<p>So my two choices are University of Washington-Seattle and Brown University.</p>
<p>I've had my heart set on Brown for the last three years. Brown has given me some financial aid, but not enough to keep my parents from saying, "UW! UW! UW!" I understand that with our financial situation, we really cannot afford Brown without taking huge amounts of debt. I've been reading on the thread lots of opinions and most seem to be go to the cheaper school (and espcially since UW is a great public). However, to most of people these replies were too, the private school wasn't a school like BROWN (no offense to anyone). I'd be giving up an Ivy for a public. While I know Ivy League is just a name...it's a very good name. If I go to Brown, I'll be racking up at least 85k in loans/debt while I'll come out of UW basically without any debt. I plan on going to grad school and getting a medical degree too :-</p>
<p>I would have chosen UW over Brown already except for a few things. I absolutely love the open curriculum. Granted, with my IB and AP credits, my core at UW is basically over. But the open curriculum at Brown just changes the whole atmosphere there. Brown is sooooo laid back and liberal (I'm a staunch liberal). And quite frankly, I don't want to be surrounded by those taking "addition and subtraction" their senior year, I want to be surrounded by people to whom I can go, "Wow...if I only knew half the things they knew..." And finally for the big reasons, Brown's neuroscience is freaking awesome. UW's is good too, but they don't even have neuroSCIENCE, it's neurobiology. Brown has neuroscience, cognitive science, and cognitive neuroscience. Oh, and I plan on double majoring with biophysics...which Brown has but UW doesn't.</p>
<p>I'm still looking at the possibility of student loans. What would you guys say the ceiling for debt should be for Brown? Initially, I didn't care about debt, I figured I could easily pay those after grad school. (Starting salary for a neurosurgeon is about half a mil!) But then after reading sooo many people's opinions and talking with my parents I'm having second thoughts. Paying off debt will take away from my college experience, and plus how many people actually become neurosurgeons, right?</p>
<p>"However, to most of people these replies were too, the private school wasn't a school like BROWN (no offense to anyone)."</p>
<p>People have a tendency to view their own situations as different when it's advantageous and complimentary to do so. However, unless Brown guarantees admission into an awesome grad program or an equally awesome job after graduation, the question at hand is basically about the same thing-- debt. Cold. Hard. Debt. With that said, my advice to you is to reread the previous posts.</p>
<p>"And quite frankly, I don't want to be surrounded by those taking "addition and subtraction" their senior year, I want to be surrounded by people to whom I can go, "Wow...if I only knew half the things they knew..." "</p>
<p>That is the most insulting, stuck-up thing I've read today. Do you really think that no one at the UW is as smart and ambitious as you are? That no one could possibly know more than you? Granted, there are some slackers, but c'mon... You could surround yourself with exceptionally bright students at the UW too, although I'm not sure they'd especially appreciate your company.</p>
<p>I wouldn't get more into like $40,000 at Brown.</p>
<p>It may be Ivy League and all, but if you just want to go to med school, state school is just as good a route. Once you are in med school, nobody will care where you went for undergrad.</p>
<p>Did you factor in travel costs (I guess you live in Washington or closeby) ? That might add additional 5K/year easily. Go to state school, get 4.0 GPA, graduate in 3 years if you don't like it there and you will have 100K saved to pay for med school.</p>
<p>$85K is WAAY too much, IMO. As a parent of a student with professional school aspirations, I would say do not take on that much debt for Brown. Your loan repayment at 6.8% interest would be $978.18 every month for 10 years, with a total of $32,382.08 in interest. Of course, you can get the payment down by extending the term of the loan, but then then you would be paying even more interest. That is all before med school debt. Think hard about UW. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Public university students are not learning 2nd grade math. You would be surprised at how many brilliant students go public, and you may not be as superior as you think. Chances are that you will find like-minded students.</p></li>
<li><p>You can take a major or double major at UW that will get you into med school, your ultimate goal. Brown's majors of neuroscience and biophysics seem very narrow, thus making it hard to compare, but UW has majors such as biochem or molecular & cellular biology that would be good premed training.</p></li>
<li><p>Don't worry about your liberal political leanings...ALL colleges are overwhelmingly liberal.</p></li>
<li><p>It has been posted here several times that students who were accepted to selective colleges but choose to go elsewhere end up to be just as successful as those who actually attended the selective college. That says that the difference is not in the college, but rather in YOU.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Ultimately, it will be your decision, but debt is stifling and you will have much more freedom of choice about med schools, jobs and life in general if you have less undergraduate debt.</p>
<p>Normally, I would say to go to Brown for the difference between a public and an Ivy League education, but someone in your financial situation would be foolish to do so, given what you've revealed. Med schools rarely give financial aid the way, say, PhD programs in Physics do, so you would be saddled with not only debt from Brown but also from med school. After med school, you have residencies to fulfill before you can finally get to that neurosurgeon starting salary. You're talking approximately twelve years from now.</p>
<p>Brown is an excellent school. The students there all have incredibly impressive resumes by the time they arrive at freshman. So, yes, there's an advantage to be surrounded by peers of that caliber. However, as several people have pointed out, that does not mean that you can't find that type of person at a public. After all, you got into Brown, and YOU will be going there. You won't be the only one who turned down an excellent private for the financial benefits of a public. </p>
<p>You will have to work harder to find the opportunities at a public, but an ambitious, inquisitive student should be able to do that. Your job will be to identify and take advantage of everything that will benefit you - and to get as good grades as possible. If you do this well, your professors will take notice. They - and your performance - will be your ticket to a great med school.</p>
<p>In state is the way to go. UW is a great University and has a beautiful campus rivalling anything in the east. </p>
<p>You'll make a lot of friends and have so many options for your future. </p>
