<p>Hi! I am about to graduate from high school and have narrowed down my college choices to the honors program at UMD and UVA. Let me say first that I WANT to attend UVA--it's the perfect fit for me, I love the area, the campus, etc., and, as everyone knows, it is an excellent school! I am out of state as well, so I felt very lucky to get in!!
The problem is money. I could graduate from UMD debt free (I'm in-state, and it would be about $16,000 a year total) with my parents paying for everything. UVA would require me to get about $25,000 in loans...I don't see this as a huge amount, still, it's not my first choice to graduate in debt..
My question is what would you do in my position? Attend an excellent school you LOVE and really want to go to and go into debt, or go to a school you'll like okay and graduate debt free?</p>
<p>What do you want to study?</p>
<p>My teacher always said “Dont worry about the cost… You can ALWAYS pay it off eventually with a great job” so idk. Which ever you LIKE… and imagine yourself in is the perfect fit. Good luck!</p>
<p>TA - your teacher is blind to reality. The reality is that many new college grads do not get a ‘great job’. They get entry level jobs. So, the reality is that you end up having to live at home after college so that you can afford to pay off your student loans. </p>
<p>Being debt free is a wonderful thing. Debt is a form of bondage. </p>
<p>Choose to bloom where you are planted. If you are unhappy at UMD, then imagine what it would be like to owe thousands of dollars. That may help you to be content at UMD. And the honors program should provide you with a great challenge.</p>
<p>@katie2011 do you mean $25,000 worth of loans in total? Or $25,000 per year? If it’s the latter, then UVA’s definitely not worth it. If it’s the former, then it would be manageable - but you (and your parents) have to decide if you it’s worth the debt.</p>
<p>Sent from my SCH-I500 using CC App</p>
<p>That teacher, like so many ‘intellectuals’ who live in a bubble, is delusional. OP, take UMD Honors & don’t look back!</p>
<p>If its $25k in debt total after 4 years, it is not bad. And work over summers 2 minimize. </p>
<p>Tah. Your teacher is a moron. No wonder she’s not a financial analyst</p>
<p>thanks everyone, 25,000 for all 4 years just to clarify (UVA has a loan cap).
I’m probably going to be an English/Sociology/Political Science major (some combination thereof, haha) and I’m planning on going to law school!</p>
<p>UVA might have a loan cap…but did they give YOU enough money to attend without taking out additional loans? They meet full need for instate students…but I didn’t think they guaranteed to do so for OOS students. </p>
<p>$25,000 in loans for four years? Is that YOUR loans…the staffords? If so, that is not a huge amount of debt. </p>
<p>The implication in your post is that your family can pay the $16K for UMD, but that they cannot pay the full cost of you attending UVA. Is that true?</p>
<p>Both schools are good schools. Having no undergrad debt is a gift to you for years to come.</p>
<p>Since you’re planning on law school avoid loans. What is in your uva fa pkg.</p>
<p>Katie, I would allow my kid to choose either. Yes, it’s a decision that will mean debt but UVA is substantially smaller, more prestigious, has a better graduation rate and the debt load seems manageable. Plus, if you are planning on practicing law in Maryland, it would make more sense to attend an instate law school and out-of-state undergrad.</p>
<p>In terms of academics, I would say that if you were in the general undergrad population, UVA would be better. But the MD Honors Program is outstanding, and people who have graduated from there do quite well. MD also has great Poli Sci and English depts, so you really can’t go wrong with MD. </p>
<p>But where do you think you will do your best work in terms of studying and feeling comfortable enough on campus to excel in your courses and other activities? Do you see the two as being different enough to warrant the extra money? $25K is roughly what you would pay for a Honda Accord. Your education and degree will last longer. Or you might consider how much monthly payments will be on $25K in loans. (Some people on cc have those calculators handy.) You have to decide whether the UVA experience and slightly more prestigious degree are important enough to you to pay the extra money.</p>
<p>@thumper–UVA meets all need aside from the family’s EFC in loans and grants. They do provide full need to ALL students, not just in-state, thank goodness! My family’s EFC is something around $23,000, which is more than UMD but a lot less than UVA tuition.
@mom2collegekids–we haven’t recieved it yet, but we talked to a financial aid rep at UVA last week who told us that with us paying our EFC (around 23,000) the rest would be provided with between $5000-7000 a year in loans the the rest in grants (UVA has good financial aid because it has such a large endowment).
