Again, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I applied to a variety of programs across a wide variety of schools and types of schools. Apparently one does do that because I did it. Was it a good idea strategically and from a standpoint of mental health? No. Was it a decision driven by a perpetual state of obsessive compulsions and anxiety about the future? Very much so, yes.
So we’re back to Davidson, DePauw, and Lake Forest.
Davidson & DePauw require no loans. If Lake Forest is your top choice of the three, then I would call them and see if they will meet DePauw/Davidson’s price.
Then, choose one of the three and enjoy college. Or, ask for a medical deferral and investigate other options during your gap year. But I would definitely try and secure one of your affordable options. And if you are thinking of a gap year, you would need to get permission from whatever institution you want to enroll at.
Absolutely no one would go to Depauw or Lake Forest over Davidson. I keep coming back to that.
OP, you’re not ready to focus on specific majors like film or architecture. You’re just not. Go to Davidson.
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Just my opinion, but either this thread is “not for real” as @homerdog suggests, or we are all getting roped into OP’s anxiety and OCD.
Bottom line in my view (which has been stated eloquently by many others) is to pick a school of those that are at low cost. Or take a gap year.
Not sure that continuing to explore new options is serving any constructive purpose.
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What do your parents say? They know you best.
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I think you missed the entire chain of what everyone has said.
You CANNOT afford BU, Loyola or any other similar priced school.
Line up the schools you can afford - those in the 20s - and choose one. You think they don’t meet your needs but they likely will.
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BU has started to meet full need as they calculate it to be. I don’t think this is a fair description of this university moving forward.
I agree with this.
Lots of meets needs schools still are far majority full pay. Tufts. Colgate. Midd come to mind.
My point is simply that they’re not going to match. As they meet need they’ve already done so. Most schools are need aware on the WL. So if they fall short on enrollment, they will grab full pay kids off the WL.
Just saying he’s likely gotten all the $ he’s gonna get.
At this point, pick an affordable school. Get involved in the film/media club. And have a great four years.
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My opinion. This student should enroll as an undeclared student…not in any specific major…because really he is unsure about what he wants to actually do. There is nothing wrong with this.
College is a time for exploration and figuring out what you want to do…many don’t declare majors until sophomore year.
Did you ever answer my question about the financial risks taking these loans might have for your parents?
Fully agree. This student has exhausted the conversation. Time to make a decision without more input. There is nothing anyone here can say that will serve as a lightning bolt of clarity. Probably wise to step off the merry go round here.
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No, a computer science undergrad degree would not make you ineligible for admission to an MArch program.
As I’ve tried to explain, you can get into any March program including the the most highly rated as long as you fulfill the program’s prerequisites. These most always include an art portfolio (not necessarily architecture) , some art studio courses and some art history. Many require some physics and/or some calculus, some do not.
A student with an undergraduate degree in architecture will in many cases complete the MArch in less time than a student with a degree in another discipline. However the rules governing advance placement and waived courses are highly variable from MArch to MArch.
Although it’s helpful for an architect to have a facility for drawing, it’s not absolutely necessary. A facility for computer aided design is essential, though, as the vast majority of design work is now done using building information modeling programs.
I don’t know where you’re getting the idea that I’m not ready to focus on specific majors. I’m outright stating what my primary career interests are, and they’re in these two fields. I’m interested in architecture enough to have taken three classes with that as the primary end goal, and I’m interested in film enough to have taken two classes and a summer camp with that as the end goal. I’ve done personal projects in both. It’s not like I’m pulling either career out of nowhere and saying “oh that sounds like it could be interesting.” I’ve done extensive research in both. As for Davidson, I don’t get why Davidson would be preferable to Lake Forest or DePauw when the latter two schools will offer me more free time to work on my projects and offer more interesting classes that are less “liberal arts.” Even those are too general and unspecialized even. No one yet has addressed this comment which seriously needs to be addressed before I would potentially decide to go to Davidson: BU (film) vs. Davidson vs. DePauw vs. KU (architecture) vs. Webster (full tuition) vs. UCLA (OOS debt) - #135 by 7Steps_22
And then you apply to 30+ colleges as a comp sci major…
Davidson is an outstanding, top ranked LAC with kids who are stellar students. The atmosphere is nothing like DePauw or Lake Forest. Our kids were both accepted to Davidson. Would never have considered the other two. We are in the Chicago suburbs so know them well.
