Help me - St. Joseph's or Manhattan College

<p>If you care at all, read this: </p>

<p>I got into SJU, Manhattan College, Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, and Catholic University. However, money is a big problem so it's come down to SJU and Manhattan college.</p>

<p>SJU would cost $26,000 a year. My parents told me they can pretty much only pay $12k a year. Maybe they could go on a payment plan or take out a loan or something, but I can't help but feel selfish if I go here. It's really not all that affordable in my situation with my mom unemployed and my brother already in college. </p>

<p>Manhattan college would coast $15,000 a year. Like I said, my parents would be $12k a year. </p>

<p>The wild card is that I have $40,000 in an account that I receive when I'm 18 from a lawsuit. Neither of my parents or myself want me to use all that money towards college, but I would certainly pay the $3,000 a year to go to Manhattan. If I ended up going to Saint Joe's, I'd probably have to use all that money in the course of 4 years. </p>

<p>I like the SJU campus much more than Manhattan's - it's much more spread out and bigger and more of a college feel. Also, I'll be majoring in business so I believe that the Haub school of business is the better business program. Still though, I do like Manhattan College a lot because of the location, affordability, and other things. I feel like it's not as good as school though and not as nice as campus, which pushes me toward SJU. If it weren't for money, I would go to SJU. But again, it's not that important to me cause I can always transfer (not necessarily to SJU) if I go to Manhattan and am unhappy. </p>

<p>So basically, I'm just looking for opinions. Do you think SJU would be worth the extra money (I'd have to spend $40k of my own money and have $30k in loans when I come out) compared to Manhattan ($12k of my own money and $20k in loans when I come out)? For the record, SJU isn't my dream school but I just like it a little bit more than Manhattan.</p>

<p>Yeah, I realize this forum is mostly for kids deciding between Princeton and Yale and you’re probably not interested in a kid that does not doesn’t do 3 hours of homework a night, but I don’t know what to yell you.</p>

<p>My D is considering Manhattan, but we haven’t visited yet. I can’t comment on SJU. I’m interested in which school you chose, and why. And there are a good number of non Ivy kids here - just gotta look in the right places!</p>

<p>Manhattan is a very good school – I wouldn’t pay more to go to St. Joes, particulary in your case when money is a factor. I’ve seen both campuses and I can see why you prefer St. Joes. However, if you want to end up in the NY area, Manhattan would be the better choice even if the price is the same because it has many local alumni and the location offers opportunities to intern in NYC.</p>