Hey everybody,
I’m in the unique situation where I get to make a choice between two incredible opportunities. I know I am extremely blessed to be in this spot, but try as I may it is hard to see a clear answer here. The final decision is going to come to me, but I would love any and all extra opinions.
The options are Harvard (no scholarship) and UNC (with a carolina scholarship, which covers tuition, room, and board).
Thank you for your opinions!
Go to UNC with a Carolina Scholarship, and let your parents buy you a car, send you to Europe each summer, or pay for graduate school with the money they will be saving! You are going to get just as good an education at UNC as you would at Harvard. And I’m saying all this with a student who graduated from Harvard. Because of Harvard’s financial aid, the cost to our family has been LESS than our flagship state school. Would Harvard have been worth it if we had to pay $63K per year and go into debt? Truthfully, no – especially if there was another school like UNC that was offering four years of free tuition, room and board. That’s a savings to your family of $250k over four years. FWIW: One of my daughter’s friends was offered a similar choice: Harvard paying full fare or Duke Robertson Scholars offering four years of free tuition. He choose Duke and never regretted his decision.
If the cost of your education is of no concern to your family, go to the school you would most like to attend. If it is an issue, I think @gibby is spot on. You can get a great education at either school.
Thank you for the insight @gibby and @BldrDad I appreciate it
I go to a school where we get a Harvard acceptance maybe once every 4 years, and everyone is urging me to go to Harvard, saying it’s worth mortgaging your house over. I simply don’t know. I really do feel like I would enjoy UNC as well. Is it true that Harvard gives you a huge advantage after graduating with employers and grad schools? I feel if I went to UNC I would be able to easily get a double major and probably look like a “bigger fish” near the top of the class. I’m really at a loss here but I think the financial point is one to strongly consider as well.
No. If money is a factor go to Carolina. You can get anywhere you want to go from there and your family will save $250k. Enough to totally find any law or bus school and almost enough for med school.
If you are in the ‘no scholarship’ zone for Harvard, that means your family is at least somewhat affluent (over 250K income with no other siblings in college, 300-ish with a sib in college) If I were at that cusp, I probably would have taken the free ride at a state school. If you are much below that level, or significantly above it, Harvard may be worth it to you.
^^ @dansterns: Harvard readily supplies financial aid to families making up to $150k with one child in college. Financial aid is available for families making between $150k and $200k, but those families usually have multiple children in college, or extenuating circumstances such as caring for an elderly parent. A family with only one child in college making $185k is not going to qualify for financial aid, yet is expected to cough up $63K per year. Most upper middle class families cannot do that without taking out loans. http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/09/bending-the-curve-on-financial-aid
^^@gibby: The Harvard NPC tells a different story. (Is the article you quoted from 2011?)
https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/net-price-calculator
From my experience in dealing with Harvard’s Financial Office for the past four years, I know that $180K of yearly earnings is their upper limit for financial aid without extenuating circumstances – i.e. two kids in college, caring for an ailing parent etc. FWIW: over the past four years my wife and I had to avoid skirting the limit or our daughter would lose her aid. Here’s a more recent article that recounts the $150,000 number without detailing an upper limit: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/12/977-admitted-to-class-of-2019-under-early-action/
It does start to fall away pretty quickly over 150K, but in my experience of paying 4 years of Harvard tuition, the NPC was pretty accurate. There is something for families in the 200-250K range.
No one can tell you what to do, but I can only tell you what I did. I was in a very similar situation.
Back in the day (before the Harvard financial aid push) I was accepted there and had to take out loans and do work study. I also had the option of going to Williams with a full tuition scholarship. My parents were basically destitute, so no help there. I grew up poor. I chose Harvard, having to take out loans, over Williams. It was a crazy scary decision at the time, and I remember thinking the day I signed my first loan check the first week at Harvard “Oh my God, what have I done?” It was a check for the most money I’d ever seen. Of course, today I would have qualified for full financial aid. Back then, I had to take out loans and do a work study job. Even though it took me a long time to pay off my loans…
It was the right decision for me, and I would urge you to consider it as well. I would do it again if I had the choice before me once again.
There are a lot of reasons I say this, but looking back over the last dozens of years (I’m going to say which year I graduated, but it was a while ago,) I can pinpoint three main reasons I would do it again:
The caliber of students I met there was higher that I would have met at Williams. Many of these have become friends over the years, and several are now well known politicians, scientists and writers.
“Harvard” is the name that keeps on giving. I know, no matter where I go or what I decide to try to do, in just about any field, being a Harvard alum at least opens doors for me. This is absolutely true. I did not go to Harvard for that reason, but it has been the most surprising and useful side effect.
The Harvard alumni network is unparallelled. I can connect with any Harvard Club around the world, and know I will be able to meet someone who will offer to help me with just about anything, personally or professionally. I reciprocate, when possible.
