I have been accepted to OSU and the University of Pennsylvania. I qualify for no need based aid. OSU will cost me 15k a year; Penn will cost me 60k. I have to pay for my own college (parents will loan me money, but I have to pay them back). 60k a year is very stifling. What should I do?
I don’t know the particulars of your major, career goals, etc.
So will just address the money issue.
When you graduate with an undergraduate degree at age 22, do you want to owe your parents $60K or $240K?
How will you pay off the debt? Are you planning on grad school and will you have to borrow money for that as well?
How will owing your parents nearly a quarter of a million dollars affect your relationship with them?
And how will paying off that kind of debt impact your life as a young adult in terms of being able to maintain a car, house, etc? If you marry, your spouse takes on the debt too, and what if s/he has a huge college debt as well?
You brought up some great points. I am open to grad school but am not planning on it. I am paying off the debt when I get a job.
Owing my parents so much would not affect my relationship with them. They are awesome.
As far as your last two questions, I am concerned about that. My lifestyle would probably be different (in a bad way). I’d like to marry early, so it’s not exactly ideal to be carrying around a ton of debt in that situation.
I’ve been accepted to Wharton, but I am almost leaning away from business. I’m a math guy. I’m thinking about majoring in math or computer science or physics. Penn is great in all those areas as well; plus, they are my dream school. I just don’t know.
Some more questions for you to consider:
What kind of income can you make upon graduation?
How long will it take you to pay off $240K debt?
The fact that they are making a loan, not a gift, indicates that they will need the money in the future. You say it will not impact your relationship with them, but what if they need the money for retirement, health issues or emergencies?
How are you going to feel if they really need the money and you are not able to pay off the debt soon enough?
How are they going to feel when they see you spending money and you still owe them a huge sum? Your relationship with them right now sounds very good, but a debt of a quarter of a million dollars can impact even a good relationship, human nature is human nature.
Additionally, if you wish to marry young, supporting a family and raising children is expensive, just for the basics.
How will your spouse feel about entering a marriage where she owes her in-laws a quarter of a million dollars?
This fact has implications for family good will and practical day to day decisions related to marriage and raising a family.
Time for you to do a cost/benefit ratio, and be very realistic about the risk.
From what I’ve read above, it seems Ohio State is the wiser option. It is an amazing school for an amazing price.
@ eric45 - debt is always supposed to be payed off whether that is towards your parents or the bank. Just because parents are an institution that will loan you funds without paying interest does not mean they will not expect the funds to be paid back asap. Life throws many curve balls, always think of the worst scenarios before thinking of happy scenarios. What happens if job industry tanks? What happens if you run into health issues? How would you feel if your would be spouse was debt laden ?? Would you commit to marry someone with debt? Things to think about. Moreover no undergrad ROI can return back 240 k in 4 years
Did you post this question at the Penn forum as well? Because here you’re going to get a bunch of people telling you to just go to OSU.
I’m going to tell you that Penn is AMAZING. I was lucky enough to go there for a time, and I mean it when I say that the experience was incredible. Philadelphia is a fantastic city, and the students at Penn are, of course, drop-dead brilliant. At Penn you will meet people who will be in a much better position to set you up for a job. For the rest of your life, you’ll have Penn on your resume. Don’t underestimate the power of that kind of name. At OSU you won’t gain the same connections. You’ll also be in a state that is depressed economically. At Penn you will rub shoulders with the future masters of the universe, no exaggeration.
I do have to wonder why you’re stuck paying 60k a year, though, since Ivies are typically very generous with aid. Are your parents wealthy? If they are, why are they making you pay them back? Do they not understand the value of going to a school like this? I just wonder why they’re not more supportive about your opportunity to receive a world-class education.
Oh, and to follow up–I disagree with the person who says that owing your parents money is the same as owing a bank or the government money. Obviously it is not even close. Your parents cannot garnish your wages or ruin your credit.
You should really go to Penn. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Going to Penn will make it VERY easy to get a job on the east coast. OSU has little to no currency on the east coast. OSU is also a very provincial and inward-looking institution, while schools like Penn are necessarily worldly. I got a good education at OSU, but I won’t lie: it’s been a bit of a liability in my career field. I’ve had to work much harder than my colleagues, who went to Ivies.
In any case, if your parents are good for this money, you shouldn’t turn down this opportunity. If you were really poor and needing to borrow the money from a private lender, I would probably advise you differently.
Ajunctified–I don’t understand the implication of your comments. If you went to Penn for “a time” then doesn’t that mean you attended an Ivy-league school and therefore gained these coveted “east-coast” connections that you claim? Does this mean you graduated from OSU then, the very school you’re disparaging? Also, if you had to work so much harder than Ivy graduates to get to where you are, then doesn’t that also imply that Ivy-league connections are just another form of cronyism–meaning that graduates (regardless of their individual effort/talent) are just handed their positions?
- I was at Penn as a research fellow, did not earn a degree there. That did give me a slight boost, but not a whole lot. With no Ivy degree on my resume, and no Penn transcript, I don't have the same easy time on the job market as my peers. It's a tough break, but it's the way the world works.
