<p>My son was awarded a full-tuition scholarship to Fordham University and was admitted EA to Georgetown and Boston College, both higher ranked. Should he accept Fordham's offer over the other two? I don't think we will qualify for much financial aid.</p>
<p>I am in a similar situation. A lower ranked school is offering 20k (merit) per year. School says need 60k a year. while a higher ranked school is offering me 5k (also merit) total need 50k per year.</p>
<p>But i havnt filed FAFSA (though i prob wont get much). That extra 15k is making me think a lot about the lower ranked school.</p>
<p>I am also unsure of what to do, but my parents are leaning towards the economically good choice. If you make a decision, i would like to know the reason, because i am also torn. </p>
<p>Im glad im not alone in this predicament, though i would not wish anyone to have to choose between money and better status and education like we are.</p>
<p>Well, can you afford Georgetown or BC? He should attend the school you can afford most easily without risking your financial well-being. You still need to save for retirement and have money for an emergency, un-expected job loss, etc. He will get an excellent education where ever he goes if he works hard to make the most of every opportunity offered.
Sciman, this type of choice is made numerous times every day ; affordability vs prestige, and over and over again the advice is to choose the best school you can realistically afford. You don’t want huge debt upon graduation that you can’t pay off, nor do you want parents to put their retirement, credit rating, etc in jeopardy by getting into debt for college themselves.
Every school can offer students a lot; you may have to work a bit harder to find internships if you school doesn’t have as many connections, etc, but people graduate and get jobs every year from those schools or they wouldn’t still exist. It’s how hard you work and make a name for yourself that matters most, no matter which school you attend.</p>
<p>Try to get your FAFSA in early so you have the best chance at getting a good financial aid package. My son is going to be pre-med, so he will need money for med school. This is why the scholarship award is so tempting.</p>
<p>@teachandmom Thanks for your advice. It’s a tough decision.</p>
<p>If med school is a consideration, you want undergrad debt to be as low as possible.</p>
<p>Was Fordham’s an ED offer? If not, you don’t have to make this decision until the other offers are in and you can compare.</p>
<p>Omzac, we went through the same choice. My D was accepted to other colleges more highly ranked, but in the end chose the most affordable option. She is a sophomore, and happier with her choice than she ever even hoped to be. It is a smaller school which has allowed her to pursue interests and opportunities that a larger school may have had too much 'red tape" to allow a lowly freshman/sophomore to take advantage of. She has quickly assumed leadership positions, and has found a mix of people she feels intellectually “matched” with. She chose a school in a very rural area vs city schools, and even this has been a really pleasant surprise for her, leading to a change in major! She went in with an open mind, ready to excell, and she’s doing exactly that. It’s all what you make of it in the end…
Could we have afforded to send her to her first choice? Honestly it would have been a struggle, with never any spare money, and stress due to having to borrow more than we felt comfortable with. That would have also limited money we can give her for trips, or special opportunities during her college years. Not to mention we have another child to put through school and afford clothes, food, etc for. We could have done it, but it would not have been wise.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about rankings - it’s very unlikely the US News ranking formula measures much of what you or anyone else actually care about.</p>
<p>Fordham is a good school. In some of the measures I would care about it’s better than Georgetown or BC, for instance only 1% of classes at Fordham have more than 50 students, versus 6-7% at the other two.</p>
<p>@thumper1, teachandmom, BobWallace - Thank you for taking the time to respond. I appreciate your wisdom. Lots of food for thought.</p>
<p>Last year I was in the same boat with my D. She had some fantastic choices. It was heartwrenching and we lost lots of sleep trying to decide. Brown was a top choice, as was Wellesley and Smith. She got some financial aid offers, and the COA would have been from about 26K-38K per year depending on the school. I was willing to do it, but it would have meant 4 years of struggling and lots of debt. She was also offered a full tuition scholarship to Pitt. So, my D and I got on a plane and went to visit! She LOVED it. She loved Pittsburgh, she loved the school, and she and I were impressed by everything that they had to offer. I researched everything I could about the school and was impressed by their percentage of students there with high SAT scores (you can get that info from their common data thing.) In the end, she happily chose Pitt, with some regrets about the others, but overall she was happy with her choice. She is home now after her first semester. She has had a great first semester. She has been involved in extra-curriculars, she is living in the honors dorm with a lot of great kids --who like her, were looking for an intellectually challenging environment. Her classes have been challenging. . .and she is HAPPY. She is planning to study abroad next year. The bottom line is–don’t make your decision based on some magazine ranking or prestige alone. Make your decision based on the totality of the situation–including what your family can afford. It is a hard decision. You will have many long talks. Good luck!</p>
<p>I think one piece to remember is that there isn’t one perfect college or university to attend. And there are many places where students will be happy and thrive.</p>
