I need some serious help ... asap.

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
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<p>So I got my michigan deposit due date extended until the 15th...giving me about a week to decide.
Here's my dilemma ... i got into UT austin which with instate tuition will cost me almost 25K a year. UT has given me $2K for top 10% and another $2.5 for a different scholarship. All together UT will cost me 20.5K a year. I received a scholarship through something else for 1.5K (but it renews every year), meaning I'd be paying something like 19K a year for UT. Which, my parents will be paying all of. i also got into an honors program at ut.</p>

<p>Michigan, however, is 47K OOS tuition. They gave me no money but some ridiculous small loan, so with that one other scholarship I got ... Michigan will be 45.5K a year. My parents have offered to pay 25K, meaning I would have to cover about 20.5K a year in loans/work or whatnot. </p>

<p>I want to study political science and polisci is WAY better at michigan then ut, and michigan is obviously more prestigious. furthermore, i'm not much if a fan of ut. i plan on going to grad school FOR SURE, so the question now becomes ... which college will be a better long term decision for me?</p>

2

<p>My problem with UT is I hate the lack of prestige (thanks to the top 10% rule), no intellectual air to it, and overt party school-ness.</p>

3

<p>Ask your parents if they will apply the difference in tuition between UT and Michigan towards your grad degree. If they will, go to UT (keep a high GPA) and don’t worry too much about your undergrad degree as most employers will just see your post-grad degree. Better to finish undergrad with NO debt and a “kitty” of about $24K to apply to the cost of grad school than the amount of debt you’d have at Michigan…IMHO.</p>

4

<p>Go to UT austin, it’s a really good school. UM is not worth the price.</p>

5

<p>Go to UT. Do you have any idea what your life is going to be like with 80k in debt when you graduate? I mean, have you actually considered how much money you’ll have left to live off of after you make that payment? Really, do the math. Look up FOR REAL how much money you’re going to be making when you graduate, calculate what the monthly payment will be, and figure it out. Do not just assume it’ll all work out or that you can figure it out when the time comes. Figure it out now before you decide. </p>

<p>I am studying poli sci and will graduate from Michigan between 50 and 60k in debt and I am filled with so much regret it physically hurts. I can’t even go to grad or law school now unless I can get it paid for, and while I am a good student I am not going to be competitive for funding. If I could go back and do it again I would have chosen not to go to college at all over coming here and taking on this debt-- and I am taking on less than you would be taking. You have a completely viable alternative. Take it. Or at the very least, THINK HARD before you pass it up. Michigan is not worth living in a one room apartment until you’re 40. I could not have been more in love with Michigan when I arrived here, I thought it was the PERFECT place for me and that I could not be happy anywhere else, and I am here to tell you that I was freaking CRAZY and that it is not worth sacrificing your quality of life for the next several decades for these four years. Don’t do it.</p>

6

<p>UT (10 char)</p>

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<p>this is depressing and not at all what i wanted to hear…</p>

<p>80 K doesn’t sound THAT bad though! Emaheevul07, i dont understand why college debt is keeping you from going to grad school … can’t you just take out more loans and pay off all the debt later when you’re a legit lawyer or something ?that was my plann …</p>

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<p>80 grand just isn’t worth the “prestige” difference between UT and Michigan. Although it seems you have a certain distaste for UT I would suggest going there for an year or two to try out the atmosphere. If you really think its worth 20 grand an year to go michigan after that time, transfer.</p>

9

<p>$80K of undergrad debt is really that bad. Add in your grad costs and interest and you’ll be a slave to those payments for ten years. Michigan is a great school but NO school IMHO is worth the debt you could easily avoid by going to another very good school…UT.</p>

10

<p>Michigan is a really nice, but I don’t think it’s worth OOS tuition without a scholarship (many OOS students would disagree with me)</p>

11

<p>Spending 80k a year–particularly for a poli sci degree–at one large public college over another is simply idiotic. Poli Sci kids are a dime a dozen at every college; i don’t know what your aspirations are, but whether it’s law school or grad school in poli sci there is absolutely no tangible benefit you will gain by choosing Michigan over Texas. Don’t go 80k in debt for a social science degree, especially if you have such an excellent alternative.</p>

12

<p>is this only applying to michigan, or would it be smart of me to choose UT over any school? there’s also vanderbilt i could potentially go to, is that worth it over ut? the reason why i like michigan is because their polisci program is number four in the nation, i figures the extra opportunities and such would make it work the money</p>

