GWU is double the price of U Of M

Paying for College
1

<p>I got accepted to a handful of schools, even with my slightly above average GPA and even more average SAT score. </p>

<p>It basically comes down between George Washington University vs University of Minnesota. Now, academically GWU is better, and it's private. But is it really worth the extra $100,000? Both schools offered me loans only. I like both schools just as much, albeit I do like Minnesota slightly more. </p>

<p>Considering that it's all pay all pay all, my question again is it worth paying so much in 4 years?</p>

2

<p>Wait, you like Minnesota more, it’s well regarded, and it costs much less? Why are you even asking?</p>

<p>Tell GW “no, thank you,” and never look back.</p>

<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC</p>

3

<p>Why do you say GW is academically better than Minnesota? What do you plan to study?</p>

4

<p>It’s that GW seems to have a better prestige to it, like a person attending that school can get more recognition or better salary / better post grad places. Or am I just imagining things? That’s what I was thinking.</p>

5

<p>Well something in the field of economics, business, finance, political science, or in that range</p>

6

<p>GWU is a good private university, but nowhere near being elite. </p>

<p>I would attend UMN in a heartbeat.</p>

7

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<p>Eh, maybe. But not $100,000 worth.</p>

<p>GW is fairly well thought of around Washington, but I don’t think the name travels all that far.</p>

8

<p>So you definitely think that by choosing UMN over GWU I will not be making any “grave” mistakes??</p>

9

<p>GWU is one of the most if not most expensive school to attend in the country (w/o finaid)!</p>

<p>Have you visited the campus? I’m not familiar with UMN, but GW does not have a traditional campus… the school buildings are dispersed throughout 4-5 square blocks. If you weren’t paying attention for it, as a tourist, you would never know you’re on campus.</p>

<p>If you’re in-state at UMN, I’d recommend you attend there. You can always attend GW as a grad student.</p>

<p>And you’re success (however you define it) will not be determined by the school you attend.</p>

10

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<p>Of course, some people consider that a plus, not a liability. I would.</p>

<p>Still, not as big a plus as a B.A. with $100,000 left over. I really like $100,000.</p>

11

<p>I agree. The price difference is too great for you. If you like GWU, go there for grad school. Many colleges charge less per year for grad school (other than for MBAs) than they do for undergrad. In any case, save your cash and your debt capacity for grad school, which will give you a higher return in the end. </p>

<p>GWU has risen in prestige on the East Coast in the last 25 years, but it used to be extremely mediocre with a high rate of students transferring out of it, so it probably is not well known in the midwest.</p>

12

<p>Are you INSANE?</p>

<p>Seriously, don’t even consider GWU.</p>

<p>Yes, I’m a GWU grad.</p>

<p>Yes, I paid CASH (!!!) and private student loans for GWU. BIG mistake. Too much $!!</p>

<p>$200,000 and counting debt/cash that I paid , baby. It sucks. HARD. </p>

<p>That was a HUGE, huge mistake. $200,000 is absurd for a bachelor’s degree.</p>

<p>Don’t do it. I don’t care if you got into Harvard. **NO bachelor’s degree is worth $100K!!! **Let alone $200,000!!! I think this is the most exclamation marks I’ve ever used.</p>

<p>I disagree with GWU being unheard of in the midwest. It’s a top tier school, and people know it as such. People in rural Iowa might not have heard of it, I’ll give you that. People in academia and politics know of GWU. Still, Harvard, GWU, NYU, Podunk you, don’t go $100K in debt! No way.</p>

<p>RUNNNNNN from GWU and the $200,000 in debt that you’ll be in without aid.** RUN!!!**</p>

<p>I wouldn’t even go to a state school if I had to pay full price. That’s a lot of money still.</p>

<p>I would attend the cheapest school you can find for freshmen year, then reapply. Or do 2 years of community college and transfer. Or get a job on campus as an administrative assistant (full-time) and get some tuition benefits. You could do this at GWU.</p>

