Cheap State School vs. Private?

I am trying to decide between UMass Amherst Honors college and Northeastern University for a major in Finance. I know how amazing the co-op at NU is, but I would graduate with close to 200k in debt, while my family will certainly help a lot it will not be very easy to pay them off quickly. UMass on the other hand, my family and I would have no issue paying for. So the question is this, is UMass Honors Program for Finance a “well respected” enough degree to the point where I could find a job in Boston post-graduation, or would I be at a significant disadvantage in comparison to the kids who have had 2-3 co-ops from a respected private school? Thank you.

Never, ever take on that much debt for college.

That (above) is the disadvantage. UMass Amherst is giving you a leg up.

UMass all the way, don’t look back. NEU is a great school, but so is Umass Amherst and the difference isn’t worth more than say 40kish, give or take. No school is worth 200k in debt.

@PengsPhils thank you both for the responses, it just feels like a waste considering I’ve taken a VERY rigorous curriculum in high school and have done well. So now it feels like a kick in the balls to go to school with people who half-assed through high school but still get into UMass because it is In-state for us.

There will be plenty of other very intelligent students at UMass. You are not the only smart teen who is not affluent! Go in anticipating a good education and good friends and you will find them.

Have a brief pity party and then look at what you have and what you don’t ( the large debt) and go forward.

I would absolutely not go into that much debt for NEU, especially given that you are in the honors program at UMass. IMO the co-ops don’t get you too much – you can do internships over the summer and get pretty much the same impact.

@happy1 Well let me clarify, I’m not “in” the honors College, I am applying this fall. I have a 1400 for the Cr+Math sections, which is 100 points above the requirement. I also have a 4.1 Weighted GPA when the requirement is 3.7 so I just think I am in good standing for the Honors Program. (Knock on wood).

UMass Amherst is a decent school. If you do attend the Honors College, I’d imagine that that would enhance the value of your education vastly. NEU is a pretty darn good school, but not quite good enough to justify that debt. Go with UMass, it’ll work just fine.

@gdlt234 The one thing is, in 10 years, a degree from Northeastern will hold high prestige while I doubt a degree from UMass will get anyone to even roll their eyes.

I get what you’re trying to say, but NEU’s name isn’t wayyyy more prestigious than UMass. Is it more prestigious? Of course. More prestigious than the Honors College? Probably yeah. But it’s not as prestigious as I think you’re making it out to be. Even a school like Boston College wouldn’t be worth that debt over UMass. If we were talking Harvard or MIT, we might be having a different conversation, but we’re not.
Besides, just because UMass isn’t a top 50 school doesn’t mean you’ll be unemployable. There are like what, 2,000 universities in the US? If people who didn’t attend a top 50 school couldn’t get a job we’d be in a lot of trouble.

Re: post #8 That’s actually not my perception of the schools at all - it might just be my own experience but I have never thought of Northeastern in a “high prestige” sense that is significantly stronger than UMass. UMass is a huge school with an enormous alumni network, any resource you could imagine, access to internships and career guidance…

This is a fairly common sentiment from people who go to state schools and I can tell you that there’s a lot wrong with it. For one thing, don’t think of that high school experience as “wasted.” You didn’t work hard and take your education seriously for the sole purpose of ultimately saying you went to a prestigious college. Another thing is that at any state school - especially one as big as UMass - you are going to have plenty of very bright, motivated, intelligent, creative people that could have gone to prestigious private schools but didn’t because of financial reasons. That’s just a fact about state schools. And I guarantee you if you go into it with this holier-than-thou attitude that everyone there is below you, you’re going to be both disliked and mistaken. I don’t mean to be harsh, it’s just that I’ve seen this so many times. I know where you’re coming from - I went to a very rigorous high school that sends many students to Ivies every year, and I went to my state school.

@rebeccar Wow thank you, that explained how I felt word for word. I think I do know everything you just said, I guess I just needed an outside point of view from someone so thank you. The one thing is, I feel that UMass would also be a good balance between “work hard play hard”.

Why only those 2 schools? And how do u know NE will be 200k of debt-- have u tried the school’s Net Price Calculator (NPC)? Have you tried the NPC of other schools?

Many schools offer need-based aid and/or merit aid, and your net cost could be quite affordable and not necessitate 200k loans. I strongly suggest u look beyond Massachusetts.You may be missing out on many attractive opportunities.

We paid $152,000 for our house in 1991. It came with a THIRTY year mortgage.

And you’re considering almost $50,000 MORE that that in debt???

Where do you get the idea that NEU is high prestige? It’s definitely not a Street target (or semi-target) if you are interested in finance.

I don’t get Northeastern being prestigious, either. I’m from the East Coast, and Northeastern is just a random name to me. Maybe it rings a lot of bells in Boston, and good schools don’t all have to ring everyone’s bells, but how exactly is it worth that much money? That’s the equivalent of a hefty mortgage. A Finance major who’d take out 200k in loans? I don’t know what the Northeastern “name” would do for you, but I can tell you that if someone interviewing you for a job found out you’d gotten yourself 200k in debt, I don’t really think the offers in Finance would be piling up.

In 10 years if anyone is looking at your resume for where you graduated then you’ve done some things wrong. At that point they care about the work you do, not what school you attended.

And as @GMTplus7 stated there are many other schools besides UMass and NEU. Look here for some options which will be very affordable:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/

https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/umass-amherst-ranked-among-nation’s-top-30

I went to my flagship (not land grant, who thinks they are the flagship) state school, worked my butt off and finished with one of the top 2-3 GPAs in my department.

I got a prestigious summer internship earning what would probably be 4K/month today and had offers from Dow, Clorox, and a major consulting firm.

Plus my department begged me to stay for grad school, which I ultimately did because I wanted to tailor myself for a specific industry that wasn’t big corporate chemical. My first boss after that was a grad of my program, 8 years ahead of me. He hired me 4 months before graduation and promoted me within a year.

I moved across the country to New England and that’s the only place I’ve experienced school snobbism - but more because my alma mater was outside the Northeast than because it was public (for the most part … There were a couple of execs who were from private schools who had their noses in the air … Of course they also preferred members of their own ethnic group, SE class, and gender, so the school wouldn’t have mattered in any case).

When I had 5 years experience in my field I was making more money than my husband with 15 years. I share this not to brag, but to urge you to take the long view.

My advice - go to a state school and kick a$$ there. For gosh sake, don’t reinforce the private school tuition insanity if you can’t pay it. Vote with your feet and let someone else go 200K into debt … Crikey, that number doesn’t even seem real. Buy a house instead. Good luck to you.

I agree with the general sentiment here. It’s only worth paying private tuition if 1) the private school is not just better, but Significantly better than the in-state option, and 2) you can afford it.

I do want to push back a little at OhioValley16’s idea that you can just go to the state school over any private school, and just finish close to first in your class and everything will be great. I see this argument on here all the time, from mothers who say things like “my son chose to go to our State College over Harvard, and now he’s in medical school and that proves there is no difference.”

What happens to the guy (or gal) in the middle of the class is a more important question, in my mind. Because that is where almost everyone will be - somewhere in the middle. And the middle of the class at Harvard has significantly different options than the middle of the class at any state college, even Berkeley and Michigan. And no, the fact that you intend to work hard in the future does not guarantee that you will be first in your class, anywhere.

But be that as it may, I don’t see the point of taking on a lot of debt to go to Northeastern over UMass. Of course, if your family has the money, you can choose what you want.