I recently was admitted to UCI, Northeastern, and Wellesley. Of course, I would love to go to Wellesley. But, that would amount me in $63,916 because I don’t qualify for aid. Is it ever worth it? Some anecdotes?
BTW honors program would cost me significantly less (around $120,000 total for 4 years.) Wellesley would cost 264,000. That’s more than a hundred thousand dollars of difference, which is why i’m asking.
The general advice you’ll receive around CC is that as awesome as Wellesley might be, it’s not necessarily a good idea to add an extra $135000 worth of debt (in your case) when a comparable education might be attained at a lower price.
Ultimately, the decision is yours to make. Some questions: what are the views of your parents/those who will fund your education? What can Wellesley offer you (e.g. special programs, expertise in a particular area, etc.) that UCI or Northeastern cannot? Are you planning graduate studies or law/med school? What is your proposed plan of study?
These links might also help you (old posts, with anecdotes). The first link also has other links attached to it. Good luck!
If you are talking about student debt, then neither school is sffordable. As a student you will be unable to borrow that kind of money. The most that you can borrow as a student is :
$5500 freshman year
$6500 sophomore
$7500 junior
$7500 senior
Any loans above this amount will have to be taken by your parents or consigned by your parents.
The big question is how much are your parents willing to pay or borrow? Depending on the answer both schools may have to come off the table. Do you have any affordable options?
$120K is going to be difficult to pay off. You will be paying thousands extra in interest, and you will be paying it for the next 10-20 years after you graduate. You should try to keep it under 50K. Pinch pennies where you can. Go to community college first ant then transfer to your dream school so you can cut costs in half.
@filmfiend91, in your quest to be helpful, you are giving a lot of misinformation. Op cannot borrow 50k (please refer back to post # 3). Op is not going to be able to borrow 50k. There are
limits on how much a dependent student can borrow. Op states that the family does not qualify for aid. Perkins loans (which btw are ending this year, will not be an option for him).
50K was a hypothetical response, as in even if OP could borrow that much, anything more than that is too much for a recent grad to have to worry about paying off. (Even 50K is a lot) It was essentially to say that if a school was going to cost more than that without aid, it is an unrealistic choice and they should aim for cheaper schools such as public universities that might be willing to work with them financially in the case that their parents might not be able to help them with all of the costs (work study and merit based aid) or perhaps consider community college first to make college more affordable. I wrote this quickly unfortunately, and CC doesn’t let you edit after 15 minutes.
$63,000 a year in debt is TOO MUCH DEBT even for Wellesley. Are you saying you would need $240,000 plus in loans to attend? Wellesley costs,$63,000 now, but the price will increase annually. Keep that in mind too.
If you are from CA, UCI would be the clear favorite financially…and it’s a great school. How much will NEU cost you per year?
ETA…read,post number 3. Those are the loannamounts YOU can take without a cosigner. Your parents would need to cosign or,take loans themselves if the amount was higher.
You need to talk to your parents. What will THEY pay per year. If it’s not a lot…or,they won’t cosign Loans for you…the expensive colleges are not affordable,for,your family.
To be full pay at Wellesley, your family income would,have to be $200,000 a year…or so…or you would need to have significant assets.
Did you apply to any other colleges?
You posted this…so is there still a question?