They want me to go where I feel I will succeed. They also don’t really think it would make sense to go to a LAC where I can’t specialize in any of my career interests. People take out loans. If the definition of “can’t afford” a school is needing to take out loans, then it really doesn’t matter if I can’t afford a school. Loans are there and people take out loans to go to college. To an extent, I can’t just completely ditch risk and go with the safest route when I feel that route won’t set me up for success and will rather just be a repeat of the less than ideal situation I’ve already been in throughout high school. I also visited Webster University today and every admissions rep I talked to either said “go to UCLA, you shouldn’t be considering Webster” or “Webster is good, but if your end goal is to go to LA, then UCLA is probably the best option for you” AFTER hearing about debt. The guy I talked to the longest about this who has worked in film for many years stated that he took out over a hundred thousand dollars in loans, and while he is still paying it off (about $600 a month), it was more than worth it because he didn’t like where the other options were taking him. I’m not saying that’s what I’m going to do, but I am saying I feel that this has turned into a slight bit of an echo chamber about being insanely risk averse and going with the cheapest option for the sake of it being the cheapest option here. Given how little the liberal arts college options seem to serve me here, I really think I’m going to have to at least take out some loans.
And then you apply to 30+ colleges as a comp sci major…
This isn’t relevant because I have since determined what I am interested in as a career. I really don’t see how this could be a factor at all.
Davidson may be a top ranked LAC, but the question is whether it will serve my interests best. If I got into Harvard and wanted to be a VFX artist but they didn’t offer anything related to art, I would hardly see why Harvard would be the best choice. Isn’t it very common advice that prestige doesn’t matter?
Yes, I did. My parents already have the money. There aren’t going to be any additional financial risks because every single option I have will end up with them contributing 100k. The reason I’m getting frustrated at the end of this thread here is that everyone’s saying I’m very unsure about what I want and I have no idea, when I repeatedly am saying that I do have a strong idea of a couple things I’m interested in and I know that I don’t want to major in something that isn’t those things. Regardless of how much I explore my options at a LAC, they’re not going to suddenly have majors that match what I’m looking for. Come the end of my sophomore year, I’ll have to pick something, and if I go to a LAC, it will be something I don’t care about when there are things I know I do care about.
People are saying Davidson because of the academic rigor. But if one of the other schools you have been accepted at meets all of your needs better, and if you feel like it is the right place for you, then that is of course very important.
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I’m not loan averse when the loans are for graduate or professional school. In that case they are the student’s burden and it’s the student’s responsibility to earn enough to pay them down.
The loans that you are talking about will become your parents’ burden and responsibility no matter how sincere you are about repaying them yourself.
Whether it’s sensible or financial suicide for your parents to assume that much debt depends on their specific circumstances— their age, health, income, savings, other children, other debt.
Of course they want to help bail you out of this unfortunate situation (I.e. no good choices that your family can afford) but putting THEM in financial jeopardy isn’t a good solution.
You’ve 100% convinced me that you would make yourself miserable at Davidson, though your reasoning is more emotional than rational. I think the same would apply to KU’s MArch but for different reasons.
UCLA is not affordable. BU may be, but it’s really up to your parents to make a clear eyed call on the ramifications of taking on $57K in debt.
Otherwise use a gap year to gain maturity, develop some of those projects, explore careers, give back to your community. And, most importantly, craft a solid application list that reflects your interests and finances.
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Recommending you not take $115k in loans is not “insanely risk averse”. That is a payment of at least $1,100/month, every month for 10 years. It’s not clear what type of loan your parents will take for the $90k, if that’s the route you all decide, but 30 years isn’t common for student/parent plus loans.
It’s easy for people who aren’t going to be on the hook for paying off those loans to recommend going to UCLA or BU.
It seems you have made your decision…why continue to wait for some strangers to ‘address’ your comments, 48 hours before a decision is due? Time to stop the navel gazing and make a decision.
Posters are suggesting you are a bit all over the place because it doesn’t seem like you understand the potential arch degree pathways, for one.
Regarding film, are you even sure you need a college degree for what you want to do? Why not just go get a job in the industry learning the trade? Some posters have suggested that option but I don’t think you’ve directly addressed that.
Obviously tons of people in the film industry don’t have college degrees in film production, or even a college degree at all. You can always go to college if you spend a few years in the industry and it looks like it might not be working out.
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