<p>These are my top two choices right now, and trying to decide which one to apply ed for. I visited both these campus's really loved bucknell and was ehhh with geneseo I guess I could live there. Bucknell would be my first choice by far if money wasnt an issue, but it is. My parent prob wouldnt be getting any finacial aid so I would be paying the full 50,000$ a year while at geneseo I would be looking at around 19,000$ a year. My parents would help me pay for Bucknell, but I would be forced to take out some loans, while at genseo my parents could pay for the whole tutition without taking any loans out. Is the education that I would get at Bucknell be worth the extra money? Should I go where I really want to go or follow what would be the more economical situation? Please help really having a hard time deciding.</p>
<p>Is grad school a consideration? If so, I would go with the no-loans for undergrad option in case you’ll need loans later. Have your parents put a dollar figure on their annual contribution?</p>
<p>Bucknell is far more prestigious.</p>
<p>yes i am almost positive i will go to grad school. They said they would contribute between 35,000-40,000 for bucknell leaving me with around 10,000 in loans a year.</p>
<p>Snaplefacts – I tend to agree with those who would caution you about taking out $40,000+ in loans if you plan to go on to grad school. I was curious as to whether or not you might be eligible for any merit aid from Bucknell, however. You can check out the merit aid criteria here:</p>
<p>[Scholarships</a> and Grants || Financial Aid || Bucknell University](<a href=“http://www.bucknell.edu/x571.xml]Scholarships”>Theatre and Dance Events at Bucknell | Lewisburg, PA)</p>
<p>Geneseo can provide a great education. The only negatives I have heard recently from students there concern housing, with many students being forced to triple this year. Perhaps some Geneseo students/parents can comment on how general this problem really is: maybe it is just a problem a handful of students are experiencing. And maybe you don’t care either way!</p>
<p>bump need more opinions</p>
<p>for most people, the maximum amount of Federally subsidized loans that a student can take out is about $20,000. There is a maximum each year that increases as you get older. That would mean you would need to take out $20,000 of high interest rate unsubsidized loans, with the interest starting to acrue the day after you sign for them. That second $20,000 of loans may end up costing you many times more than the first $20,000 of subsidized loans. </p>
<p>Run the numbers before you commit.</p>
<p>My parents said they would take a home equity loan on the remaining 10 grand a year at about 3.5-4% interest. I am willing to work long hours during summers and am looking to make around 5 grand a year which would leave me about another 6 to 7 grand a year. Its a hard decision running through the numbers, but I really love bucknell and feel that I would always regret not going there.</p>
<p>the easy answer: neither.</p>
<p>buying an additional few months to allow for your attitude on either school to change as well as yield formal aid offers from these schools (and hopefully others as well) almost certainly outweighs any ed admissions advantage.</p>
<p>that said, my quick thought: geneseo attracts wonderful students. it is also terribly underfunded. net of aid expenditures, the school posted total spending of around $20,300 per student last year. i have to go back two years for bucknell, but calculated the 2008-2009 number at $49,100. thats an enormous disparity for two schools of fairly similar size and focus. so… how does it impact geneseos relative ability to attract and retain quality teacher-scholars? its class sizes? support services? facilities? extra-curricular opportunities? </p>
<p>for example, a quick glance at class sizes from each schools common data set suggests that last year at geneseo around two thirds of the main section undergraduate ‘classroom experiences’ were in groups of at least 30 students. at bucknell, identical assumptions put that percentage at about one third.</p>
<p>how much do things like this ultimately matter? that is, how much is a smaller class actually worth (on average)? and how much is it worth you you and your family? those are the much more difficult questions, the ones i would be examining critically given what will pretty clearly be a significant difference in costs.</p>
<p>^^^ Thank you for the advice, i am prob not going to go ed to geneseo, but my guidence counselor told me my odds at Bucknell where excellent ed, while where regualr decision its prob gonna be a crap shoot. This is by far the hardest decision of my life. And I am almost 99% sure I wont be recieving an aid package my parents make just enough so it says they can pay, but in all honesty its hard to pay 50,000 a year for alot of people</p>