I am a senior and high school and have been weighing my college options. I have a private university that I can attend while living at home for around 20k/yr (which is my fallback option). I am currently deciding on two college options that are currently available to me at the moment. My current plan is to study Business if that helps provide context to the situation.
St. John’s University for 34k/yr - This is a school I have been interested in for a while and I am really considering it as it seems like a good fit from what I have researched.
University of Portland for 40k/yr - After looking into all of my schools in depth, this is the school that I feel has the best fit for me. It honestly has everything I was looking for in a college. If money wasn’t an option I’d attend without a doubt but with my post graduation debt in mind it is hard to really sell myself on it.
I would appreciate any and all feedback on these schools, particularly if they are feasible financially and worth the investment. Thank you in advance for your time!
I went to St. Johns, though a million years ago and as a Secondary Math Education major.
It does have the huge advantage of being so close to NYC. It’s in Jamaica, in Queens, in a very decent neighborhood-- safety isn’t a huge concern. I had a number of friends who majored in some form of business, and all ended up working in NYC-- on the commodities exchange, the stock market, and for private accounting firms. My sister also wen there and passed the CPA exam.
Know that of the 16,000 students, there are only dorm rooms for about 4,000. (When I attended there, there were no dorms.) The vast majority of the student body commutes. So do some real research into the life on campus. Honestly, that’s the one drawback I can think of-- it’s very much (or was, in 1980 at least) a commuter college.
Can’t see much difference between $34k/year and $40k/year. Unless your parents can afford to pay that much, both of those schools are out of reach. Help us out, if you don’t mind, by explaining how any of this is going to get paid.
How much can your family afford? How much have they saved up? You can’t just take loans out for the 40K, wipe your hands clean, and call it a day for the next four years. You can only borrow 5,500 freshman year (this goes up 1K every year until you graduate) and parents have to cosign for the rest through Parent PLUS loans. This is not only a burden on them but also a burden on you. You want to go into business; that means you will have to go on to grad school (business school). It’s important then to keep undergrad as cheap as possible and make sure your GPA and GMAT are great.
You should really go with your “fallback” if your parents don’t have money saved up or are not comfortable taking out those loans.