<p>Sometimes this site makes me feel downright poor! It's like "get a tutor"- those things actually cost a lot of money!. Apply ED- yes if I want my family to be unable to eat for the rest of their lives. Anyone else feel much poorer than they usually feel on cc? Meh, perhaps I'm the only one.</p>
<p>just going to my school makes me feel poor :O i know someone who's sending his college essays to professionals for editing, i know someone whose family pays for a colleg consultant, i know people with multiple tutors and years of SAT courses under their belt. <em>sigh</em></p>
<p>I was whining to my mom about class rank... </p>
<p>"Why does it even matter, anyway?" says the impossibly pragmatic mother.
"Cuz MOM--if I'm I'm not first or second, I won't get into Johns Hopkins and I'll wander the streets, homeless, for the rest of my days, eating McDonald's out of trash bins!"
"I think it's great that you're aiming so high, sweetie, but even if you get into one of those schools, we couldn't even begin to pay for it."
"Oh... right."</p>
<p>So there you go.</p>
<p>well if you apply ED to a need-based school, then the school will give you what you need, so that's not a problem.</p>
<p>I would really figure out finances and only apply to those you have a good chance of affording.</p>
<p>"the school will give you what you need"</p>
<p>Yeah, in loans and work-study. Even if the loans are low-interest, it's stupid to borrow for over seven years of school, counting grad school. You end up taking the first job you can get, instead of waiting for the best one. Also, if you plan on a demanding track, maybe you won't have the time for work-study.</p>
<p>You will be fine. Sometimes I think this site turns into a pressure cooker where people are overwhelmed and start to feel inferior. I was in the income position you were in when I went to college. My parents made too much for need based aid but weren't wealthy enough to even begin to pay full freight anywhere. I was faced with a loans/work study situation or attending a school that didn't have the "prestige" attached. I chose the latter. I got a full merit scholarship and graduated with not a lick of debt. I went on to pursue two more degrees through assistantships and still do not have a lick of educational debt. Remember, that it's the person behind the education who achieves...not just the degree. A person who goes to Harvard and is lazy will not do as well as some one who might go to a lesser known school who works hard. There are plenty of successful people in this world who went to public colleges and universities. I'm not knocking an expensive private education. I'm just saying that don't feel like you are limited if you end up going somewhere you see as less "prestigious." My father is a professor at a tier 4 university and he's had many graduates go on to six figure incomes. He has remained at that tier 4 university for thirty years because it's close to his and my mother's families and because he loves his job. Make the right decision for you, but know that it's YOU who will be the determining factor in how successful you will be in life.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Yeah, in loans and work-study. Even if the loans are low-interest, it's stupid to borrow for over seven years of school, counting grad school. You end up taking the first job you can get, instead of waiting for the best one. Also, if you plan on a demanding track, maybe you won't have the time for work-study.
[/quote]
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<p>How's it stupid? Your education is an investment without value, it's priceless -- and with the low interest rates on the loans they don't hurt that much, as long as you have a set track for what you want to do. Obviously I don't advocate this if you intend on becoming an artist or some low paying profession. If you're motivated to get into a career that pays reasonably well (law, business, med) then to me the debt is perfectly fine. I'd take 150k of debt for Wharton or Harvard any day :)</p>
<p>The students who support full-on loans are the ones who are getting quite a bit of aid or who have parents wealthy enough where being in debt isn't such a horrible thing. But as for me and my camp, if I'm not going to eventually "get the money back" through working, it wasn't much of an investment to start out with.</p>