College Value

I got into both Seton Hall and Fordham so far. I would have to pay about $25k at seton hall, and $50k at Fordham. Is Fordham really worth $200k after four years compared to Seton Hall at only $100k. Also was wondering if anyone knew about Muhlenberg’s financial and merit aid. Thank you for any help

I would NOT go into 200K in non-dischargeable student loan debt for Fordham…

What are your academic/career goals? other options?


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Also was wondering if anyone knew about Muhlenberg's financial and merit aid.

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Use Muhlenberg’s online net price calculator to estimate the need-based aid you’re likely to receive.
Some NPCs also show merit awards.

Keep the debt low. Seton Hall is a fine school

Muhlenberg meets need for 95% students. It’s offer is likely to e better than either Seton Hall or Fordham, and it’s a better school than Seton Hall.
Fordham is unaffordable.
Run the NPC on all the colleges you applied to.
Where else have you applied?
What’s your GPA (w, uw), sat score?
Colleges such as Allegheny, Ohio Wesleyan, Wooster, Moravian, Acadia, Lycoming, Elizabethtown… Are still accepting applications.

I applied to BC and Lehigh RD. I have until the 15 to make a decision to apply to Muhlenberg. I have a 3.9gpa and 1380 new sat score. My family has a decent income so I wasn’t expecting much need based aid, but I was hoping for more merit aid from Fordham (it was my number 1). I probably will apply to Muhlenberg (it can’t hurt). Thanks for all the replies so far.

Apply to Muhlenberg - there is absolutely nothing to lose and I know people who were happy with the merit aid they got from the school.

Then wait until you get all of your replies and financial awards.

Talk to your parents about what choices are affordable without hardship.
Revisit affordable options.
Then make a decision.

For full disclosure my S went to Fordham and loved it. I would say that Fordham is markedly better than Seton Hall, but not worth getting into a debilitating amount of debt to attend.

Have you run the NPC’s and shown the results to your parents? What’s their total college budget for you? (If you haven’t discussed this with them yet, run the NPC results + Seton Hall and Fordham results, ASAP).
If you like Catholic colleges, I’d recommend applying to St Bonaventure, St Michael’s, Siena, and UScranton. St Michael’s is in a really cool college town (Burlington) and UScranton’s campus&facilities are superb.
Do a couple of those as well as Muhlenberg. There’s nothing to lose.
If you need merit aid, you really must apply widely and keep your fingers crossed.