<p>If your son were absolutely, positively committed to a career as a Foreign Service Officer (perhaps because he grew up in Foreign Service family and has thrived in multiple overseas locations), then I’d say go for Georgetown. There is nothing like the SFS, and its students have tremendous opportunities that are hard to replicate elsewhere.</p>
<p>But, based on his interest in law school, go with Wake Forest. H went there, and it has an excellent liberal arts curriculum, especially for those considering graduate or professional school. You can major in just about anything, at any reasonably decent college, and be admitted to an excellent law school if you have the requisite LSAT/GPA combination. When your son is applying for legal positions, NO ONE WILL CARE WHERE HE GOT HIS UNDERGRAD DEGREE. Even if he ends up working in an international field, the SFS degree will matter far less than his law school record.<br>
I suggest that you and your son run the numbers with SFS/private law school debt, to see what his (your) monthly payments would be, before making your decision. Don’t count on much, if any, financial aid for law school.</p>
<p>Play with the loan calculators at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and you’ll discover why GU may be an “iffy” proposition, unless you (and not she) are prepared to pay off the loans.</p>
<p>Beachmomcg
Indeed, Wake Forest is smaller than GU, but still a top-ranked NATIONAL UNIVERSITY! Take the money! D really likes GU (she is a junior), but if she applies and gets no aid relative to other schools, our family will have to look at the economics. All of us parents MUST! I echo others’ sentiments that you should appeal politely, but firmly to GU’s financial aid office. Finally, I graduated from law school and have practiced law for 25 years. NO ONE CARES where I attended college for my undergrad degree…and frankly…no one cares now where I went to law school. Try to keep the proper perspective! Good luck!</p>
<p>I wouldn’t even think about paying more to attend G-town over Wake. Wake is an excellent school, with a reputation for very intense academics. Everyone we talked to when we visited was very positive about the school. </p>
<p>Doesn’t have enough diversity for my taste, but neither does Georgetown. </p>
<p>We are talking about an undergrad political science major. I can’t think of a college in the country that doesn’t offer 12 good poli sci course. It’s like eggs and butter in a grocery store.</p>
<p>No SFS is different from political science major. If it was liberal arts whatever I would not pay the money(against an equally wonderful school like Wake Forest) The problem is the SFS part. That is hard to get in to, and an amazing program. I would have a real hard decision with that one.</p>
<p>I’m trying to see the difference. SFS looks like an interdisciplinary major with a 2-year core and specialization after that. However, the courses are drawn from courses in all the other departments of the university: Poli Sci, Econ, History, Engish, Languages, Sociology, and so on and so forth. It’s basically a interdisciplinary major collecting courses that pertain to international issues. Except for the fact that you might be required to take a science course or two, you could assemble the same types of courses from the various departments at any good university.</p>
<p>I don’t think we are talking a difference of a couple thousand dollars here. My sense is that the OP was suggesting a difference of $40,000 a year. At the end of the day, it’s still just Georgetown classes versus Wake classes. </p>
<p>I think the one valid difference is that the Georgetown SFS program would surround you with poli sci, law school, government geeks moreso than geeks from all fields.</p>
<p>When I read the first post I thought the “LAC” was going to be some small local college without any name recognition. All rankings aside, I think of Georgetown and Wake Forest in the same light. One is Catholic, one is southern, they both play basketball, and they both offer solid academics. My kid would be acting a fool with a fuzzy yellow hat on for 40K less per year.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter where you got your degrees. What matters is how good your education was. Better colleges give better educations, not better degrees. OTOH, it is possible to get a lousy education at a great college- a lot depends on the student.</p>
<p>Georgetown SFS is one of only a handful of places for which I would say the following. The opportunity to attend it is priceless. You cannot ascribe a value to the chance to attend classes led by former cabinet officers, foreign heads of state, national security advisors, UN Ambassadors, US Senators etc. If you never go to law school or never work a day in your life, the four years you will spend, with a group of classmates who are among the most talented in the world, are ones you will always remember.</p>
<p>I think Georgetown SFS is a very special experience-- but my relatives who attended did <em>not</em> go into high-paying jobs despite stellar grades and internships. (Both went private sector.) So while I would lean toward Georgetown, the $ part has to be there.</p>
<p>“If you never go to law school or never work a day in your life, the four years you will spend, with a group of classmates who are among the most talented in the world, are ones you will always remember.”</p>
<p>I agree 100%. And I would say that about WFU with as much enthusiasm as I would about Gtown. I understand that SFS is special. Perhaps special enough to merit a huge debt for the difference between it and a non-distinctive school somewhere. But not special enough to turn down Wake Forest for much, much less.</p>
<p>Is there any possibility of Wake with excellent GPA to transfer in two years to GU? I don’t know much about GU’s requirements for that program. I went public for two and then to a great tier 1 LAC. Still had some debt, but not the burden I would have had. I had that plan going in so I had the “prize” in mind. LAC gave me scholarship for final years too.</p>
<p>Georgetown SFS is an iconic institution. It is regarded, and not just by formal rankings such as those in Foreign Policy magazine (where its graduate programs have ranked first in the nation in 2007 and 2009), in the same manner as Stanford is in Business, Columbia in Journalism, Johns Hopkins in Medicine, Harvard in Law or Juilliard in Performng Arts. Three current Heads of State , the current National Security Advisor of the world’s only military superpower and a recent U.S. President are alumni. The faculty list was alluded to in a post in this thread. I don’t think you make a conventional dicscounted cash flow type decision when you consider an offer of admission from SFS. It is that great an opportunity.</p>
<p>Well, vienna man, toast eater and downtoearth have all explained better than I could why we are so conflicted with this decision. SFS is special and it is so perfect for S’s interests, personality, etc. I think he will be challenged and excited by learning in a way he never has been before. And yet Wake Forest is a great school. It is not that S doesn’t want to go to Wake as much as he WANTS to attend SFS. The only concern he has about Wake, is the W-S location. I worry about that too. Not much to do there.</p>
<p>SFS is definitely a 4 year program. I doubt he could transfer in after a couple of years elsewhere, but that was a good suggestion and I’ll look into it.</p>
<p>I appreciated the comments about undergrad degrees/ law degrees etc. In this case, it really isn’t about law school. I do think he’ll end up going to some post graduate program, but right now we are only looking at what’s happening in Fall 2009. I don’t feel comfortable making a decision now based on what he may be doing in 4 years, although I know it should be a consideration when money is an issue. But he is only 18! </p>
<p>We finally received the official financial aid letter from GT yesterday. They offered $7K, all loans and work study, toward a $55K bill. S was offered scholarships to Wake covering all but $10K. We’ll send in the appeal today. Wish us luck! I’ll let you know how it turns out.</p>