So I’m a senior and have been reading through some earlier forums about colleges I am interested in, specifically vs forums. I’ve noticed a consistent trend, in that a student will pick paying full cost at a highly prestigious school (say Harvard, Yale, Princeton) over full/majority scholarship at a slightly less, but still highly prestigious school (UPenn, Duke, Vanderbilt) that, in terms of academic quality, is on par with the former. I, for the life of me, couldn’t fathom picking the former (or a comparative school) over the latter (or a comparative school). Is it really worth it to some people to pay an extra $100,000 for a slightly more prestigious, but academically comparative school?
UPenn doesn’t give merit aid, and I don’t see why the need-based aid at UPenn would be $100,000 better than the need-based aid at Harvard, Yale, or Princeton.
I believe that you will find that people make all manner of life choices based on something other than money alone. Perhaps best not to concern yourself with how strangers choose to arrange their lives and finances; it’s really not relevant to your choices.
@halcyonheather Lol, I was just generalizing. Of course, my hypothetical situations aren’t 100% accurate, but the premise & message is still the same.
@allyphoe Yeah, I guess to each their own.
Depends on how much money your family has and is willing to spend, and what you hope to achieve in college. In my experience, those very, very top schools are the feeders to a large amount of rare and unusual career paths that only sometimes rarely trickle down to students at lower ranked schools. This may not be fair, but it is reality. If you know you want to be an accountant or a pharmacist, the choice is very different than if you want to be an archaeologist, or work on Wall Street or Capitol Hill.
Also, the full pay/free or greatly discounted ride differential is never found between Harvard and Duke but rather between Harvard, Duke and the other top ranked schools vis a vis private colleges ranked quite a few tiers lower (and of course your local state flagship).
Plus, if you live in California, it may be difficult to turn down UC Berkeley to pay full freight for Harvard. If you live in Wyoming, the calculus might be different (no disrespect intended to Wyoming, just used it as an example).
Plus, if you are in the lower half of the United States in family income (say 50k or less), then many of the very top schools are virtually free.
So it’s complicated. Run the net price calculators and decide for yourself based on your own interests, qualifications and financial assets.
I don’t really see that such a situation could come up – those schools a small step down give almost no full rides. Plus, to some 1%ers, they can afford the more expensive option.
Okay, nice to know. Guess I was gravely mistaken and encountered one of those rare situations, lol.
I’ve never heard of this phenomenon. I’m a senior in high school and I would never do something like that. I suppose if my family had lots of money to spend, I may.
You won’t get the chance, so don’t worry about it.
Actually Duke is the school I hear of most often in this situation. In general, Duke is known for using merit aid to attract students and it offers a small number of full ride scholarships (along with other perks) in order to compete for the top students. And yes, some students turn them down and pay full price.
Vanderbilt, Wash U., USC and BC come to mind as well.
I stand corrected about Duke, although I saw from the article you linked that those merit awards go to a very small percentage of the class. I assumed that the OP was making a more generic comment, because I knew that UPenn doesn’t give merit aid.
Assuming the OP was taking about Duke, yes, I agree that it would be foolish to turn down a free ride at Duke for full pay at HYPSMCC. Unless you are very rich and it doesn’t matter to you, of course.