<p>Student loans have interest. If you take out $100,000, you’ll be paying a LOT more than that by the time you’ve paid off your student loans over the next 25 YEARS. Your private student loan payments will be BIG after you graduate. As in, over $1000 a month for student loan payments. Um, you haven’t eaten yet. Or, paid rent. The economy sucks. You’re not going to be rolling in income when you graduate college. Say you make $40,000 a year after you graduate if you’re lucky. After taxes, you might clear, say, $2200 a month in income. Want to keep living in DC? Ok, that’ll be about $1200 for a small one bedroom apartment in the suburbs. That leaves you $1000 to eat on, for entertainment, for clothes, for everything. Um, remember those student loans? Yeah, you won’t be able to afford those payments even making $40,000 (which, by the way, is higher than most recent graduates make). Yes, you can apply to extend your student loan repayment, but it’ll still be a sizeable chunk of change. Student loans also CAN’T go away if you declare bankruptcy. **The interest on the loans grows and grows and GROWS over the 25 years of repayment. **</p>

<p>Have I scared you yet?</p>

<p>Repeat after me: I like to eat. Thus, I will not take huge private student loans.</p>

<p>Repeat again: “$100,000 worth of debt in student loans is ABSURD.”</p>

<p>And, keep repeating that.</p>

<p>RUN from any school that requires you to take out $100,000 in loans to attend it. I don’t care if we’re talking GWU, Harvard, Oxford, Podunk U. RUN! RUN LIKE HELL!
**
Like I said, I went to GWU.**</p>

<p>Like I said, I received NO aid. I paid for GWU in cash and private student loans MYSELF.</p>

<p>I’m still paying for GWU, and will be for the next few decades. </p>

<p>I like GWU, but there’s no way in hell that my bachelor’s degree was worth $200,000. Literally, $200,000. And, that’s before the loan interest makes that number grow more.</p>

<p>Not. worth. it. </p>

<p>**$100,000 could buy a lot of things. A HOUSE in the midwest. **Investments that could yield huge gains over the years. Trips around the world, and back again. Vegas, baby.</p>

<p>$100,000 for a college bachelor’s degree is like flushing huge money down the toilet.</p>

<p>Been there, done that. And, I have the debt to show it.</p>

<p>**Don’t make my mistake of debt. I like GWU, but not for the $200,000 that I paid. <a href=“Yes,%20I%20actually%20paid%20that.%20I%20received%20$0%20in%20financial%20aid%20for%20my%20bachelor’s%20degree.%20Not%20one%20dime.”>/B</a></p>

<p>And, if you’re still not convinced… I’ll say it again…</p>

<p>RUNNNNN!!!</p>

<p>**NO COLLEGE DEGREE WORTH $100,000 OF DEBT! ** No matter which school, NO SCHOOL is worth $100,000 IN DEBT (and counting, as interest will increase that number greatly).</p>

<p>RUNNNNNN!!! Seriously, R-U-N.… don’t look back.</p>

13

<p>so, tell us what you really think, gwgrad!</p>

<p>(I completely agree, by the way)</p>

14

<p>Yes, you’re imagining things. GWU graduates still don’t have huge starting salaries either. You’ll be lucky if you land a $40,000 job after college. The norm is $30,000 a year. That’'s before taxes. And, if you live in an urban city and/or have $100,000 worth of student loans, you seriously will be financially HURTING (hard!!!) even if you make $40,000. You might not even get a job right out of college. </p>

<p>$100,000 is a LOT of money.</p>

<p>You will NOT make huge money just by going to GWU. Maybe $30k-40K a year before taxes.</p>

<p>You will have HUGE, HUGE regret if you go $100,000 into debt for a bachelor’s degree. That’s NUTS!</p>

<p>Do you have any idea how much interest you’ll be paying on those $100,000 in loans??? Do you have any idea how huge those student loan payments will be? Even if you make $40,000 a year after you graduate (which, by the way, is slightly higher than the average starting salary), you’re going to be scraping by-- at best-- to make minimum payments on those $100,000 loans.</p>

