Hi! I’ve recently been admitted to BU’s January CGS Boston-London Program and the general communications program at umass, BU was a huge reach school for me and I was exctatic to get in. The only thing stopping me from committing is the price.
Graduating from BU will put me $80K in debt and graduating from UMass will leave me debt free. I really do love both schools, im just wondering if BU is worth the price.
Please don’t put yourself that far into debt to come to school at BU. This school is not worth it. I love a lot of things about BU, but I have my regrets about the price tag and other things. If you choose UMass and decide it isn’t for you, try to transfer to BU after two years. That way you won’t be paying $40K to get your basics out of the way. College is what you make of it, and I’m beginning to understand that we shouldn’t have to pay exorbitant prices to access quality education (and I honestly don’t feel like BU is offering me that much of a high quality education.)
bump
@pallasathene What is it that you feel like BU is lacking in quality education? I would go into about $35k of debt and I don’t know if it’s worth it or not. My other option is Florida State University.
I would highly recommend going the path that leaves you debt free upon graduation. There just is not that big a difference between the two schools.
@PallasAthene I have heard that from 3 other people who graduated from BU. The strength of BU appears to be in its city culture, not in what it offers in the classroom. All 3 people felt like numbers being slogged through…classes weren’t that great and professors didn’t care that much about them. UMass might also feel that way, however it’s at a much cheaper price. That said, BU can still be a great experience as it has a lot to offer in other ways…? It’s still on my daughter’s list…
@PallasAthene can you tell us specifically what is not worth it from your perspective? And what you love?
Go debt free! Absolutely! 80K debt is INSANE. Even if you get a decent job right out of school, it will take you approximately 30-40 YEARS to pay that off. Maybe more. And your monthly loan repayment amounts will be insane, limiting where you can live, your social life, etc. post-graduation.
Some perspective: I graduated from BU with half that amount in debt–approximately 43K. Half of that was private loans (the WORST kind), the other half government & BU loans. I was able to consolidate the government loans after graduation to lock in a good interest rate/repayment schedule. Currently, I pay $139 a month JUST for the government loans. In nine years, I’ve paid my government loans down to half of what they were–not bad. I’ll be debt free before I’m 40. My BU loan repayment amount was $50 a month until I paid it off (it was a small amount & I started paying $100 a month when I could to pay it down quicker). My Sallie Mae loans were evil incarnate. I could not consolidate them, and the interest was low-ish but variable. My repayment amount changed every month & was completely unpredictable: I had them do direct debit so I wouldn’t have to open up a paper bill every month and log-in to pay the varying amount. It oscillated between $150 & $200+ per month. I was paying between $400-$500 in loan repayments per month. That accounted for more than a QUARTER of my monthly salary (approaching half in my first, low paying job), and that was with a FT job during a recession that paid around 33K… many jobs, if you get one, don’t even pay that. My rent in Boston took up half my salary. I had scant left for food. I couldn’t travel or do much socializing–no extra money for drinking/going out. Luckily I’m a homebody & Netflix was much cheaper then!
Four years ago I moved to LA for a job with a nice salary bump… but my rent is 60% of my income (yay?) and it’s more expensive out here, so with the loan repayments it was still very difficult to make ends meet (worse than Boston, actually). I was living paycheck to paycheck. My sainted mother took pity on me two years ago and paid off my Sallie Mae loan. Basically, my debt transferred to my mother, who isn’t going to charge me $200 a month in repayment 
So I’m down to one loan, $139 per month… and it’s still REALLY TIGHT, money-wise, because this economy sucks, jobs never pay enough (if you are blessed to have them) and rent is ridiculous in any major city, but especially LA.
Most people don’t have sainted mothers who can actually afford to pay off a loan in a recession. If my monthly repayments were $400-$500 a month, yours could be as high a 1K per month. Unless your intended field pays megabucks, that will be incredibly tight.
So definitely go debt free! You’ll be able to live in a nicer apartment, go out with friends, even take vacations! You’ll be able to get married, maybe buy a house, have kids without going “I’d like to start a family but I cannot afford it because I am in my 30s and I live paycheck to paycheck.” Honestly, I’m not even complaining–I’m very lucky in that I have had a job throughout the recession and I live in a nice apartment in a fun city, working in an awesome industry (Hollywood). I’m just frugal on things, and compared to 90% of my friends I had the lowest amount of debt from college (I went to BU on a scholarship). I have friends in extreme dire straights (declaring bankruptcy; unemployed, living with parents, etc.), and they have debt from a time when school cost half as much as it does now. The bottom’s going to drop out of the system eventually (Recession Part Two, Electric Boogaloo!) and you’ll be so thankful to be the one without crippling school loan debt.
And UMass is a great school! I know many happy and successful alums 
UMass Amherst.