<p>"Cash Rules Everything Around Me" Wu-Tang</p>
<p>I come from a middle-middle class family that takes in around $150,000 a year, but I'll still need to take out a bunch of loans to pay the $50,000 a year that going to Chicago will cost me, especially since I'm not really eligible for any significant financial aid. I guess what I'm trying to ask would be "Is Chicago really worth the massive debt I'd probably find myself in?"</p>
<p>have you gotten your financial aid package already? so you're sure, with 150k income, you're getting 0 aid? darn it. no hope for me then.</p>
<p>Maybe?</p>
<p>There are a few follow-up questions one would have to ask.
1) How much debt are you yourself going to be responsible for, after everything is all said and done?
2) Do you want to go to graduate school?
3) Do you think you will be entering a career where you will make back what you go into debt for?
4) What do you think Chicago will offer you that a less expensive university will not? (Different people have different goals, and the U of C undergrad education is of different values to them).</p>
<p>I'm sure there are more ways to answer this question, but maybe these elementary questions will help start the process.</p>
<p>"I come from a middle-middle class family that takes in around $150,000 a year"</p>
<p>...isn't that upper-middle class? I would think of mid-middle class to be ~80,000....</p>
<p>I agree with unalove. It will largely depend on what you want to do in the future. I, myself, want to go to grad school, so while I'm going to apply to Chicago, I have acknowledged that even if I'm accepted, it's unlikely i'll get to go because of the cost. I'm looking at Chicago, instead, for grad school (when I'll hopefully have a federal grant :))</p>
<p>Does going to Chicago for Undergrad help with the Graduate school? Because if I get accepted by UF, it'd be free to go there, so could I just earn my BA and transfer over afterwards if I get accepted?</p>
<p>wow, we are in IDENTICAL situations</p>
<p>i will go to UF if i dont get accepted at UoC and the cost will be crazy....</p>
<p>I am in the same boat, but I have an efc of like 30,000k a year. my parents already said no.. and my family makes around 90,000 a year. If I dont get to go Ill probably goto new college. UF is just too ughh ew for me.</p>
<p>really? 90K and your efc is still 30k? I guess I'm just shocked how much financial aid blows</p>
<p>Yes really. i am hoping i get some kind of merit scholarship, I am an URM and I would hate to be stuck in florida.</p>
<p>90k and a 30k EFC, wow that's a lot... Too bad we didn't poke one of the thousands of holes in Federal Aid.</p>
<p>Also, my parents have no investments, but Im not really going to complain much... I have applied to other great schools and I have a feeling it will all work out in the end.</p>