<p>I've cleared my list of schools down to Boston College and Centre College (a small LAC in Kentucky, my home state). I'm struggling to decide where I want to go though. I know that, ultimately, it's about where I want to go, but I'm too indecisive to decide on my own.</p>
<p>Financially, I can afford Centre without a problem. I'll graduate without any debt, and I'll be close to home (Approx. 50 minutes).</p>
<p>At Boston College, I'll have to come up with about $15,000 a year. I don't think that's too much to ask for, and I expect to recieve a large sum in outside scholarships, but I can't take that into consideration until it proves true.</p>
<p>The most important thing to me, though, is fit. I'm sort of weird, honestly, but I'm suprisingly really popular at high school. I'm 6'4, white, male, a vegetarian (of 7 years), a unitarian universalist, and realllly into sports. I'm not really religious though. Would that deter my experience at BC?</p>
<p>I have not yet toured BC, but I will be soon [hopefully..]</p>
<p>For now, I'm leaning towards BC, mostly because of the proximity to Boston, the quality of the education comparatively, and to get away from home.</p>
<p>BC is a beautiful school, very selective and very well known. Good thing you are going to visit to get a sense of whether it would be a good fit. Boston is a great city with many colleges so it is student-friendly. Boston is also a big sports town. BC itself has great football and hockey teams.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of Centre but the tuition offer sounds appealing. However it is probably not in the same class as BC.</p>
<p>BC is basically a glorified LAC that has a few extra programs. Very difficult to get into and very prestigious, but still a glorified LAC. If it were ranked in that category, it would probably be a top 10 LAC.</p>
<p>It will be worth as much as you are willing to put into it, and, yes, you will be welcome regardless of your religious stance. </p>
<p>BC is about educating your mind, although it does hope to inspire your soul too, as it highly prizes the philosophy of “being men and women for others”, in the best Jesuit tradition.</p>
<p>As for sports, the sailing teams have won a slew of national championships over the last 6-7 years.</p>
<p>“At Boston College, I’ll have to come up with about $15,000 a year.”</p>
<p>The issue really boils down to just exactly how you and your family will scrape together this amount of money. Does your financial aid package from BC already include a full Stafford Loan? If so, how close to this amount of money can you and your family get without any more loans? What will you do if the outside scholarships don’t come through? Are they renewable for all four years? If they are renewable, what kind of strings (like your major or your GPA) are attached?</p>
<p>BC is a great school that is extremely welcoming to all types. But as happymom points out, what exactly is that $15k. Is that $15k on top of the automatic Stafford, making it $20k in year 1 and $22k in later years? If so, that totals ~$90k which is too much when you can attend Centre for free. Quite frankly, even $60k is a lot of debt to incur when the alternative is zero.</p>
<p>You can always split the difference. Go to Centre and if you don’t like the experience, transfer to BC.</p>
<p>After discussing this with my parents and BC’s financial aid department, I will have to come up with about 11,500 (3,500 of this being Stafford, 1,000 being Perkins Loans), which leaves 7000 more dollars to take out.</p>
<p>To me, that doesn’t sound too bad.</p>
<p>Also, would I fit socially at BC? Take into account what is mentioned in the OP and my liberal non-prepiness…</p>
<p>Note that if you bring in outside scholarships, they will reduce your need which will likely reduce your BC aid package. For instance, let’s assume that BC is giving you $22,000 a year. They’re doing that since there’s a $22,000 gap between your EFC and the cost of attendance. So now, when you bring in an extra $10,000 in outside scholarships, your need will drop from $22K to $12K. So now, BC’s aid package would be reduced from $22K to $12K - the additional outside scholarships wouldn’t reduce what you actually have to pay.</p>
<p>A couple things to be aware of: The Boston college student scene is really special. There are 53 colleges in the area, and BC has one of the highest profiles in Boston. It’d be a great experience.</p>
<p>OTOH, as a local, it’s possible that you don’t appreciate how outstanding a college Centre is or what a remarkable value it is. It’s not well-known across the country, but there aren’t many better LACs across the country.</p>
<p>You’ve got great options, with no wrong choice!</p>
<p>Princeton Review rates the academics at Centre a 92 and gives BC a 89. Centre is 1200 students and BC is over 9000 students. This one will depend on if you prefer a small school community with close relationships with professors versus the big school experience with division 1 football team.</p>
<p>Yes, BC is very welcoming and there are plenty of liberal faculty members, and more than a few students who share your view. But note that you will not be able to borrow $7k yourself; your parents will have to borrow it. $44k of debt for a low income family is a whole lot, and I can’t recommend it.</p>
<p>Required_details, where are you sources? The info you gave me definitely puts the decision in perspective.</p>
<p>@gadad
so, BC would dock the package that they already offered me if i were to recieve any other funds? I thought that it would just add on… making it cheaper. :/</p>
<p>@gadad Are you sure about that. Aren’t outside scholarships just that, outside scholarships. Aid is determined by fafsa and css. I could very well be wrong here but I highly doubt BC would dock the aid offered. Maybe its just a BC thing because I have never heard of that before.</p>
<p>Anyway I had to make a decsion of free local college or going away with loans. I ultimately chose to go away because college only happens once. It seems that your debt will be manageable. I would not advise you to walk out of college with a huge load of debt but some debt is ok. You have to assume you won’t get these outside scholarships and then figure out if you can cover the remaining costs. good luck!</p>
<p>Each college/university makes its own rules about how it will treat outside scholarships. BC discounts them from the aid they would have offered. Other places replace work-study or loans with the outside money. Still others let the students add the outside money onto whatever institutional aid has been offered.</p>
<p>The amount of debt that one person considers manageable is different from the amount that another person considers manageable. Only the OP and his/her family can determine what will work for them. In my household, the level of loans that is under discussion here would take BC right off the table.</p>
