<p>Money is a problem (but not significantly).
I live in MD but I am in love with Boston.</p>
<p>UMD only gave me 6000 in loans, but I got into the honors program.</p>
<p>BU gave me a 26000 grant and some loans, and I would be in the school of education.</p>
<p>Smith offered me around the same amount as BU, but its all-girls.</p>
<p>I also got into UCLA, NYU, MCPHS, and Northeastern.</p>
<p>My mother and father do not want me to go to BU because they want me to go to a school with a higher academics ranking.</p>
<p>What should I do?</p>
<p>Ignore your parents, this is the next four years of your life, not theirs. </p>
<p>Visit the schools and see which one fits.</p>
<p>UMD costs what? About $18k, maybe a little more. BU & Smith would run you $24k - including loans - so UMD is your cheapest option. </p>
<p>My way of looking at this would be:</p>
<ol>
<li>Consider how much each school costs. The differences between those above are $24k+ over 4 years, again counting loans. The difference is less if you include loans but you do have to pay those back and that can be a real drain on your life. If you have to pay full freight for UCLA or NYU, I’d cross them off right away. You’d be talking $200k versus $80-100k. That difference is huge and if it’s borrowed, imagine how much cash would go toward paying the debt. (If the loans would be yours, do you want to come out of pocket $8-12k a year to pay debt. Think how that would crimp your life!)</li>
<li>Consider what you’re interested in. You mention Ed. BU has a long ed history but I’ll bet UMD does fine with that. I don’t know about the others or what you may think.</li>
<li>Consider what you want in relation to these points first. Prestige is a weird word that gets way too much play. Without going on too much, there are 3 basic concerns:</li>
</ol>
<p>a. Does it matter to you? Is your self-worth affected by prestige? Remember, we’re talking relative prestige between good schools with good names, not Harvard versus Community College.
b. Will it earn you more? I’ve said this many times: it’s the kid, not the school. Beyond that, it depends on aspirations and your field. In real life, what matters most is grad school: academics get jobs based on their grad school and that difference lasts for about a decade. Better name law schools yield higher paying jobs. Not really true for med schools and in some fields the best grad programs are not where one might imagine - but that’s something you learn as you go through your program. Again, relative prestige matters what in America? I’d say not much at all because this is an open society with a lot of social and physical mobility. What you make of your life is up to you (and fate).
c. Will you get a better education? No. That’s the simple, undeniable truth. You will not get a better education because you pick x school over y. Again, we’re not comparing community college to the Ivy League. These are solid institutions and if you want to get an education you will.</p>
<p>agree with Lergnom. Especially if you’re planning on doing education. BU’s School of Ed is awesome…the job placement is incredible. You’ll also be doing student teaching your senior year, so you can start right when you graduate. And prestige really doesn’t matter if you want to be a teacher. It’s all about you.</p>