Feel free to ask for more details if you like.
Of course, your situation will be different. However, I know my decision was the right one for me.
I disagree with @gibby, by the way. There will be plenty of time later to buy your own car, or take your own trip to Europe. I don’t really think you’ll get the same education at UNC.
And, even if you happen to learn the same things, you won’t be learning them with the same people around you. You won’t be taught by as many Nobel prize winning professors. You won’t have the same caliber of classmate. That’s really the essential difference.
There really is a reason that Harvard is Harvard
Just a couple more thoughts -
1.There is some kid on the Harvard waitlist that will be eternally grateful if you choose UNC
2. You will have basketball bragging rights over Harvard
Go to Harvard where you can develop among the tippy top elite. Furthermore, that allows the scholarship money to be used for someone else, possibly more needy.
Go to UNC. Do Honors. Make friends with the smart kids. Ask your folks to invest $30K annually in a trust fund for you.
It is such a difficult choice, however not so unique. Many students admitted to Harvard can go to other excellent schools for free because of merit scholarships. We faced this dilemma last year, and chose Harvard full price, mainly because my son had his heart set at Harvard and he was not at all excited about the other schools.
However I would say to the OP that if he can see himself happy at UNC, then go to UNC and study hard there. In my modest opinion and from my personal experience so far as a parent of a freshman, the price of Harvard is not worthy, especially if you know what you want to study, are focused and then want to go to graduate school. The name and the prestige of Harvard is huge, but so is the amount of money invested. Unless your parents are VERY rich, it may be too much money for an education that if you work hard, you can get somewhere else.
300K $ is a lot of money. If you save it now, and don’t spend it on cars and trips to Europe, you are already a potential millionaire down the line, and still holding a diploma from a very reputable school. From there, if you distinguish yourself, as I am sure you will, the upportunities to you are endless, even if you are not an Harvard Alumnum.
This said, only you know yourself and your circumstances, talk to your parents and ask their advice.
Probably there is not a right answer and only time will tell. And even then, you can go to only one school and will never know for sure how the other choice would have worked out for you in the long run.
After this winter, go to UNC!!!
Bias: Harvard waitlistee at a Boston high school
I think you are getting a fantastic array of advice.
Here is my $.02. Are you from NC or otherwise have an attachment to the school or the area? If not, then think hard about whether you want to stay connected to a state university (yes, I know it’s of national caliber) that isn’t your own state or community. Of course, maybe you love that part of the country (it’s beautiful), and that would be a huge consideration. I’ve seen a lot of students dazzled by the reputation and quality of a top ranked state school, but who haven’t thought about whether they really want to be in that part of the country and whether they would want to be permanently connected to its population.
Are you okay with the ginormous state U scene? My kids would be devastated to attend a huge state U. They just hate the whole vibe. If you are okay with that, then that’s terrific.
Are you thinking of law/med school? Those are very expensive! Can your parents afford four years at Harvard and then help you out with grad school? I have both doctors and lawyers in my family, and have seen unemployed lawyers and unhappy doctors who want to leave the field…a ton of debt is going to affect your big decisions later on.
I think there are fine students in both places. You may have to work a little harder to find your niche at a big, diverse place like UNC, but lots of people actually prefer that kind of challenge. My kids both opted out of big state Us, but that’s because they are non-partiers, don’t really watch football or basketball, and aren’t premeds. They really wanted an intense intellectual experience and they didn’t want to go searching for students like themselves at a big campus–they wanted to arrive and just fit right in.
Good luck and congratulations!
HardChoices22, if money is not an issue, I’d pick Harvard. I turned down a good-sized scholarship from Duke to attend H, and I’m glad that I did.
Pros of UNC, apart from the money:
If you plan to return to NC after graduation, the alumni network in NC will be stronger, as there are just way more UNC graduates there.
If you plan on law school or another graduate school that requires a high GPA, you can probably do that more easily at UNC, although that’s not guaranteed.
Cons of UNC:
The alumni network is stronger in NC, and maybe in SC, but Harvard’s alumni network everywhere else in the world is unmatched: it’s huge and graduates are pretty successful overall, and they will open doors for you.
You unlikely to have the same experience at UNC as you can at Harvard, unless your circle includes mostly other Carolina/Morehead scholars. There are of course people at UNC who are of equal caliber, but the overall student body doesn’t match up.
UNC is certainly a very fine and well-respected school, and so if you go there, your choice is certainly defensible.
UNC - better weather, better looking people, big time sports, and if you do well academically you will still be able to interview for the same jobs as if you had gone to Harvard. I am only at Harvard since I am a legacy and as a college experience its pretty lame. My father says the Harvard name means little once you are in your job and Harvard grads get fired on Wall Street as much as any other grads. A top student at UNC will get you the interviews. Didn’t Julian Robertson, the great hedge fund manager, go to UNC?