<p>You haven’t said much about the state university honors college. From what I’m reading, it is likely the best choice.</p>
<p>It’s hard to give advice without knowing what your family financial situation and what your financial situation will be after college. Can your parents comfortably afford that $25K a year or is this money that is going to be scrimped and scraped? Will your parents be able to help with your loans after school? How much in debt will you be with each school? Are your parents borrowing to come up with that $25K? </p>
<p>All of that can make a big difference in your situation. My son turned down a full ride+ for a situation where we are all pitching in, however, this is not an unusual for families in our income bracket. Had we in a different financial situation, it would have made a big difference for everyone in our family if he had taken the less expensive option. I guess the question is how much it is going to be costing your family and you in quality of living to go to each of your choices.</p>
<p>It really depends on how much you like each school. With State U, you wouldn’t have to work at all to graduate debt free. With NYU, if you get 25K a year of scholarship and your family is contributing 25k a year, you can probably cover the rest of the costs by working during the school year and working full time during the summer. With Dartmouth, you’ll probably end up with around $100,000 in debt. Is going to NYU worth having to work during the school year and summer? Is Dartmouth worth $100,000 of debt? If it’s not for you, then go to the State U.</p>
<p>I’d say the honour program in NYU would give you about the same quality of education and employment opportunities as Dartmouth. So really, if it’s down to these two, it’s more about how much you like/fit each school than the academics/prestige.</p>
<p>Honestly I cannot imagine going to NYU. No campus, no community, no nature - not the college experience I would want for myself at all. I know many NYU students and its more of an intense NYC experience - going to random bars in a concrete jungle. NYC is fun for your twenties or grad school, but college is a once in a lifetime event. </p>
<p>Dartmouth is one of the best educations in the country - the D-plan means the best internships, arguably the best study abroad of any school, lots of attention from profs, the best advising of the ivies (COHE), lots of grants, etc. Plus the COLLEGE EXPERIENCE, I can’t say enough about how fun it is to go on a hiking trip before orientation, go skiing every weekend in the winter at the dartmouth ski way, road trips, parties where the whole campus is invited, ice skating on occum pond, swimming in the river during sophomore summer - i.e. camp dartmouth. 80% of students return for their 5 year re-union, clearly students love the place. </p>
<p>NYU sounds like a good option in terms of the price, but Dartmouth honestly is just such a more “special” feeling college experience. If you can find a way to pay for it I think its worth every penny.</p>
<p>I would go to Champaign-Urbana, but only because of the line your parents drew in the sand.
In my experience, Dartmouth is fair in evaluating need-based aid. Yes, Dartmouth would be a luxury purchase. But what luxury purchases have your parents made, or what are they considering? Lexus or BMW, private school K-12, second home, etc.? Winter AND summer vacations?
Dartmouth offers by far the best four years.</p>
<p>If you can keep your loan burden at $20k, it is relatively safe to choose either NYU or UIUC honors. I think you’d easily get as good an education at the latter, so it’s really a question of how much New York is worth to you.</p>
<p>Dartmouth shouldn’t even be considered.</p>
<p>
Try a few debt calculators. It doesn’t take long to realize that kind of debt is entirely unreasonable.</p>
<p>[Debt</a> / salary wizard](<a href=“http://mappingyourfuture.org/paying/debtwizard/]Debt”>Resources - Mapping Your Future) - According to this calculator, you’d need to earn $172,620.50 per year for ten years to pay off your $100k debt. The chances of coming out of college earning that much are, needless to say, next to zero.</p>
<p>[CSUMentor</a> - Financial Aid - SLOPE Calculator](<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU) - The safe slope is 8% or lower; your slope is 25.7%, which gives you some idea of what a high debt that is.</p>
<p>Want to go to medical, law, or business school? You can safely add quite a bit more debt on top of the already considerable debt. Add car and house payments, and the picture looks bleak indeed.</p>
<p>
Agreed. I think UIUC is the obvious choice, and I suspect the OP would do quite well there.</p>
<p>I would easily pick Dartmouth over any one those, no matter what the debt. You can’t put a price on life experience. Otherwise, I would definitely pick UIUC, although I don’t understand why NYU would appeal to someone for UG; so maybe I just can’t relate.</p>
<p>Totally agree with gellino. College is a part of your life forever, Dartmouth is the best choice here by far in my opinion in every way possible.</p>
<p>One large survey in the last year or so had Dartmouth grads with the highest median incomes in the nation 6 to 10 years after graduation, with Princeton grads second. I guess you could make the argument for Dartmouth based on the dollars, though I wouldn’t.