<p>I’ll say it again: RUN… LIKE… HELL!!!</p>

<p>**And, this is coming for a GWU grad who has WELL OVER $100,000 in private student loans AFTER I’ve been paying on them. Yeah, it hurts. It sucks. DON’T DO IT. A bachelor’s degree is NOT worth $200,000… let alone $100,000. **RUN! LIKE! HELL!!!****</p>

<p>By the way, you do realize that $100,000 in loans wouldn’t be enough to attend GW, right?</p>

<p>RUN!
RUN!
RUN!
Forget GWU. It’s not worth $100,000 more. Seriously, forget it. You have nothing to prove.</p>

<p>You can always attend GWU for graduate school and get aid later on. You can always work at GWU later on as an employee and get tuition benefits and get your master’s degree FREE from GWU (assuming you work at GWU full-time with tuition benefits while pursuing the master’s degree). And, one more time… RUN! RUN! RUN from GW and $100K!!!</p>

15

<p>Academically in many areas, GWU is less respected than the U of MN. The only “grave mistake” you will make is taking out 100K of debt to attend GWU, a school you like less than your cheaper, better alternative. I am curious to know how you got the impression that GWU is better. Their marketing is certainly effective, I guess.</p>

16

<p>gwgrad I am going to print this out and show this post to people when they talk to me about how much college debt they should take on. You really put it in a way that will get their attention-thank you. I am sorry you have such a huge debt-I really am.</p>

17

<p>Pepper03-</p>

<p>Thanks for the comment and the debt condolences. :slight_smile: I hope it can deter others from making my mistakes. The 18 year old me thought “omg my dream school… it can make me successful in my career… I wanna go to GWU.” The now-adult me thinks, "Oh, <em>#</em>@(, I’m so screwed… early retirement, dream vacations, and nice home ownership and potentially even babies are out of the picture. Every time I think I’m starting to get ahead with retirement savings, cash savings, or anything else, I look at my student loan summaries and hit yet another wall. My income is EATEN by student loan payments. My credit is trashed-- high debt-to-income ratio. Huge student loans = limited options for much more important things as an adult. Or, more fun-ly said, “run like hellllllll!!”</p>

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<p>Minnesota is among the top 3-5 in chemical engineering.</p>

<p>Sent from my NookColor using CC</p>

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<p>gw you should make a new thread to discuss how you got into such a huge hole-I think it would really help others.</p>

20

<p>I am going to give another view point here, as GWgrad has done such a great job in explaining the drawbacks of going to an expensive school and owing for it thereafter.</p>

<p>What are your parents saying? Are they willing to pay the differential? In your case, since you seem to prefer UMin anyways, these are really not questions for you personally. For you, the answer is pretty easy.</p>

<p>But if you were someone who so preferred GW, what you need to do is to sit with your parents and get from them what their financial situation is, and what they can and are willing to pay. You watch for nuances as well as what they are saying because you love them and you don’t want them to do something foolish to jeopardize their credit and financial security, so try to see beyond the bravado if that’s there and get a read on the situation.</p>

<p>We offer so much for our kids in terms of college money each year, and they look for whatever they want within those constrains. If GW were the dream school for them (and yes, dreams can turn into nightmares with no control from the dreamer) then it would mean loans on their part, extra work in the summer and school year, depleting their savings, begging relatives for help, cutting back on housing and food plans, and getting some scholarships. May still be undoable. </p>

<p>As a freshman, all you are guaranteed is $5500 in loans form Staffords. That’s not gonna go to far. But if you stick to the Stafford guarantees, you will graduate with under $30K in loans and be in good company with a lot of other kids. Still close to $300 a month in loan payments for 10 years, or $150 for twenty years, but doable. Less, if you find work at home and double pay those first years. It’s when you start getting double that amount due to Perkins, and still another $4000 from Stafford when your parents get rejected by PLUS, and start looking at the outside loans as well, that you can really find yourself underwater. This is a reality. Won’t say anymore as GWgrad has put it better than I ever could.</p>