<p>I am a very strong and hard working student with a 3.9 GPA and a 29 ACT. I am not the top of my class but a respectable top 10%. I have been admitted into the Kelley School of business at Indiana University and love the school. I only would receive 4k off per year making it roughly 36k. I have in state tuition at Wisconsin and Minnesota and was accepted to both. I like Madison and the Carlson school of Management at U of M, but Kelley seems better to me. With two other siblings and one in college, my parents have only saved up about 20k total for me. U of M and Madison would be roughly 20k per year so that is 80 thousand total which is a lot but doable. If I went to Kelley it would cost me roughly 150k which is about twice as much. We do not get any merit aid which stinks but that is the way it is. </p>
<p>Does anyone have any advice for how to pay off huge college debt? I do not understand how students that don't have money can afford to go to top schools that are 60k a year like Northwestern or USC. I understand some get need aid but these colleges are so spendy.</p>
<p>For scholarships, many of them strongly look at ACT scores and a 29 is respectable, but doesn't seem to win me anything. Is there any way for me to attend IU or is that simply out of the question? I would appreciate any tips or advice on my situation. For the record, I am very interested in finance and have my own stock portfolio of roughly 6k. I have made a little but hope to learn more about investing and allow my portfolio to grow. Please give me any advice as this is very stressful, yet a big decision for me. Thanks</p>
<p>It’s really hard for people to afford to go out-of-state unless their parents are reasonably well-off and able to pay for it (or they’re lucky enough to be one of the tiny percentage to get really good scholarships / aid somehow). Even if you were comfortable with going into debt – which you shouldn’t be – it’s much harder to borrow that amount (and it isn’t remotely safe or worth it to do so). </p>
<p>I recommend that you contact Kelley and see if they or the university as a whole have scholarships for OOS students. Chances are, they probably won’t but I think you’ll feel better if you check. But the odds of you being able to afford to go to an expensive OOS with only $20k total in savings aren’t good and it’s risky to take out student loans since what might end up happening is that you/your parents will qualify for one year, rack up $40k in loans, and then have to drop out since taking out all that money has made their credit bad and prevented them from taking out any more.</p>
<p>It is simply out of the question because it is not a financially feasible option for your family. You state yourself that your scores will put you out of the running for major merit money. You would need merit aid of 20k a year to put Indiana in line with you cost of attendance in-state. In addition, it is highly unlikely that you will be ever granted in-state tuition, so the cost of attending Indiana, will not become less expensive.</p>
<p>Here is a tip: Be happy that you have some great affordable in-state choices. Take them. Where ever you decide to attend, make the best of all of the opportunities available.
There is no reason to pay the difference to go to Indiana, where you can get a great education in-state at Wisconsin.</p>
<p>Thank you for your responses. I do not mean to complain about U of M or Madison as they are both great schools, but the Kelley school of business at IU just felt right and I loved the campus. Kelley is ranked ahead of the others but there are other reasons I liked the school. Any other opinions would be great. Thanks for the posts.</p>
<p>If it makes you feel any better, I’m pretty sure that Carlson’s business program is higher-ranked than Kelley’s by the Financial Times, although I could be wrong about that. (It’s been a while since I looked at that stuff).</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is that if you do really well & get your bachelor’s degree, your future employer might be willing & interested in financing your graduate degree! That could be at a different U from your UG degree. Congrats on having some great options!</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is that if you do really well & get your bachelor’s degree, your future employer might be willing & interested in financing your graduate degree! That could be at a different U from your UG degree. Congrats on having some great options!</p>
<p>Graduating with no or low debt (as you can do with in-state Us) will give you a LOT more options.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. For business I value a larger university to make more connections, although I’m sure private schools have their pros as well. It would be great to find a company to pay for grad school if I went back after to work for them but I also feel that I would have a better chance for that if I went to a better school with more hiring companies. IU Is ranked roughly 18, Madison is ranked 27, and Minnesota is ranked 54ish. I wanted to see how new rankings changed. IU is building a new undergrad 30 million dollar building so they clearly are making improvements. I’m sure Madison or Minnesota will work but hope they still have great networking and connections to bigger cities instead of just Milwaukee and Minneapolis/St. Paul area.</p>
<p>I would not sit up nights worrying about#18 VS. # 27. In fact, unless you are majoring in acounting or computer science, outside of Wharton and Stern, I really question the “usefulness” of a “business major” (and I am saying this as a person who holds an undergrad degree in business and worked 25 years in corporate life in operations, finance and HR). There was really nothing I learned in my business program that helped me to get a job. I was able to read, thing critically, and had good analytical skills. No matter what I thought I knew, my employers still provided training to do it their way.</p>
