me as an easy place to be a minority. I did not think it was a very easy place to be Jewish, and I knew Jews in my department who were more religious than I, and more frustrated. I am sure it was not an easy place to be a social misfit.</p>
<p>When I was a student at U.Va., I did have occasion to go to Southern California, and I did find that U.Va.'s reputation didn’t travel all that well to the west coast. Here in the east, it is very well regarded; you’d never feel the need to say, “I went to Virginia, but I could have gone to…”</p>
<p>I hope you’ll find somebody who can give you more current information that’s more directly relevant to an undergraduate experience there.</p>
<p>Leaving your parent’s money aside for a moment, you’ve asked whether $40,000 in loans to attend Brown or Princeton is worth it, vs. full ride at UVA. To that I’d say, absolutely, $40,000 Educational Loan repayment is quite manageable over 10 or 20 years even if you should decide to pursue a career devoid of monetary windfall…such as teaching, non-profit, artist, etc. I would say $80,000 would not be worth it…my point of indifference would be at about $60,000.</p>
<p>Now, let’s bring your parents’ $200,000 back into the discussion. IF your parents would be willing to put 50% of their commitment to your education into a bank account in your name, no strings attached, to do with as you please at age 25, I would say take the $100k and run to UVA. Your parents will clearly be stretched to provide the full $200k, since they cannot do $240k, so they’ll appreciate the $100k windfall in their retirement as much as you will in establishing your life.</p>
<p>Incidentally, I switched from Stanford to UCLA way back when, for mostly personal, partly educational specialty reasons, and never regretted the decision. My GPA was higher at Stanford, the environment was easier to navigate, but my other reasons outweighed those benefits of staying at Stanford.</p>
<p>P.S. If Berkeley similarly offers you a free ride, then my decision would not rest on academics, but on the lifestyle found on the two campuses.</p>
<p>P.P.S. tk21769 – my niece was a recruited soccer player at Northwestern. Indeed, it is the case that Admissions at competitive DI athletics schools reaches decisions on athletes by October.</p>
<p>My student chose Brown over UVA, but that was the correct choice for this person. (UVA in state tuition vs full tutition at Brown (we are in that not wealthy but did too good a job of saving money status)). UVA is more “preppy”, in “conservative” behavior etc. Some would say more “country club”. Brown is more intimate, liberal, “northern” but friendly. Both have excellent academics. As an athlete, if you are in a “major” sport, you will get pulled between your athletic schedule and being a student at UVA. One BIG question you need to find out about is whether at UVA, if you stop playing your sport, whether due to injury, or just because you want to study more, work, just don’t want to, how does that affect any scholarship?
If that doesn’t factor in, then also at UVA you might want to find out if you might be an Echols scholar candidate. If you get that (based on your grades, SATs etc, you don’t apply, they just award it) then you do not have the prereqs, you have the option of a Echols scholar housing etc and it becomes a bit of a microcosm that, at least freshman year would be closer to the experience at Brown. (My student was awarded that, but still chose Brown.) It really is about where you feel most comfortable. If it is about equal, I would say take the free ride!</p>
<p>Sikorsky- it’s not quite as sleepy anymore. Name-it chain restaurants and stores abound (over by Barracks Rd.) I took my D1 to visit and the frats seemed so quiet (it was graduation weekend and a daytime visit.) I was struck by the fact that the area stilll reflects its southern social conventions- much “yes, ma’am.” Still, one of my top 2 favorite U’s- UVA and UCLA.</p>
<p>First of all, I’m not exactly sure where your athletics fall into play here. Have you been in contact with the coaches at UVA? You also say you’ve gotten into UVA but in another post you say that you haven’t applied yet. Which one is it? Unless you play basketball or football you’re probably not going to get a full OOS ride either.</p>
<p>I also am not sure I believe you when you say that you have friends with worse grades, worse scores, and less athletic ability than you who got into Stanford. Do they play the same sport as you?</p>
<p>Third, you come off as a bit of a snob. </p>
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<p>:rolleyes: Get over yourself. At whatever college you go to, there are going to be people on your team who are smarter than you and better at your sport than you.</p>
<p>Shouldn’t you wait until you get actual admission/aid decisions from schools? Virginia full-ride, hands down, if that’s offered. Have you discussed this with your parents? Save their money contribution to your education for your graduate school bill, when financial aid (not loans) becomes less likely.</p>
<p>Lookingforward, when I was living in C-ville, Rio Rd. was the extreme north end of town. Last time I was there, the north end of town had been developed just about to the airport. And even that was 10 years ago.</p>
<p>I’m happy to defer to anyone whose knowledge of the town is more current than mine!</p>
<p>UVirginia is a big party school and athletes are somewhat separate from the other students. Very different student body and campus vibe than Princeton and Brown.</p>