I live in Illinois and know plenty of NYU graduates. When UIUC and NYU grads tell you where they went to school, I can almost never recall a smile or a sense of pride about it. Those are the almost universal responses when a Dartmouth grad tells you where she went to school.
On the dollars, UIUC easy. But you only have one life. Work on your parents.</p>
<p>
One could very well argue that money can make quite a difference in post-graduation life. I would not feel at all comfortable with my grad school financial situation if I hadn’t come out of undergrad loan-free. Given the current economic condition, even schools like Penn and Chicago were less than generous.</p>
<p>Like it or not, college <em>is</em> only four years. How many years later does one want to be struggling to pay it off?</p>
<p>Somebody else can likely locate that median salary study, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Dartmouth grads were making $30k to $40k more per year than NYU and UIUC grads.
Not my argument, but there is a dollar argument to be made in Dartmouth’s favor.</p>
<p><a href=“2024 College Rankings by Salary Potential | Payscale”>2024 College Rankings by Salary Potential | Payscale;
<p>and Illinois</p>
<p><a href=“2024 College Rankings by Salary Potential | Payscale”>2024 College Rankings by Salary Potential | Payscale;
<p>and NYU</p>
<p><a href=“2024 College Rankings by Salary Potential | Payscale”>2024 College Rankings by Salary Potential | Payscale;
<p>100K is too much. Dartmouth is my 2nd favorite school but that kind of debt is absolutely crushing. Unless the OP becomes an ibanker or a management consultant, I don’t see how he/she will pay this debt off.</p>
<p>To post the salary data…</p>
<p>Dartmouth students have starting salaries $5100 higher than Illinois students and $7700 higher than NYU students.
Mid-career salaries are $37,900 a year higher at Dartmouth than at Illinois and $38,400 higher at Dartmouth than at NYU. That’s about $38,000 better year after year after year. And there is no reason to believe gap wouldn’t widen AFTER mid-career.</p>
<p>Iclass06 argues that “money can make quite a difference in post-graduate life”!</p>
<p>
Not particularly. The most important statistic would be the starting salary, as ideally the OP would pay his/her loans off as soon as possible.</p>
<p>Dartmouth: $58K
UIUC: $53K</p>
<p>Here’s another study in response:
<a href=“http://www.irs.princeton.edu/pubs/pdfs/409.pdf[/url]”>http://www.irs.princeton.edu/pubs/pdfs/409.pdf</a></p>
<p>
Roughly 15 years after graduation. How much would the OP owe by then? :eek:</p>
<p>I am generally in sympathy with the you study cited. That’s why my main argument for Dartmouth is not financial.
The National Longitudinal Study of Youth found that pay as an adult tracked elementary school IQ much, much more closely than years of schooling.
The problem is where does this begin and end? Why go to college at all? Or graduate from high school?</p>
<p>“CONS- Smallish, no internships nearby. Competitive students—which I don’t mind, but it’s something to consider if jobs look at my class rank.”</p>
<p>Actually Dartmouth is probably one of the best schools in the country for top job recruiting, right next to Yale and above many of the Ivies. It has a HUGE advantage in the D-plan. Because of sophomore summer (best summer ever), you have to take off one fall, winter, or spring. The top firms have special school-year internships for these students, and they are dartmouth only. This gives dartmouth a BIG leg up on its peers, no competition=better access to internships=better job prospects. </p>
<p>Also Dartmouth is not competitive feeling at all. Its a very balanced school. You will get a good GPA if you work hard, Dartmouth is not a deflation factory like a few other elite schools.</p>
<p>Mostly though, Dartmouth is such a holistic experience. It becomes a family- its just something more than a normal college experience.</p>
<p>Concur with Slipper on all, but will emphasize the internship part. The D Plan is an amazing advantage. I’ve long known this watching Dartmouth grads with coveted internships at ibanks during every season of the year. But this year we experienced it firsthand. DS, a freshmen, has two phenomenal internships set up, one for this summer and one for Winter term of soph year. Both came through the Dartmouth network and both are highly competitive for even juniors at ivies.</p>
<p>Terrific internships are available at any college so internships should NEVER be the decision point on colleges. </p>
<p>If your parents are covering you up to $25 and NYU is $25 than that seems like a viable choice. Have your factors in cost of living in NYC for incidentals? </p>
<p>Most important is fit. What school is a better fit for you.</p>
<p>^Try telling that to all the kids who can’t find one! There is an enormous difference in the internships and jobs available to students from different schools.</p>