<p>So right now it is DECISION TIME. and alike many others of you...we are faced with a difficult choice...</p>
<p>For me, im deciding between 15k a year at the honors program at rutgers university, or about 50k a year at cornell.</p>
<p>both of them offer majors and programs for what im interested in--nutritional sciences and food science. obviously cornell is ivy league and rutgers is just a state school, but part of me cant seem to find the justification to pay over 3 times as much at cornell.</p>
<p>cornell is my dream school. and i know i'll love it...but is it worth being $80,000 in debt at graduation? alot of people seem to think that having a cornell education will make it easy to find a good paying job that will pay off the debt..but a lot of other people say that is your graduate school that really matters when you are applying for jobs...i dont even know how i would AFFORD graduate school after going to cornell for undergrad...</p>
<p>do many cornell students have to take out that much in loans?
thoughts/opinions/advise/ect greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>$80,000 is a lot of loans and far more than average. The total cost of attendance difference is 120k. Way too much at the undergrad level. If I were you, I’d go to Rutgers and do the best I can.</p>
<p>80k may be slightly on the high end…i havent received my financial aid package yet but im estimating. Im also hoping to be able to claim in-state tutition for college of human ecology. i live in nj but my family also pays taxes on a house in ny (my grandmas before she passed…now my dad’s name is on the deed) and if i could get instate the cost would be closer to 40k a year and my total loans would be closer to 50k (assuming no financial aid)</p>
<p>Cornell’s nutrition dept. is one of the best in the country. Amazing professors - I remember one of my intro nutrition profs planning out the new “MyPlate” requirements to replace the food pyramid a while back because she was on the committee that helped do that.</p>
<p>To be honest I’d go to Rutgers if the difference is that big and you’re set on doing food science. Cornell pays off in the long run but more so for certain professions/majors.</p>
<p>If you were interested in Finance/Law/Engineering/Medicine then I’d definitely say Cornell because it’ll pay off, but I’d imagine the opportunities for a nutrition major will be similar at either.</p>
<p>Financially, I seriously doubt the difference would pay off. Especially since Rutgers is a very good school. If you’re going to want to take on the extra debt, it’ll have to be for reasons other than pure financial considerations. If you want to move on to grad school, $80k is just the beginning. I have no idea what the norm is for nutrition, but you probably should look into whether or not grad school is likely. If you are going to be done after 4 years, $80k debt is significant, but very manageable if you are smart about it.</p>