Cheap VS. Expensive Universities

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>So I applied to about 12 schools (a lot, I know). I've been accepted 8 out of 12 and i'm waiting to hear back from 4 more schools. </p>

<p>I plan to study Broadcast Journalism. I'm not here to hear that it's a bad major/ not a lot of money etc etc. It's what I want to do, but I plan to go on to law school, and i'll probably have a double major during my undergrad. </p>

<p>Here's my Question,</p>

<p>One of my schools is not as well known. It's not that great, but they accepted me into their honors program. The majority of the kids in it are amazing and smart, and frankly, I would love to take classes with them. It has the artsy aspect that I wanted from a school, but it's in the country-side (well, i'm a city girl so i'm not sure what the country-side looks like. There was one farm on the way there, other than that it was like a mini town). The issue is that it's not as well known and i'm not sure if it will get me where I need to be...did I also tell you that it would it cost me anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 to attend that school per year?</p>

<p>My other schools are great. They are well known. I know that they'll get me where I need to be, no question about it. They have everything I want from a school, city life, hands on classes etc etc. What's the issue then? They would cost anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 a year. </p>

<p>What's a kid to do? </p>

<p>Here's the basic question,
Tons of Loans, High Price, Great Education, Great Opportunities VS. Low Price-tag, almost no loans, unsure of the education, honors program</p>

<p>what would you do/advise?
If it was you or your child in this situation how would you advise them? My parents are ready to ship me off to the cheaper school, but i'm just afraid that it won't get me where I want to be (CNN/ Access Hollywood/ E!/ MSNBC).</p>

2

<p>Journalism? CHeaper school definitely. Actually, for most majors, cheaper school, especially since you seem to like the cheaper schoo. The high priced schools are not guaranteed to get you a job faster or higher paying after college, but are guaranteed to leave you with a lot of debt to pay off. Don’t do the debt if you do not have to. And that is my word of advice…</p>

3

<p>I like the higher priced one a bit more. Also, the school in question is a top ranked private journalism school…that’s what I meant by it having a better ability to get me to where I need to be. The other one is a top ten liberal arts public school.</p>

4

<p>lots of loans? </p>

<p>Bad idea.</p>

<p>How much would you borrow each year? </p>

<p>Who would co-sign those loans?</p>

<p>Who would pay them back?</p>

5

<p>I would pay them back. My parents would co-sign them (if they agree, which at the moment they’re thinking about).</p>

<p>The schools are giving me $5,000 loans. They expect me to pay about $20,000 out of pocket which is not possible for my family. So all of that would be in loans PLUS the loans they gave me in my financial aid packet.</p>

<p>I honestly wouldn’t mind going to the school that will leave me about $20,000 in debt after 4 years total. I’m just afraid that it won’t have what I need. That’s the only reason why I’m considering this option. I also really loved my other schools, and this one was a last minute add on. My expensive school would leave me around $60,000 in debt. :/</p>

6

<p>You may want to think long and hard before going to law school.</p>

<p>It is three years.</p>

<p>It is a LOT of money.</p>

<p>And there is a vast over-supply of lawyers out there.</p>

<p>There are scores of posts on CC about the perils of going to law school.</p>

<p>That doesn’t mean it is a bad idea for you-----but if you go that route, you should at least be aware of all the negatives (and there are many).</p>

7

<p>I don’t want to be a lawyer. It was my mom’s idea, tbh. I would rather study public policy, poli-sci, sociology…things that could supplement me being a journalist. I want to report about people, so I want to understand them. I’m doing law to appease my mother. </p>

<p>We have this thing in our family where everybody has to get a doctorate degree. My parents will support me until I finish. </p>

<p>I’ve also been told of opportunities to take my grad school classes for free by some of my teachers who have done so. </p>

<p>I’m really just worried about my undergrad as of now.</p>

8

<p>but thank you for the advice so far! :D</p>

9

<p>If you have about $5k in student loans…and then you need to borrow another $20k, then why do you say that you’d have about $60k in debt? Wouldn’t you have $100k in debt? Or am I missing something?</p>

<p>Anyway…even $60k is way too much debt. That’s twice the amount of recommended debt.</p>

<p>How much do you think you’d earn after you graduate?</p>

10

<p>Silly me. I did not even count the loans they gave me to start off with -___-</p>

<p>it would be $20,000 in loans on top of the $60,000, so it would be $82,000.
Most of my schools gave me $5,500 in loans per year. </p>

<p>The cheaper one gave me $1,000 to start off with. </p>

<p>I understand the market I want to work in. If I start off at a small journalism station then it won’t be much. If I hop over to Hollywood and fight my way through then i’ll be making a 6 figure salary…and that’s if I even get that far.</p>

11

<p>If I hop over to Hollywood and fight my way through then i’ll be making a 6 figure salary…and that’s if I even get that far</p>

<p>===========</p>

<p>You will NOT be making $100k anytime soon…even if you “hop over to Hollywood.” People start in the smaller markets (making peanuts) and if they’re good and lucky, they get noticed and move to larger markets…and if they’re good and lucky…they may later move to the big markets…this all takes a lot of time unless you’re Miss America or something and can jump over a few spots.</p>

<p>So…the point is…during the 10 year loan payback time YOU will NOT be earning a lot. Certainly NOT enough to make payments on $82k of loans! Your payments would be about $1,000 per month. You won’t even have an extra $500 a month to put towards loans after you pay rent, car, gas, insurance, cell phone, food, utilities, clothes, etc, etc, etc.</p>

12

<p>I used glassdoors to research wages for myself. That’s where i’ve been getting my numbers from :/</p>

<p>I know that it might take a while but I have a friend who just went to Hollywood and got a job, it’s his first real one as well. He’s making about 44k and his salary could go up to 106 k, but it’s also at a major journalism outlet. Is that not usual, should I honestly not be expecting such results? </p>

<p>I understand what you’re saying. Thank you for being very honest. I’ll take all that you’ve said into consideration when i’m making my final choice. I just don’t want to pass over an amazing, highly ranked j-school just because i’m afraid of the cost…even though I should be.</p>

<p>-___- this is the hardest part of the entire college search and selection process.</p>

13

<p>He’s making about 44k and his salary could go up to 106 k,</p>

<p>============</p>

<p>the key word is “could”. And what would he do in the meantime if he also had to pay $1,000 per month in student loans while still making $44k? Do you realize that he has to pay a good sized chunk of that in taxes (unmarrieds without kids pay a chunk of taxes with that income). What’s his rent, utilities, cell phone bill, car payment, gasoline, car insurance…and so forth. Believe me, he’s just covering his costs on his current income unless he’s living in a dump. </p>

<p>Going rather quickly from $44k to $100k+ is HIGHLY unusual. If it were typical, we’d see a whole bunch more people going into that field. The truth is that most people never “make it.” They spend their whole lives in the background (not “on air”) or doing “site reporting” which pays little. Anchors in major markets make the big bucks…and that takes time, luck, and talent…lots of luck.</p>