Expensive Dream vs Cheap Backup

College Search & Selection
1

<p>My dream is to go Pepperdine University. Its a perfect fit for me in almost every single way. It's also over 50k a year. I will most likely get in with a 3.85 UW and 1270 SAT without money.</p>

<p>My backups are University of Florida and Florida State, both in state tuition. They are both good schools and respectable, but I wasn't a huge fan. If I had to go, it wouldn't be the end of the world or anything.</p>

<p>My parents will throw in some money, but just not close to the 50 grand I need for Pepperdine. With the Florida in state and the bright futures, my guess is that it will cost around 10k or so a year. </p>

<p>So my question is, should I throw student loans with probably over 100k to go to my dream or just go to college in Florida with my parents paying the whole bill?</p>

<p>Anything would be helpful!</p>

2

<p>I’m in your situation with a 50k a year school vs the 10k a year U of M, but my debt at the expensive college would probably be around 20-30k after four years. Since I don’t know how I’m going to make money out of college, I personally wouldn’t be willing to have a 100k debt. It definitely depends on what you’re going into. Another difference is that I kinda dig the U so I’m comfortable enough falling back.</p>

3

<p>I would definitely stay with the Florida schools. They are both great schools, and I don’t think they’re all that much worse, if at all, than Pepperdine academically. Going over 100K in debt is ridiculous unless your parents are multi-millionaires, particularly in these economic times.</p>