<p>Having big debt lasts for quite awhile and makes it harder to do other things, whether it’s taking a post-college trip, financing graduate school or buying a house or car. </p>
<p>My advice to is take a look at particular programs and opportunities at these options. As long as there is enough related to what your child is interested in studying, they are all good options. </p>
<p>DS is getting a fair amount of mail from Fordham and I am hoping we can visit at some point. On paper, it looks like a strong option.</p>
<p>Med schools won’t distinguish between Fordham, BC, G’town or many, many other schools. </p>
<p>He should go where he’ll likely get the best GPA for med school. All schools with good science depts are fine for pre-med students.</p>
<p>Lets look at this in terms of $$ and cents. </p>
<p>Current tuition at Fordham is $41k
tuition goes up ~ 4% a year He must maintain a 3.0 to keep the scholly (a non brainer if med school is on the horizion)</p>
<p>year 2 $42,640
Year 3 $44, 345
Year 4$ $46, 119</p>
<p>4 years free tuition at Fordham $174, 105</p>
<p>You will be left to pay Room, board, books.</p>
<p>With the monies you have saved from tuition alone you could
Send your kid on some really nice study abroad options
fill the gap while he pursues his passion (because you can underwrite the cost)
Let him take his choice of unpaid internships (because you can absorb the cost)
Pay for those med school apps and plane tickets for all of those interviews
Pay for 3 years tuition at law school or med school (where they are going to still ask for your financials)
Set him up in his first apartment after graduation and tide him over until he collects his first paycheck
Fund your retirement
Save for a rainy day
Sleep well knowing that your kid will graduate from Fordham debt free.</p>
<p>IF you do’t think that you are eligible for much need based aid, what will you have to do to come up with $176k cash money to pay for the next 4 years?</p>
<p>Since he does not have to make a commitment today (unless he applied ED), ponder this and weigh in again once you have the actual packages in your hand.</p>
<p>This is a no brainer, since grad school is involved. If he is going to med school, his gpa and MCAT will be of utmost importance. He can achieve a great gpa, and test scores, and do it with a lot less debt. This may also enable you to help him with grad tuition.</p>
<p>I just checked the Fordham website and it looks like they offer Early Action, not Early Decision. That being the case, this OP can wait to see how the finances run at the other schools…doesn’t need to make a commitment until May 1.</p>
<p>Of course, i might have missed something. If this offer from fordham is actually an ED offer, then the decision is even easier. When the student applied, he did so with the understanding that IF accepted , he would attend unless financial aid precluded this from happening. It sounds like the financial aid is great!</p>
<p>Thank you all very much for your responses. I think Fordham is a fine school. I graduated from there 30 years ago so I am familiar with it. I guess my son is falling for the prestige argument and also is looking to be away from home. He has until May 1st to decide, so we have time to think about it. I hate to tell him he must decide on a school based on money, since he has really worked hard and deserves to go where he wants, but the full scholarship offer is so tempting.</p>
<p>Did he get the full tuition for being NMSF?</p>
<p>Yes, he received a full-tuition semifinalist scholarship. He is also waiting to hear from a couple of Ivies RD, but they are always very unpredictable.</p>
<p>*money, since he has really worked hard and deserves to go where he wants, *</p>
<p>I guess I don’t believe in that. Lots of kids worked very hard in high school. I don’t think that equals getting to go wherever you want…unless money is no object in your household. If it is, then super.</p>
<p>If your son is a likely NMF, and he doesn’t want to go to Fordham because it’s local, then have him apply to other schools that will give him full tuition or more for being NMF.</p>
<p>Your “deserving” to attend the college of your choice is not the “prize” one get for doing well in high school. Doing well in high school and college should be intrinsically motivated. If it is not, being able to have choices, should be the prize (if one needs a prize to do well).</p>
<p>Your son deserves to start his adult life on the best footing possible. </p>
<p>THis does not happen for a person who has massive undergrad and grad school debt. Keep in mind that your income and assets will be used for professional school. If you are not in a position for need based aid now, you will probably not be eligible for it 4 years from now (barring retirement or major life style changes). Do you want to be 4 years older and closer to retirement age helping him to pay for med school. Keep in mind, the more you borrow now, the less credit worthy you may end up being to borrow later. In addition if he maxes out his loans for undergrad, the less money (and the less credit worthy he will be to borrow later.</p>
<p>300/400k debt will have a major impact as to whether or not he will be able to own a home, get married or have a family of his own.</p>
<p>I recently had a conversation with my sister that between undergrad and law school my D has almost $400k of education (fortunately she does not have the debt). She was given the choice of taking the less expensive option and getting helo with law school or going to the school of her choice and having the next stage of her life be on her (only helping to finance one or the other not both). She went to the school of her choice graduated debt free (we paid), but followed the $$ to law school (fortunately it all worked out). However, she has many friends who have the 400k debt from undergrad and law school.</p>
<p>Your son can still “go away to college” if you pay for room and board; he still gets the experience of living on his own from under the parents roof and is close enough for an occasional night out for dinner ( on you 
)</p>