<p>I'm currently in the midst of the college application process, and I was wondering what everyone's take on student loans, debt, etc. was. From talking with counselors, teachers, classmates, and parents, there seems to be two main schools of thought:</p>
<p>Cheap School and No Debt: Go to an public instate school and graduate with a degree and little or no debt. In the short run it's definitely the more financially sound option.</p>
<p>Quality School and Higher Earnings: Go to a more expensive, out of state and/or private school and take on debt in process, but graduate with a more valuable degree which will translate to higher earnings in the long run.</p>
<p>It's difficult to assess which option would be the most practical. Looking at it from an economic perspective (which is fun, since it's what I want to major in), it can actually be more expensive to go to a cheaper school as the long-run cost of attendance can become enormous when you factor in lost income over the course of a career. For example, it may be more expensive to pay for an Ivy League education than for an instate public school, but your average Yale alumni is going to make a lot more money over the course of their working lives than your average graduate of say Ohio State.</p>
<p>But you could make the same economic argument in the opposite direction, as in the long-run the burden of student debt can balloon in the form of interest payments, damage to your credit rating, and lost peace of mind. Also, you can't ignore outside factors. While a generic Yale graduate has better job prospects than a generic Ohio State graduate, there is no guarantee he or she will be able to find a high-paying job quickly.</p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone had an opinion on this. There's not going to be one definitive answer, but it would be a good idea to discuss the question and see if there's any kind of consensus. When does the cost of going to a great school outweigh the benefits of having a degree from that school? Or, alternatively, when are the benefits of attending a cheaper school outweighed by the long-term costs of not going to a better college?</p>
<p>There are a lot of factors that go into coming up with an answer to your question. My kids are barely making it even without student loans, and I am so grateful they didn’t take any. My one son who has a high paying job would have gotten it regardless of where he went to college. It was his degree and the courses he took, IT, computer modeling and math that made him an attractive candidate; where he went to school, not one bit of difference. He has colleagues, many recent grads from school that are unknown except in their locale, and they turn away literlly hundreds, maybe thousands fo candidates from the top schools if they don’t have the specific knowledge bast the company and jobs want. And a lot of jobs are that way. The ones that don’t have such tight requirements are so competitive, and a lot of times, who you know in the hiring circle can make the difference because there are just so many apps for those positions that personale cannot sift throught them all. </p>
<p>There have been a number of studies about how much of a difference it makes where one goes to school, and it seems that those actually accepted at selective schools but turned them down tend to do as well as those who went to them. Two top flight grads of a local college I know both turned down top 25 schools, one an ivy, to stay local due to personal and money issues, and it didn’t stop them one bit in their successes. One is a Rhodes Scholar, the first and only from that school, and the other now is quite successful in a spectacular way–wishes she went a way, as she never left the area, but I think that she stayed here gave her a jump on a number of opportunities. </p>
<p>So it’s hard to say. For those who don’t have parental backing at all , taking out more than the Stafford maxes is a high risk. It’s not as though a job will be waiting for most kids out of school but that interest just keeps right on chugging along. To take that monkey on parents and students’ back is a tough load. Even those who do well, find that a lot of loans make it tough.</p>
<p>It all comes down to people’s goals. Some people are perfectly fine attending their local public college while other people view it as an extension of high school. </p>
<p>As far as earnings go they all over the board. There are some people who did not go to college and are millionaires while they are people who have gone to the ivy league and are barely getting by. </p>
<p>It all comes to do what you want to do and how much you think you can realistically earn. </p>
<p>What type of job are you looking for?
Are you open to moving to areas where the income is better?
Are you planning to live at home after college or live near you want to school?</p>
<p>Without knowing specific schools, majors, career goals, and amount of debt, it is not possible to definitively answer the question without a lot of “it depends”.</p>
<p>In the Ohio State versus Yale comparison, the answer may be different if you are talking about a goal of working as an engineer and taking $80,000 extra debt for Yale, versus a goal of working as an investment banker and taking $30,000 extra debt for Yale.</p>