<p>I understand now just as I understood that before. Please, give it a rest.</p>
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<p>That’s the trouble. The OP’s “full ride or top-rated” question can’t be approached very meaningfully as a theoretical question. It comes down to details about total net costs, family circumstances, the student’s interests and program offerings at both schools, etc.</p>
<p>My rule of thumb would be that in most cases, no matter how prestigious the school, a family should not borrow more than the federal loan limits ($5500 - $7500 / year). Consider average debt at graduation from the most selective universities. In most cases, it is well below $30K.</p>
<p>Agree with tk21769. Additionally, whether or not one is planning on attending graduate school should be taken into consideration.</p>
<p>Many parents are willing to be on board for undergrad financing-however-but have students headed to grad school have to fend for theirselves so if grad school is on ones horizon, it would be important to have those conversations early on.</p>
<p>to the OP, you pose an interesting question though it really does matter which are the schools one would be in the situation of having to choose between. Notre Dame as the prestigious school w no merit aid vs. No name niversity which offers a full ride or Princeton as the prestigious school vs. Notre Dame with a free ride would yield two different responses, I expect.</p>
<p>This thread’s getting derailed. Going back to the OP it, like anything else, depends.</p>
<p>There are several advantages to going to a prestigious university. You have access to world-class faculty, good recruiting, a degree that will impress people in your local region, and strong networking either through a well-connected friends, or a generally strong alumni network.</p>
<p>The question that needs to be asked is: are you going to take advantage of these opportunities? Are you going to go network with people, join clubs, do internships every summer, and so on? If you’re just looking for a piece of paper to get a job with (and i know people that were) it’s likely you won’t be much better served at the better university than at the worse one.</p>
<p>I do agree that the situation’s a bit unlikely though i.e. full ride vs no aid. The question i think is how much debt would it be reasonable to undertake for Prestigious U. From what i’ve noticed on CC, most people seem okay with 20k, and i’d agree. The very maximum i’d say (if it’s feasable for the family) should probably be 40k. Much more than that, and it becomes very difficult to pay back those loans.</p>
<p>Ok, now that I look back, I realize my examples do seem a little extreme.
Remember this is a theoretical question, and it’s meant to be a little black and white. Obviously in the real world it most likely wouldn’t be full ride vs. no aid whatsoever because there are many other factors that would be taken into consideration.
However, my original question still stands: which would be more helpful in the long run (finding a job, buying a house/apartment, and basically starting a life after college) - very little to no debt or a degree from a prestigious university?
I have heard of smart students who took on very big loans to go to very prestigious (think top 30) universities, but then couldn’t find a job after school and were still drowning in debt. I also personally know smart students who went to average universities with a lot of merit aid and ended up doing just fine. One found a well-paying job right after school and one was able to go to grad school with the money he saved.</p>
<p>There is a great thread in the Parents forum that has a title along the lines of “top student 3rd tier school four years later” that specifically discusses the real life results for one student who made that choice. You also could track down what curmudgeon has written on this topic. One of curmudgeon’s kids chose a full ride at a public U over Yale.</p>
<p>For a discussion of long range effects of parents taking on debt so the kid can attend a dream school, look up what cptofthehouse has written. In summary: too much money went to kid1 which greatly restricted the options for kid2 & kid3.</p>
<p>^^^ It sounds like you already have an answer, although it is based on a small number of observations. How many counter-examples would it take to convince you that those cases aren’t typical? More than a few anecdotes on College Confidential? </p>
<p>Some evidence suggests that attending a more prestigious college makes little difference in average earnings (if you control for personal abilities). If you believe that, then the rational conclusion would be to avoid taking on heavy debts just for the sake of a more prestigious diploma.</p>
<p>[Estimating</a> the Payoff to Attending a More Selective College: An Application of Selection on Observables and Unobservables](<a href=“http://www.nber.org/papers/w7322]Estimating”>Estimating the Payoff to Attending a More Selective College: An Application of Selection on Observables and Unobservables | NBER)</p>
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<p>here’s the thread (I’d be willing to bet money the student has no idea of the poor prospects of PHD students; or if she does she’s probably naive about how bad it really is):</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/905843-top-student-3rd-tier-school-four-years-later.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/905843-top-student-3rd-tier-school-four-years-later.html</a></p>
<p>What major do you intend to go for?</p>
<p>Many of the top schools in the country are among the lowest producers of debt after graduation. </p>
<p><a href=“http://projectonstudentdebt.org/files/pub/classof2011.pdf[/url]”>http://projectonstudentdebt.org/files/pub/classof2011.pdf</a></p>
<p>In page 12, you see that Pomona, Williams, Yale, and Princeton are renowned for average student debts from 3000-9750, compared to the national average of 26600. I know Amherst and Swarthmore are not very far behind.</p>
<p>This is because of a commitment to financial excellence- all of these schools don’t normally package loans, and even when a student requests them, they provide no interest school specific loans until 9 months after you graduate, and their endowment allows them to fund a very big subset of their student body. Pomona for example provides nearly 2/3 of the tuition for families 120,000-140,000.</p>