<p>I'm reaching out to (hopefully informed) strangers for help in making my college decisions! Ok, I'm picking between Dartmouth, UVa Echols (out-of-state), UNC-Chapel Hill (in-state, but I didn't get Honors Carolina), and Alabama with a National Merit scholarship. I'm thiiinking I want to major in chemistry and I'm almost positive I want to go to law school. HELP ME, PLEASE AND THANK YOU :)</p>
<p>what’s the $$$$ situation at each?</p>
<p>It’s basically the sticker price at all of them. Alabama is totally free, UVA is about 60,000/yr, UNC is 23,000/yr, Dartmouth is about 60,000/yr. I haven’t gotten financial aid back from Dartmouth though. I don’t want to expect much based on the packages I’ve received from private schools with similar price tags, but I do hear Dartmouth is very generous </p>
<p>Unless your parents can afford the price of Dartmouth, take the ride at Alabama and work your butt off for four years to excel. Every one of those sticker prices will probably go up every year. You can try to play the Alabama scholarship into more money at Dartmouth if the initial offer is not high enough, but they may not be as flexible in that regard as they used to be. And, where do you want to go to law school and/or practice? </p>
<p>My parents can afford Dartmouth but aren’t sure it’s worth the huge cost difference. I’m in-state for UNC so that’s an option for law school and then Harvard or Yale would be amazing but costly. </p>
<p>go to UNC. similar name-recognition as dartmouth, and, if you do well, it will open just as many doors.</p>
<p>For $23,000, it’s a very good deal (better than Alabama for free, IMO).</p>
<p>I tend to agree with MikeNY5 – especially if you plan to practice in North Carolina, since UNC law will probably do more for than Harvard or Yale. If you want to be a Wall Street lawyer, my advice might differ. </p>
<p>Go to UNC work your butt off and kill the LSAT. You are talking about another $250k for law school, which will mostly be in the form of loans (at many law schools, they will still ask for a parent contribution). </p>
<p>Is Alabama actually free, or do you have to pay room and board and fees? If so, UNC looks like a great deal.</p>
<p>UNC at $23K/year is a great deal. Alabama is far inferior to the other 3 schools that you are considering.</p>
<p>New option: Davidson with a $25,000/yr scholarship. I think that pretty much takes UNC and Bama off the list… Any new advice? This is stressful, ugh</p>
<p>What will Davidson cost you? That’s the real question – not the amount of the aid they’ll give you. If it’s 10K more a year than UNC, I’d go with Sybbie’s advice above. </p>
<p>It’s like 5k more than UNC but Chapel Hill is so far away I would also save a lot on travel. I guess I want to know if it’s not going to put you out of house and home but just be more of a stretch, if it’s worth it to go to a school that you absolutely love and has been a dream since you can remember. How much is it ok to take that into account? I picked Dartmouth out as my school when I was like eight.</p>
<p>between Davidson and UNC, go to UNC. Save your money for law school (which is mostly loans. Some top schools will give merit $$. Most schools that provide need based aid will still require your parents income and assets through needs access and will require a parent contribution (speaking as D parent whose kid went to law school).</p>
<p>I’m not going to UNC. It’s not an option. </p>
<p>More stuff has just come up since then and I’ve just scratched it off the list. It’s not for me.</p>
<p>No, the Echols is not a full ride. There is no $$ associated with being an Echols scholar. There are scholarship opportunities, but a scholarship is not a given</p>
<p>UVA states the following:</p>
<p>
</a></p>
<p>I’m modifying my question to ask whether it’s whether it’s worth the money to go to the school where you stepped on the campus and had that feeling like it was The One. I honestly can’t see myself at UNC or at Davidson (or at Alabama but my parents said no that one so it doesn’t matter). I figure I’m not going to be a teacher or a federal prosecutor or another job that requires lots of education but results in little pay, so the more I think about it, the more it seems worth it to go to one of those “dream schools.” Is that just completely ridiculous? </p>
<p>worth is a relative term. Can your parents afford to pay this without it being a financial stretch or having to make sacrifices to come up with the 240K in addition to monies needed for law school. Just because you want to be a lawyer at a time where there are a glut of lawyers and many young attorneys not being able to get jobs, there is no guarantee that you will snag a big law job </p>
<p>BTW, the competition is fierce for both federal prosecutors and teaching jobs both which are now hard to come by for new grads.</p>
<p>Ok, my parents CAN pay for Dartmouth or UVA without being put out of house or home. This is an official, from-their-financial-advisor declaration. Also, they’re fully expecting me to contribute if I should choose to attend a private school. Maybe I should rephrase my earlier question: because all of the career paths that interest me would result in a good deal of financial security and because my parents are in a good position to pay for the majority of my education without having to stretch too much, would I be justified in taking on some student debt that I wouldn’t have should I choose to attend UNC in order to attend a school where I feel I truly fit?</p>