@2collegewego thank you, Georgetown actually has one of the best part-time law programs around so I’ve thought of moving back home and working part time as I attend law school…we’ll see!
@copterguy thanks for the insight :)</p>
<p>kate2011 - it would depend on the debt. If your total debt was only going to be $25,000, then I would attend UVA no question if that were my first choice and I LOVED it. $25K is manageable for the vast majority of college grads. If you plan on law school it’s more of a shaky proposition - most lawyers don’t make the Big Law salaries everyone reads about. But still, I might take it anyway if there were really a big interest difference between the two.</p>
<p>I don’t think you can go wrong either way.</p>
<p>katie2011, Run this search, and you will find out that it will be a big mistake to take out any loans, if you can avoid it. </p>
<p>search, (Should grad schools warn students there are no jobs?)</p>
<p>*Or you might consider how much monthly payments will be on $25K in loans. *</p>
<p>This isn’t the debt that will be the problem…the additional LAW SCHOOL debt will be the problem…once she adds this debt to law school debt the amount will be huge. Newish lawyers do not make a lot of money to pay back big debt. Many newish lawyers struggle.</p>
<p>UVA is great, but so is UM-CP honors…and it’s location near DC is also good.</p>
<p>However, if you could work over the summer to reduce that undergrad debt, then UVA wouldn’t require much debt at all. Can you do that? Can you also work a bit during the school year for pocket money? Will your parents give you pocket money or will you have to earn that? If you don’t know, you need to find that out now.</p>
<p>Katie: My son is in a similar position to yours. He was accepted as an Echols Scholar into UVa. We are OOS and our EFC is about the same as yours. The financial aid package UVA offered includes loans (some subsidized, and some unsubsidized), work-study, and grant. In the fin aid workshop on Saturday, we were told that for OOS, need is met FIRST by maximizing self-help (that means all sources of loans, and work-study), and then grants. Importantly, only the SUBSIDIZED loans count toward the loan cap, so it’s highly likely you could graduate with much more than $25K in debt. We’re projecting $35-40K debt for our son. Furthermore, the work-study money is just a max amount that you are allowed to earn. I spoke to a UVa fin aid counselor who told me that students can work no more than 20 hours per week, and it’s up to them to find a job that pays enough to earn the w-s amount – but that’s not guaranteed, and if he doesn’t earn that amount, that’s more that we have to pay somehow. </p>
<p>Our son has scholarship opportunities at two other fine schools with Honors programs. He, too, is considering law school. He will most likely accept one of the scholarships and decline UVa because the promise of more than $25K in total debt is just too much.</p>
<p>While MomOf2CollegeKids’ suggestion that you could work over the summer to make some money is a nice suggestion, keep in mind that the EFC calculation considers 50% of YOUR INCOME as available for college, so for every $1 you earn over the summer, your EFC goes up another $0.50. It won’t stay at $23,000 if you work over the summer! If your tax rate is 10%, this means that only 40% of your summer earnings will offset part of your EFC (and that’s if you don’t spend your money on clothing, movies, etc. this summer).</p>
<p>Be aware of all the debt, the tuition increases (I read that UVA is raising tuition and fees 8.9% this year – not sure it’s true, but look into it), and make a well-informed decision.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your incredible offers, and good luck to you!</p>
<p>“the additional LAW SCHOOL debt will be the problem”</p>
<p>After four years she may change paths and not go to law school. The real issue on the table – the decision that needs to be made – is the extra $25K for UVA. I do think summer work is a good suggestion.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone 
I don’t want to base my whole college decision on the idea that I’m going to law school, and change my mind…</p>
<p>keep in mind that the EFC calculation considers 50% of YOUR INCOME as available for college, so for every $1 you earn over the summer, your EFC goes up another $0.50.</p>
<p>I think this is only true AFTER earning something like $4k or so. Hopefully, Kelsmom can chime in here with the exact figure.</p>
<p>Found the quote from Swimcatsmom (who also knows a bunch about this stuff)… </p>
<p>On FAFSA a dependent student has income protection of around $4500 plus allowances for taxes. After that 50% of the income goes to the EFC</p>
<p>And, of course, any income earned by work study doesn’t affect EFC either. So a student could earn about $4500 over the summer and another $2500 from workstudy and none of it would affect EFC.</p>