<p>A large debt for you or your parents will force you to make choices much worse than going to a great University like the University of Washington. go Huskies!!!</p>
<p>GO TO BROWN. You will not regret it. College is life-changing, and I know in your heart you don't want four years of hard work in high school going to waste by going to UW. Go to Brown, and you will make tenfold the amount of money and have tenfold the opportunities. $85,000 in debt is really nothing, don't worry about it. I mean, when you're deciding on a house that's $400,000 compared to $450,000, it really doesn't make that much of a difference. But it seems so much more for college because you have nothing else to compare it to. My dad went to Duke and turned down a full ride at USC-SoCal and was debt-free at age 33. And when you are making your monthly payments, you won't really notice the extra money going to college. It's just something you do.</p>
<p>i think we rush to judge the total amount of debt. and we always base it on a worst-case scenario. what if your family's financial health improves over 4 years? what if you get some great, high-paying internships to help out? what if you can find more scholarship $'s? sure, the opposite could happen. a parent could lose their job or their health, a financial downturn could happen. we don't have a crystal ball. i am an eternal optimist. but that doesn't mean i don't have an ocassional pessimistic night where i don't sleep worrying about all the what if's. be realistic and weigh how important the school is to you versus the debt you will incur. if you can't see the undergrad debt being worth the sacrifices--don't do it. when you throw the med school in there, the total amount of debt might well be more than you can imagine, so put the pencil to the paper and work out the numbers.</p>
<p>UltimateFrisbee,
Are you a current student? Because you can't be a working adult and say that $85K is nothing, or that a college name will make your income ten times higher. </p>
<p>You know, my husband and I paid off his college debt in ten years, but it was nowhere near $1000 per month, even considering the present value of the money. I'm pretty sure a new graduate would notice a $1000/month payment. You would need a job making nearly $120K right out of college to make that payment, if you wish to keep the payment at 10% of your gross income. If you are willing to devote 15% of you monthly gross to the loan, you still need to start out making almost $80K. And this is all before who8mahrice's medical school debt. I just don't think it is being realistic, especially if the big physician salary doesn't happen.</p>
<p>Debt = loss of future options. The debt doesn't go away if things don't go just as you planned. It is highly risky, and I fear you will spend ten or fifteen years regretting your decision as you scrape by to make those payments.</p>
<p>if you take out the loans now, and your plans to become a neurosurgeon falter, you jeopardize many things in the future...like a house and financial stability..when you go to med school, are you going to take out even more loans? are you going to work full time during college to repay loans? you say a neurosurgeon makes 500K starting, thats a smart neurosurgeon from pretty much any school...not just brown. i can infer by your Brown acceptance that you are a bright student...i think that you can get a great education at EITHER schools and come out just fine. why graduate with so much debt?</p>
<p>No one can predict the future, things just fall in place. Don't try to predict the future. God has a plan and a reason for accepting him to plan, and it is the best option. Forget about all this crap talk and possible outcomes and make your decision.</p>
<p>I agree that $85K is a LOT of debt, especially if you plan to attend med school. As everyone has said, folks care about where you get your highest degree, not your undergrad degree, so if you have to go into debt, wait until you are in grad school.
One option that is a compromise is go to UW & then transfer to Brown so you'll only have to pay for two years there (if you get in). If you have a lot of AP credits you might rather just graduate from UW & then go on to med school, which is what a lot of high-achieving students do. You'd be surprised how many brilliant students there are everywhere, not just at ivies or "prestigous" schools.</p>
Why do you advise others to be in debt up to their eyeballs when you are not choosing this route yourself? You are not alone, however. I have noticed that others often recommend debt because they either have a great scholarship or because their parents are paying, and they really have no personal risk. It really feels different when the responsibility is all your own. ;)</p>
<p>On another level, there is nothing wrong with UW-Seattle. My S was not accepted at UW for Masters Engineering Program and he is graduating with honors, double degree, work and project experience, great recs at highly regarded engineering school, BUT not good enough for UW. If you have the opportunity and the price is very right-Go Huskies.</p>
<p>With regards to the comment about the people at the school, I realize it can be very stuck up. And after reading it, you might come to regard me as such and won't accept any explanation towards it. However, I'm going to give one anyways. I'm not trying to say that I'm better, because I KNOW there are A LOT of people smarter than me at UW. I've talked to many of my friends at UW, and a lot of dislike the people there. I asked her why she didn't like it, what with 40k people there. She said 20,000 are anti-social, and the other half are not fun people. Of course I don't know for sure since I don't go there, but it's a source nonetheless. Without a doubt, any college I go to I'm going to meet RIDICUOUSLY smart people and some people who could care very little about college. At UW though, it seems that the latter group is larger than at Brown. That type of thing also seems to play into the atmosphere surrounding the college. I know I'm not that smart, I know UW has many great professors, I know there's sooooooooooo much I could learn at UW...I made that statement too rashly and bluntly. And it's not that I feel all the UW kids are stupid and really take addition and subtraction as their math class, it was just a hyperbole. I know that as a senior, there's going be hundreds of freshman smarter than i'll ever be at uw. I made an over-generalization that I should have written better, or at least explained it.</p>
<p>Well...my UW commit form goes in today. Thanks a lot to everyone who helped me! At least, with the money saved by going to UW, I can get myself a nicer laptop :-p</p>
<p>4 years at Brown: $85K
4 years at a liberal, artsy,Ivy School rubbing shoulders with best of minds: Priceless</p>
<p>Send the card in to Brown and call UW and tell em u changed your mind </p>
<p>Life is a daring adventure or nothing. To keep your face toward a change and behave like a free spirit in the presence of fate is strength undfeatable. :rolleyes:</p>