<p>So I was admitted into Duke University...however, I was also offered the Regents' Scholarship at our state college, the University of New Mexico. The scholarship is basically worth $15,300 per year, and cover full tuition, room and board, and everything else. Duke is offering me about $23,000 per year in aid...which basically means my parents have to pay $29,000 per year. However, they can afford to pay only about $8,000 of that, leaving me with $20,000 in private loans per year, plus $5,000 in loans that are included as part of the Duke financial aid package...bringing me to a to a total debt of $100,000 after college ends, whereas with UNM will leave me with $0 debt.</p>
<p>Duke is an IMMENSELY better school with WAY better opportunities...is it worth the debt, when I can go to UNM for free? Please advise me, because I am struggling to make this decision.</p>
<p>University of New Mexico all the way. You DO NOT want to have $100,000 in debt, even from a top ranked school. Are you in the honors college at UNM? The seminars might give you an opportunity to be surrounded by similarly academically accomplished students with small undergrad classes. Think about how damaging $100,000 would be to your future. You couldn’t explore many potential careers, and if you aren’t able to find an extremely high paying job out of undergrad, it will destroy your future.</p>
<p>I think a lot depends on what you want to do after college. If you want to do grad school or go premed/pre-law etc., go to UNM with out a doubt.</p>
<p>HOWEVER if you are going to study engineering, or intending on studying a subject with a definite intent on entering the business/finance world (think IB, PE, Consulting) consider potential internship/co-op revenue when doing your estimation. As an engineering major, I can say that it is entirely reasonable to do two internships and make around 15K per internship. That cuts it down to 70K debt (which is still a lot). Engineers in industry make on average 70K/year starting which may make paying back loans a little bit easier. Investment banking analysts make around 70K+bonus so you’re looking at a conservative 100k/year salary (of course this will be somewhat diminished by taxes and the cost of living in NY).
This along with a part time 20 hr/week job during school semesters may help even more.
I think if you can reasonably end up with 50-60 K in debt after college as an Engineer/financial analyst, it may be possible.
This depends a whole lot on if your parents will co-sign loans, and at the end of the day, going to UNM may be the best option even if you are planning on pursuing a lucrative major.</p>
<p>Apply to lots of private/corporate scholarships also!</p>
<p>The problem with this strategy is that many, if not most students change their majors at some point during their college career. While this may be less common among higher achieving students, it still happens with such an alarming frequency that it’s still not advisable to risk $100k in loans (I’m assuming Duke’s financial aid package also came with a work study component). Additionally, there’s an enormous amount of mental stress that comes with taking out $100k in loans. What if the OP can’t get hired for an IB job or is so bad at it that he gets fired? Then the OP needs to look for another, probably lower paying job, but not one so low paying that the debt will crush him.</p>
<p>I agree, the best choice in this situation is likely UNM. However, Duke is on a completely different level than UNM so these possibilities are worth considering at least-I didn’t say he/she should absolutely go to Duke if he/she is interested in engineering.</p>
<p>Worst case scenario, you transfer from Duke to UNM or another cheaper school if engineering/Finance etc. doesn’t work out after a year. (After a year, a high majority of students stick with their major i believe). </p>
<p>Did you apply to any other schools? If you got into Duke, you can likely get into a number of other schools better than UNM with plenty of merit aid. That may be another option.</p>
<p>You also forgot living expense. These days, you are lucky just to break even with internship money (in that case, nothing goes to reduce the principle of the loan) You can only pay your student loans with what you have AFTER you fulfill all your other obligations.</p>
<p>Even if you are planning to go into engineering, you will not make a salary that will allow you to comfortably repay $100K worth of private educational loans. Even in finance you won’t make that kind of salary with a BA; you’d need an MBA, but then you’ll incur another $120K in debt for that, so you’ll be back where you started.</p>
<p>Also, SAT scores are not the only measure of intellectual prowess of one’s peers. I went to a college at which I was THE top applicant in terms of SAT score - my scores were about two standard deviations above the mean of the admitted class - and I still found a lot of like-minded, intellectual, critically-thinking peers in my classes who aimed for graduate school and professional careers. Best of all, I don’t have much debt - $30K total for undergrad and grad school. This is meaningful because I want to be a professor, so I can take a lower salary to end up at a school I really want to be at and not have to worry about repaying my loans.</p>
<p>UNM is a fine school, and you will probably do very well there. Duke is a great opportunity but it simply is not affordable for you.</p>
<p>^those are average internship salary values at one school. Again, it will vary a lot based on specific disipline. I’m most familiar with chemical/petroleum engineering and I know for a fact that big oil companies and big EPC firms will pay top dollar for interns (shell pays around 6K/month and thats industry standard). In addition, Amazon, google facebook are also companies that offer competitive salaries.
Making 15K/internship is in no way unreasonable. Its in no way guaranteed, but by working hard and maintaining a good GPA it becomes pretty likely to achieve. </p>
<p>Never did I say, its reasonable to take on 100K in loans if you’re planning on doing engineering. I said if it can be reduced to 50-60K range, it MAY be much more reasonable to pay off on a 70-80K salary.</p>
You have a pretty naive expectation based on very selected samples (big oil and google). Let’s put it this way: is it “entirely reasonable” to expect an offer from facebook and google with just “hardwork” and “high GPA”? There are plenty of people with high GPAs. In any given recruiting cycle, I bet more than 100 with high GPA from Stanford/Berkeley are trying to get into google/facebook.</p>
<p>As far as reducing to “50-60K range” [from 100K], you still forget the living expense as I already mentioned. Not to mention the IRS.</p>
<p>The OP was accepted into Duke’s Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. So there’s no way he could rake in $15k an internship unless something illegal is going on.</p>
<p>There are several things that you could do at Duke to supplement your parents’ income. You could for instance choose to become an RA (Duke will give you a generous stipend in addition to covering your room and board). You can also earn a significant amount of money via on campus employment and internships. If you really want to go to Duke, you can make it happen if you are willing to put in the work and take advantage of the opportunities presented to you.</p>
<p>I failed to mention an important detail- I am planning in majoring in biology and going to medical school to become a hematologist. This has been my plan for basically my whole life. Duke has 85% acceptance rate for applicants to medical school…UNM most certainly does not.</p>
<p>At Duke you would be one of over a hundred well-qualified premeds. At UNM you could be one of a small handful of students headed to med school. You can get to medical school from UNM provided you stay focused and make the most of the opportunities you have there. Seek out research opportunities in the biology department and be sure to volunteer at the local hospital.</p>
<p>It sounds like you would prefer to go to Duke if money were not an issue. I cannot blame you for that, but it is not worth borrowing $100,000. My recommendation would be to have a heart-to-heart conversation with your parents. If they decide that they can afford to send you to Duke, great! If not, respect their decision and go to UNM.</p>