<p>So I've been accepted into the Business Honors Program at the University of Texas, Wharton at UPenn, and the School of Accountancy and Honors College at the University of Mississippi, or Ole Miss. I'm having a tough time deciding on where to go. Obviously, Wharton will give me the best education, but I'm really into collegiate sports, and UPenn wouldn't really provide that as much as Texas or Ole Miss would. Would going to UPenn mean that I will probably work in the north for the rest of my life? How well is the School of Accountancy at Ole Miss recruited?</p>
<p>I've broken it down into how I see things.</p>
<p>Education:
1. UPenn
2. Texas
3. Ole Miss (Is it that bad if they are ranked #19 in accounting?)</p>
<p>Level of "Fun" (sports, friends, etc.):
1. Ole Miss
2. Texas
3. UPenn</p>
<p>Level of Debt (lowest to highest):
1. Ole Miss (Free)
2. UPenn (about $100,000 by graduation, if my parent's don't pay for some)
3. Texas (at least $200,000 by graduation)</p>
<p>We don’t know how significant $100,000 is to you and your family. Regardless of how significant, you can’t turn down Wharton AND pay 100 grand extra just to root for the Longhorns, so Texas should be out.</p>
<p>Penn vs. Ole Miss? I’d do everything I could to get to Penn, but I don’t think I’d go $100,000 into debt for it. But maybe your financial reserves are greater than mine. And though one should (almost) never suggest taking on this much extra debt just to attend a more selective school, it may be possible that Wharton is the one situation in which you might actually project a financial return on investment that would cover it!</p>
<p>I don’t understand how you (the student) can take on $100K in debt in college? Who will give you loans of that magnitude?</p>
<p>Texas is out of the equation with costs like that.</p>
<p>I think you need to sit down with your family and have a thorough discussion about Wharton and Ole Miss. If they can’t financially support some of this, I don’t see how you can handle it all.</p>
<p>If your stats were good enough to get into Wharton now, presumably you can put effort into achieving wonderful stats at Ole Miss and then look at one of the high end business schools for grad school if you’re interested.</p>
<p>(Also, I’ve known several kids who’ve gone undergrad to Wharton. Really, really bright, achieving kids. I don’t think any of them had much time for a lot of sports or a really active social life. They had fun, but Wharton is really a lot of work.)</p>
<p>Did you apply to UT as an OOS student?? Why???</p>
<p>What is your instate school?</p>
<p>If you got into UPenn, then your stats are high enough that you could have gotten great merit from other big sports schools that have a better b-school/accounting than Ole Miss.</p>
<p>No school is worth big debt for an accounting degree…and yes, a school that’s ranked #19 in accounting is CERTAINLY high enough!!! Do you think that all successful CPA’s went to top elites??? I can assure you that that’s not true.</p>
<p>BTW…how come at this point, you STILL don’t know how much your parents will pay each year for your education? Ask and find out.</p>
<p>You simply cannot make this choice without knowing how much your parents will contribute. Find out.
Also, are you intending on going to grad school for an MBA? If so, you have to consider the four years of interest when you are not in the work force.</p>
<p>If you are not considering grad school, then Penn would probably be the better choice if your parents can contribute >$50,000. If they can’t contribute anything, well, go to Ole Miss and don’t look back.</p>
<p>^^^^
Of course, everyone loves Wharton…but what would the earnings be of an accounting grad from Wharton? Would it be that much higher than a grad from another top 20 accounting program? Enough to justify paying $1200 a month for loans for 10 years?</p>
<p>And, what if his parents don’t cosign? Or, they can only qualify for one or two years, but then the lender says, “no, you’re over-extended.” What good is it to have the first 2 years at Wharton, and then have to get the actual degree at a state school (and have the debt from those first 2 years???)</p>
<p>Ok…that’s from a young person who hasn’t likely ever had to make big payments on loans while also paying rent/mortgage/food/utilities/etc. LOL</p>
<p>If costs “figure themselves out eventually,” then why do many, many people struggle with their student loans? Did their loans forget how to figure themselves out? ;)</p>
<p>Almost no one who attends Wharton ends up being an accountant. The school will open up so many exciting doors. Earning power will be far greater. I don’t usually advocate big loans, but someone who does well at Wharton will make the money to repay them in a few years and over a career will make back this money many times over.</p>
<p>^
A lot of times such post can be misleading. </p>
<p>There are been numerous articles of the average salary of students graduating from each university and to be surprise I didn’t see any major differences of 50-100k by schools recognized by USNEWS. Though again, we are talking about undergraduate degrees… none of these were base off their graduate schools. I certainly would want to save such a debt of 100k+ for graduate school. Ole Miss is a school I would be concern about since it is not well recognized by USNEWS… I wouldn’t write Ole Miss off, look more into… see how students number at good graduate schools that are worth such a debt.</p>
<p>You get what you pay for, for the most part…If money is a concern, and you subcsribe to the idea that where you get your degree from is unimportant, go to a community college…I duobt many students who attend schools in the upper echelons are asking if they can “supersize that order”</p>
<p>Ole Miss is my state school. I applied to many others, and I narrowed it down to UT, UPenn, and Ole Miss. UT has gotten to be too expensive. I haven’t talked to my parents about the financial aid because I always have known they’d help me out. I was told today that they have come up with a way to pay for Wharton.</p>