<p>...from a friend on a local forum , whose son is in the midst of choosing colleges now...</p>
<pre><code>" [Adults, looking back:]
Would you choose College A (parents spend more, you need $22k in loans, but you love people, campus, reputation)
or College B (no loans for anyone, nice people and campus, academic excellence is more in your departments than overall).
You feel you would be happy at either, i.e., no bad choices. "
</code></pre>
<p>My friend had included the 'adults , looking back' part in her question.</p>
<p>one question comes to mind - what is the avg debt from a 4 yr undergrad education nowadays? I thought I had heard $28k ish a few yrs back , but I cd not find the back up just now.</p>
<p>I’d choose college B if the academic excellence in my dept were real and not just hearsay. (Real placement of grads into good jobs.)</p>
<p>Otherwise, I’d choose college A. A college degree isn’t worth much if employers don’t hire from it (in the chosen field). It’s worthwhile to pay for a decent degree (nice investment). There’s a limit though. I’d never go into high debt. There are too many other options.</p>
<p>For a student who is pretty sure to study one of the subjects where B is better than A (verified through course offerings, research opportunities, employer hiring and graduate school placement from major), choosing B with no debt is an easy choice.</p>
<p>If A is somehow better in intended or possible majors, then question becomes “how much and in what ways is A better?” and “is A worth the extra cost?”. Such an evaluation needs to be done in more detail than described in the question as presented.</p>
<p>$22,000 in debt overall, or $22,000 each year? If it’s the former and my parents could afford it I might lean towards College A, but if it were $22,000 per year and/or my parents could afford it, and/or there was no big difference in reputation between the two schools then I wold choose College A.</p>
<p>The average is right around $30K.</p>
<p>If the debt would be $22,000 *per year<a href=“instead%20of%20total”>/i</a>, that would be $88,000 total, which would be very risky. In that case, B would be the winner.</p>
<p>the debt is 22k for 4 yrs</p>
<p>In the absence of more details, the best you are going to get are suggestions that the student look into the “A is better” versus “B is better in the intended major” in more detail, because the difference in relative value of A and B may be small or large, and depends in significant part on the student’s personal preferences. Perhaps naming the schools and major might induce a few more responses from those more familiar with them and may be able to confirm or rebut the assumed reputations.</p>
<p>the applicant is planning to major in physics and music . don’t know the colleges in question.</p>
<p>and there was this , too…</p>
<p>[q/]B’s physics program does an amazing job of prepping kids for grad school and they are winning full fellowships to all the places you’ve heard of–Harvard, CalTech, Berkeley, MIT, etc.
…
Plus, B is the one that has guaranteed a paid summer research slot after fresh year–free housing + $3600 for 9 wks. No other school on our list operates in this way, either in offering guarantees OR being so welcoming of post-fresh students.[/q]</p>
<p>college A = Lawrence U. College B = Coe College</p>
<p>so COE COllege = college B and Lawrence University = College A. So COE for no loans or Lawrence for $22k after 4 yrs, </p>
<p>I picked college B in my experience after 30 yrs out of college and having picked a college B . It worked for me well. More precisely, <em>I</em> made it work for me. Whether A or B , you 're gonna have to make it work for you anyway, so might as well have less $baggage to recover.</p>