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Also, if you had to work so much harder than Ivy graduates to get to where you are, then doesn't that also imply that Ivy-league connections are just another form of cronyism--meaning that graduates (regardless of their individual effort/talent) are just handed their positions?
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Are you new to the world? - I'm not disparaging OSU, just being honest about its reputation. The OP also posted this question to the Penn forum--check out their responses. That is how the rest of the country views an OSU degree. I know, because I come up against that attitude all the time.
- It all comes down to the OP's goals in life. If the OP wants to stay in Columbus and work at Nationwide, then by all means they should go to OSU. If they want to work on Wall St. or do something in the international sector, then they should go to Wharton.
I never thought about it that way, but I think you are correct about OSU being “inward-looking.”
True. OSU is a great choice for Ohio residents who do not plan to venture far from home. Otherwise, it is generally regarded as a standard issue, football loving, state flagship. A great education can be had at OSU, but hardly anybody outside Ohio sees it that way.
FWIW, I live in Columbus and know tons of OSU grads. They are good smart people who do well locally. However, most of them wonder why I moved here from Seattle.
@adjunctified i also find your remarks disparaging, uncalled for, and out-of-date. Perhaps you graduated from OSU 30 years ago when OSU had an open admissions policy and nearly every student was from in-state? I would not call the school provincial or inward looking. Have you seen the statistics of the last 5 to ten entering classes? OSU is recruiting nationally now and seeking top talent with the national buckeye and other scholarships for out-of-state students. The school currently has over 20% out-of-state and the entering class gpa and ACT scores were only behind Michigan, Northwestern, Wisconsin and Maryland. Most of the facilities are top notch. This is a school on a definite upswing.
I graduated from OSU in the last five years.
The school might be on the upswing, but the question is whether or not the rest of the country sees it that way. shrug
@adjunctified
Yes, yes we all know that reputation matters, and I’m guessing you’re in finance or some field where that’s even more the case. And no I’m not “new to this world” either, but I appreciate your feistiness. My field doesn’t typically obsess over school name; much more emphasis is on individual research track-record, so, honestly, I’m not qualified to comment on cases where it does. (I have a graduate degree from OSU, and am an assistant professor at a top-20 private R1, so at least name did not hamper me from “moving up”). And sure, comparing OSU’s Fisher to Wharton is an apples to oranges deal in terms of reputation–but if the OP is having to borrow $60K a year (hard to believe he/she didn’t get some financial aid), then I say why take on all of that debt (whether it be to family or not)? Living in Philly is going to bring with it increased living expenses as well. Tough decision…
I also have a doctorate from OSU, and received an excellent education. I am a licensed health care professional, scored in the top 1% when I took the national licensing exam, and have been successful in my career field. My daughter is currently a freshman at OSU, a pre-med microbiology genetics major, and is receiving an excellent education, with many amazing opportunities, and she is having the time of her life. She will graduate debt free thanks to a significant scholarship, and affordable cost. Graduating debt free was a major goal for her.
The fact that the OP didn’t get offered any financial aid probably indicates that their parents can afford Penn. The parents are also in a position to front the OP $60k a year–another indication that they have money. Now, why anyone with that kind of money would expect their kid to pay them back is beyond me, but I’m not really all that interested in family dynamics.
A degree from Penn will probably pay for itself, especially if that degree is in finance or another skilled major. If the OP was having to borrow money from a private lender, or if they were borrowing that much to get a degree in art history or education, then I’d tell them to skip it. But this looks to be a case where the stars are aligning to minimize the financial risk for all parties involved.
You cannot separate the family dynamics from a $250K parental loan.
This is a big financial risk for the reasons I outlined before.
I think it is an imprudent option and in most cases does not end well.
Or the OP could graduate from one of the best universities in the world with a fantastic job and pay their parents back in a few years. You really have no idea at this point.
That is my point exactly, we have no idea if the OP can pay back the loan.
If he is going from Wharton to Wall Street, maybe. But it is still a gamble.
And he says he is thinking of being a math, CS, or physics major.
He cannot pay back his parents in a couple of years with those majors.
I am willing to be convinced, but I need to see the numbers in black and
white before I can support a 21 yr old owing $250K to any one.
He’s bright enough to get into Wharton; not many people do. I’m sure he’ll figure something out. What do you think CS or math or physics majors do? They don’t all go to work teaching high school. Many work for consulting firms or for private companies, doing statistical analysis and making a lot of money.
What I do know is that having a degree from Penn will make it much easier to find a job, regardless of his field. Attending OSU means being one of a very large number of people who hold similar flagship school degrees. You’re a number while you’re at OSU; you continue to be one after graduation.
Attending Penn means that your resume gets sifted to the top of the pile. (Except in Ohio, where, no joke, people don’t know what Penn is. But who wants to work in Ohio anyway? There aren’t any jobs.)
The connections you make at a school like Penn are indeed something that you really can’t quantify. I had a friend who attended a similar school, and when she needed a job, she just went to department office and requested some alumni contacts. The next week, she was writing for the Wall Street Journal. At Ohio State, I was lucky if I got an internship at some local mom and pop business.
Look, at the end of the day, Penn is Penn. This person will probably be successful regardless of where he goes, but going to Penn means starting fifty yards ahead of everyone else.