<ul>
<li> I was recently accepted as a Winter transfer to the University of Michigan.</li>
<li> My intended major in Communication studies.<br></li>
<li> I would enter with 55 credits but they do not clear my distribution requirement a whole lot. Only the Social Science requirement is done. I have 4 for Humanities and 0 for Natural Science meaning...</li>
<li> I spoke with a pre-concentration advisor and she told me I am, at minimum, 2 ½ years away from graduating, but likely 3 or 3 ½ years away from graduating from UofM.</li>
<li><p>That would total my debt to around $45k at graduation.</p></li>
<li><p>I have a full ride to Wayne State U. in Detroit and 64 credits.</p></li>
<li><p>I am at most two years away from double majoring in Finance and Accounting.</p></li>
<li><p>I would graduate in $ surplus.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Here's the catch: I plan to go for my MBA or JD at a top school a few years after graduating. Many tell me for that reason that I should do my best not to incur any debt in undergraduate studies. </p>
<p>Should I follow that and stick to my full ride or pony up the money and time to get the prestigious education?</p>
<p>You cannot borrow $45k without a cosigner. This is too much debt.</p>
<p>You are “good enough for U of MI”, and you know it because they accepted you. Stay where you are. Save your money. Guess what! They are paying you to go to school!! Laugh all the way to the bank.</p>
<p>You can get a fine education where you are.</p>
<p>Your most important degree is your last degree - that is, where you get your MBA from. Business schools will care a great deal more about what you have achieved professionally than they do the ‘brand name’ of the undergraduate school. And business school is expensive so your professional options, when you graduate, will be limited by the need to pay off that debt.</p>
<p>Graduate debt free like happymomof1 says. Find a job that lets you demonstrate how much you have to offer, work for a few years, save your money for business school and go to a ‘brand name’ school for your MBA (assuming that’s still the right route for you.)</p>
<p>Good MBA programs require you to be in the work place for a while after college. They really don’t care where you went to undergrad. Stay and save.</p>
<p>Also, YOU can’t borrow $45k. You would need QUALIFIED and willing co-signers EACH year. Plus, you’d need to borrow for your MBA or law school…so…too much debt.</p>
<p>There’s a stigma on CC against turning away free rides. Viewing elite university’s like Michigan as simply ‘name brand,’ like clothes or OTCM, offering the same education and opportunities as any other university is looking at things very superficially.</p>
<p>*Wayne has a tiny endowment compared to the amount of students that it enrolls (about $7, 637 per student.) (wikipedia)</p>
<p>*Only about 4 of 10 white students graduate Wayne state in six years (compared to 1 of 10 black students.)</p>
<p>*The courses you need to graduate at Wayne might not be offered annually or might get full too quickly, which can prevent you from graduating as quickly as you’d like. (this might explain why its graduation rate lower than its peer institutions above)</p>
<p>*The most important point of all, the above points might affect your motivation to do well at Wayne state. While a 4.0, +175 LSAT score from a Wayne alumni might get him into HLS, this surely does not reflect the majority of its alumni. If you don’t excel (which is possible,) your options might be significantly more limited.</p>
<p>Am i saying to take on 45k and go to Michigan? Certainly not. In fact, given that you can’t take out that many loans on your own, Michigan may not be financially feasible at this point. But if it is, I’m simply recommending that you do your research about Wayne as opposed to acting according to a function that says “if free, then matriculate.” </p>
<p>I’d make several more points but i’m (or will soon be) late for work. (which isn’t a big deal where i work.) As a final point OP, why did you apply to both universities with significantly different majors? Are you certain that business is a field you want to enter into?</p>
<p>I agreed with people who said not to take on the debt simply for the prestige. However, I went further and said that it would be fine if he has other reasons as well. If his GPA will increase substantially as a result of finding U of M a better match, then it will likely be worth it. </p>
<p>If 45K was too much for a better fit and more prestige, then no one would attend the plethora of costly small liberal arts colleges which have tuitions more than 45K a year.</p>
<p>*- I spoke with a pre-concentration advisor and she told me I am, at minimum, 2 ½ years away from graduating, but likely 3 or 3 ½ years away from graduating from UofM.
That would total my debt to around $45k at graduation.*</p>
<p>Unless your family is contributing the difference, 3 - 3 1/2 years at UMich would cost a lot more than $45k…PLUS, upper division classes at UMich is more expensive. </p>
<p>How are you coming up with $45k as your estimate for debt?</p>
<p>What are your PARENTS saying? If they have to pay if you go to UMich, then they may not be willing since you have a free ride at Wayne St.</p>
<p>BTW…I’ve seen quite a few profs who did undergrad at Wayne St and did their PhDs at “presitigious schools,” so it certainly isn’t a crappy undergrad.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for your help in this matter. I came up with the $45k number by multiplying my cost for this Winter semester after financial aid by the applicable amount of semesters. </p>
<p>I think I might continue my studies at Wayne State. I don’t love it there but the idea of racking up debt for college is foreign to me so I suppose I don’t fully understand the consequences of it, thank you to all of you for helping me comprehend.</p>
<p>However, the OP is on track to graduate in two years (apparently having already attended for two years), so the non-graduation of many other students at the same school is unlikely to apply to the OP. Wayne State is one of the least selective universities in Michigan, so it likely has a lot of not-very-well-prepared students coming in.</p>
<p>Indeed, if the OP transfers to Michigan, the risk of failing to graduate likely increases because (a) the OP may run out of money (or student loan borrowing capacity) before reaching graduation, and (b) more things can go wrong in 5 to 7 remaining semesters (especially after losing some credit in the transfer and having to catch up in course work) than 4 remaining semesters.</p>