<p>I plan to major in either psychology, sociology, or government while preparing for law school. Additionally, I may be interested in pursuing ethnic studies. Undergraduate research is important to me. </p>
<p>Any advice would be welcome!</p>
<p>Is money a big issue in this decision?</p>
<p>there are a few scholarships out there that are worth giving up Harvard for. I’m really not sure there is one at W&L. It’s a beautiful campus, and an excellent education, and for free, certainly a great deal.</p>
<p>But Harvard is Harvard and if your family can afford it without pain? I’d go there, personally.</p>
<p>JMO</p>
<p>Assuming Harvard is affordable, I would definitely go there.</p>
<p>Money is a factor in the sense that my parents already have a significant amount of consumer debt. If this were not the case, or if there were any savings for college, emergencies, etc., then the situation would be different. </p>
<p>That being said, if I tell my parents that I really want to go to Harvard, they are willing to help me take out the loans necessary to go.</p>
<p>W&L is a very different college than H, but it is still an excellent college. Is it a place where you think you will be happy? For your undergrad majors and with the intent of going to law school either can get you what you need. Since you describe your parents as having significant consumer debt (and only your family can make this determination) my inclination is to recommend that you take W&L’s scholarship as long as you see yourself happy there. Good luck!</p>
<p>As a graduate of W&L and the parent of a Harvard graduate, I would think that Harvard would be the better choice. I have not looked at W&L’s course catalog in ages, but I would not expect it to have much for ethnic studies. I would expect Psychology and Sociology to be about the same as most top tier LACs, but I think that their government studies would be above average for those schools. It is also not inconvenient to DC. AFAIK, W&L is not a research university and while I am sure that there are students who engage in research projects, I suspect that it would be mostly for their own satisfaction. I was well prepared for law school after graduating from W&L.</p>
<p>If money is an issue, you need to talk with your parents about the pluses and minuses of Harvard v. W&L. If Harvard is going to be full pay and W&L is free, then W&L may be the better choice (especially with law school in the future). W&L is a great school, it’s just not Harvard.</p>
<p>When you say your parents will help you take out the necessary loans, does that mean that you will leave Harvard in significant debt, yourself? Or your parents in significant debt?</p>
<p>If the money question is not relatively equal, you had better sit down and run the numbers. If you are unsure of the numbers, run a debt calculator to figure out your payments upon graduation. What you would need for a reasonable salary to pay off the debt and service, and see if it is doable, without undue pain.</p>
<p>If it is unreasonable? Take the scholarship. There are people giving up too many years of their future happiness for sheepskins these days.</p>
<p>Perhaps you can attend Harvard as a Law Student when the pay off can be immense.</p>
<p>My parents will be taking out about $10,000 in loans each year in order to meet the parent contribution. I plan to work with Dorm Crew during the school terms and at the beginning of summer, so I should be able to cover most of my student contributions without loans. </p>
<p>Also, if I don’t attend Harvard for undergrad, am I less likely to be accepted to a top law school?</p>
<p>Be sure you look at what Johnson gives you at w&l and look at course catalog. There are students doing great things with Johnson opportunity grants over summer which you might not be able to do if money’s tight st Harvard. One of D’s friends who is psych major spent summer in Israel working and studying Arabic. Maybe Harvard gives edge for law school but w&L sends kids to top schools as well.</p>
<p>Sent from my XT907 using CC</p>
<p>Maybe ask Harvard to match the W&L package? Or at least come closer to it?</p>
<p>Well, there are a lot of unknown variables in your equation.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How old are your parents and what is their retirement savings situation? Are they far or near to retirement age.</p></li>
<li><p>Do you have any siblings who will still need to attend college?</p></li>
<li><p>I can’t know what 10,000 per year means to your family unless I know the income and assets, and I wouldn’t ask you to post that on here, anyway.</p></li>
<li><p>Depending on the answers to some of those questions, and there are more, obviously, this is either a family decision that would be a huge hardship or a situation that can be finessed.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I don’t think any poster here can tell you the answer to that, but I do think you should really talk it over with your parents.</p>
<p>Good luck. I know this is probably a really challenging situation for you, right now.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Except Harvard only gives need-based Financial Aid and the Johnson Scholarship at W&L is a merit-based scholarship. I’m not sure Harvard would even consider it.</p>
<p>What does it cost you to:</p>
<p>Attend W&L</p>
<p>Attend Harvard</p>
<p>Attend W&L: $4,000 (books/travel/personal expenses)</p>
<p>Harvard: around $20,000</p>
<p>So we are considering a 16k per year difference. </p>
<p>Have you asked whether Harvard can raise your FA? They would not have come up with this number if they did not feel your parents could not meet it. If you do have unusual circumstances that are not reflected in FAFSA and CSS profile, you should bring it to their attention. Based on 20k requirement, I am reading it as that your parents are in a reasonably high income bracket.</p>
<p>20,000 a year to go to Harvard sounds like a really too good to pass up deal. How much money do you make working in the summer?</p>
<p>I know my own daughter makes a lot of money over the course of working for the year, and could have covered 2/3 of that herself working part time the last three years of school. Just a thought.</p>
<p>Here’s something to consider - you can deduct the cost of owning, operating, fueling and repairing a car from the cost of Harvard. You won’t need one / couldn’t park one at Harvard, and you’d almost certainly have to have one in Lexington, VA.</p>
<p>First off congratulations on working so hard to have these two tremendous opportunities available to you!
My family was at Washington & Lee a little less than two weeks ago. We attended an information session and had a campus tour. It has an excellent academic reputation (I know you know that), it is also a beautiful campus. My perspective of the downsides are that it is in the middle of no where with not much to offer that is in close proximity to it,it is a very small school, it has an overwhelming percentage of students who go greek. I did not see much diversity there and their stats bare that out.
A Harvard education for $20,000 a year would be very hard for me to pass up. I say that respectfully with no sense of the difficulties that may pose to yourself or your family. With Work Study, summer jobs and a small bit of help from your parents it would seem that it would be within the realm of reason. Best Wishes!</p>
<p>LeiaOrgana,</p>
<p>In dealing with the financial aid office, I found that Harvard’s attitude toward aid is to try to help folks come to Harvard while avoiding, as much as possible, the necessity of loans. When I laid out to the financial aid office why I thought that my EFC for my son was a little high, the financial aid officer listened intently. She asked me to summarize what I told her in an e-mail. I heard back a few hours later with additional grant money that closed the gap between what they originally offered my son and what I thought I could afford without loans.</p>
<p>If you present to them the reasons why your family will be unable to contribute Harvard’s calculation of the EFC without loans, if you present the facts of your family’s specific circumstances, they may increase your grant.</p>
<p>I didn’t ask for an additional $10K per year; my needs were more modest. So, I can’t tell you that they will give your family and additional $10K. But if you have real circumstances that you can document, they may increase your financial aid offer and reduce the amount that your family would have to borrow to send you to Harvard.</p>
<p>Even if they give your family another four or five thousand per year, over four years, that would substantially reduce the amount of loans needed over four years. If it were me, I’d also hesitate at taking a total of $40,000 in loans over four years. For $25,000, though, for Harvard, I wouldn’t hesitate very long.</p>
<p>W&L all the way unless the school would not be a good fit for you socially. Great school. Ranked number one, ahead of Harvard, in Alumni Factor.com rankings which might be a better ranking system than Forbes, US News, etc (W&L is also highly ranked in these). Unbelievable alumni network. Small school with tight knit community. Known and worked with plenty of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, W&L, etc grads over the years. W&L folks every bit as sharp and bright and successful (maybe more successful in general, than the Ivy grads).</p>