<p>Save your money. Get good grades,snap good internships, graduate with minimal debt. Let your employer pay for grad school.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input Sybbie, I want to double major in accounting and finance and hopefully focus on investment banking my junior and senior year. I understand that some think undergrad business isn’t always the most helpful, but I am very interested and feel that I can find the right job when I graduate and be happy with it. Any other inputs are much appreciated. I’m not sure what Madison or Minnesota are ranked specifically, but IU is #8 in accounting and #9 in finance nationally which is respectable. Madison is ranked #2 in insurance but I’m not interested in that. I know rankings aren’t everything but it is tough to draw the line somewhere. I get in state tuition at U of M and Madison, so if it came down to those two, I would choose Madison as it is a little better and I liked the campus and sports life there. Thanks for all inputs.</p>
<p>USC offers automatic discounts to NMSF’s – they pay top dollar for great tests scores. 'SC also offers rather generous need-based aid. (Dunno about Northwestern.) Finally, both schools have a lot of full-pay students, i.e., wealthy parents.</p>
<p>Comment: for accounting, go instate, since the Big Four is not that competitive and they recruit from everywhere. For a decent chance at ibanking/consulting, you need to aim a LOT higher for undergrad (which won’t be possible without a much higher test score). Such employers have a limited recruiting path. They are just as likely to hire an Harvard English major over a Minnesota biz major.</p>
<p>Comment 2: ibanks frequently ask for SAT/ACT scores and your 29 is too low to be competitive.</p>
<p>I am from Minnesota and while I Carlson School of Business is not an Ivy, it is not a bad school and is definitely ranked higher than your first choice. Also, it is competitive to get in (especially as freshman, most people are accepted to CLA and can transfer for CSB after two years if they maintain high gpa). </p>
<p>While it will be hard to break into investment jobs on Wall street after graduation from UofM, it is doable. In addition, you can get a job at Piper Jeffrey in Minneapolis or American Express financial advisors here locally to get an experience.</p>
<p>I am in my late 30s and have several of friends who graduated from Carlson School of Business (they are all late 30s, early 40s). </p>
<p>Everyone is doing great. Three moved to New York (either after working a year or two after graduation or almost right away after graduation). </p>
<p>One retired at the age of 35 several years ago after starting working for Piper Jeffrey on the trading floors manning the phones (she was climbing corporate ladder and was getting hefty bonuses while doing that, she does not have to work anymore). </p>
<p>Another friend worked for several years, then went to NYU to get MBA and came back to work at Piper Jeffrey. He is doing great professionally. He told me that it took him two tries to get into NYU because he did not have bachelors degree from Ivy, but he said all he had to do is to work for one extra year before being accepted.</p>
<p>I have other examples, but I hope you get a gist.</p>
<p>You’re in a very good position, having an opportunity for in-state tuition at UW-Madison or reciprocal at UM-Twin Cities, and to be accepted at both. You will get pretty much a top-notch education for $80K. I know that Kelley/Indiana is highly-ranked, but IMO not worth it at a $70K difference over four years, which you have to add interest to because if your folks have only saved $20K total, they will have to take out loans either way at some point. That being said, that $70K difference could well turn into a $100K difference over the long haul.</p>
<p>Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, think practically, and choose Wisconsin or Minnesota.</p>
<p>It might help if you reframed your challenge as a car shopping trip with a best buddy:</p>
<p>Buddy: “I love the Lexus! I love the interior. I love the way it handles. Of all the cars I’ve driven in the last month, this is my absolute favorite. It is just perfect.”</p>
<p>You: “It’s a great car alright – but it’s $64K and you only have $20K in the bank”</p>
<p>Buddy: “But I LOVE the Lexus! How can I get what I want?”</p>
<p>You: "You can take a crushing load of debt – or you can go back and look at the Ford Focus, the Kia Soul (5 star crash rating), the Honda Civic – or a ton of other great choices that will get you down the road safely and affordably. Taking out $44K in loans will mean saying “no” to vacations, to small purchases like books, music or coffee – it also means you won’t have money to travel to see your grandparents – or your sweetheart – or those foreign cities that you’d love to see. Taking the loans will impact your life for a decade or more. "</p>
<p>Buddy: “But I really LOVE the Lexus! I don’t WANT to change my mind.” </p>
<p>You: “Yeah. And when we were three years old and in preschool, you loved Barney, the purple dinosaur with a fierce passion that has since faded.”</p>
<p>Buddy: “If I got the Soul, I think I could get the upgraded interior”</p>
<p>You: “Yep. And you could afford some tunes for a road trip.”</p>
<p>Thanks, I understand in state value is huge compared to OOS. My main focus now is figuring out where U of M or Madison will get me and if the schools are competitive enough to allow for me to have good chances at jobs for equity management or investment banking, assuming I go down the finance accounting double major track. Thank you all for the help. I understand in state tuition is tough to pass up, but I don’t want to pass up opportunities along the way. Hopefully U of M or Madison will equip me to find a good internship in a bigger market and allow me to compete with other top notch students rather than just get a solid job in the Minneapolis area. Thanks all.</p>