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<p>vanderbilt is just out of the picture lol. of course its not worth it.</p>

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<p>"80 K doesn’t sound THAT bad though! Emaheevul07, i dont understand why college debt is keeping you from going to grad school … can’t you just take out more loans and pay off all the debt later when you’re a legit lawyer or something ?that was my plann … "</p>

<p>This is extremely naive. I know how painful this must be for you to consider, I would have been devastated if my parents had not cosigned the loans for me. But I wish like hell they’d had the sense to tell me no. I made a huge mistake taking on 60k and at 18 I wasn’t mature enough to realize it was a mistake. I needed someone to tell me that, and here you have a full thread of people telling you. This thread is a gift.</p>

<p>That was my plan when I was your age too-- then I realized I don’t like the legal profession anymore a month before the LSAT. I could not have been more devoted to the field and all of the sudden I just changed and it wasn’t for me anymore. The lifestyle doesn’t work for me and I don’t have the personality for it anymore. Not to mention that there is a glut of lawyers and it is VERY difficult to compete for lawyer jobs, just being the top of your class or just getting into that really hard school isn’t enough-- you have to do both, and then find something else to do to set you apart.</p>

<p>Of course you can say you won’t change your mind. Who am I to tell you that you would. But I will say that I have been devoted to becoming a lawyer since I was 11 years old, never had a single doubt in my mind, and now what? I’ve changed my mind. I would not advise choosing to take on a debt so large that you MUST be in a certain career track to pay it. You need more freedom than that, or you will be a SLAVE to your debt. And let me tell you, that’s exactly what it feels like. I feel like I sold my soul to come to this school, and now I will be a slave for the rest of my life trying to buy it back. Now that I don’t want to do law anymore I am lost trying to find what I can do with a BA in poli sci to help me make $700 a month loan payments, plus at least $700 a month in rent, plus a car payment, plus insurance, plus groceries, so on and so forth. I am going to be living the life of a pauper for a good long while. Who’d have thought I wouldn’t be a lawyer after all the trouble I went to to get to Michigan! I had every detail of my life planned out, and in that plan Michigan worked. Now I’ve only been here for a year and nothing is as I planned it, and I’m in a support group for people in debt, at age 21. Not exactly part of the grand plan.</p>

<p>Michigan has a piece of paper in the career center that shows the acceptance rates of their students at various law schools. I’d call UT and see if they have any similar statistics for you, perhaps that’d assuage your fears. You don’t HAVE to go to a top undergrad institution in order to get into a good, or even a “top,” law school. And frankly, how do you think you’re going to pay for law school? Do you think paying back $250k+ in debt is going to be a picnic as a lawyer? You DO realize that most lawyers are not fabulously wealthy, right? Part of the reason I am not going to law school is that the type of law I wanted to go into would have left me in the poor house. And everything in this field is so competitive, and you do NOT want to bet 80k on winning. That is just such a big mistake when you have an alternative.</p>

<p>And even all that aside, private loans really suck. And I don’t even mean like wah wah student loans are terrible, I mean PRIVATE loans are significantly more terrible than federal loans. Have you actually done any research on what you’re talking about getting yourself into?</p>

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<p>When questioned about whether an 80k debt was worth it to go to NYU over UVM in a thread in the parents forum, this was a post I made that I thought perhaps you should read.</p>

<p>"I made the decision to graduate with $60,000+ in loans. When I was 18 years old, going to the “right” college seemed like the most important thing in the world. You have to go to a good school to get a good job so you can be happy, and you need to have a great “college experience.” I got that “right” feeling the moment I stepped on this campus and thought I HAD to be here. My parents were concerned but ultimately I was able to convince them it was the right choice and they cosigned the loans.</p>

<p>Fast forward three years.</p>

<p>I am getting married in two years. My fiance and I have to accept that we may well be into our 30’s and 40’s before we will be able to own a home, if that. We will likely be dirt poor for the first 10-15 years of our marriage, I’ll be dirt poor anyway-- my monthly loan payments are essentially going to be a mortgage payment and then I still have to make rent and utilities, and god only knows what kind of job I’ll find. I’m not sure if I can, in good conscience, have as many children as I wanted, or any children at all. Maybe when we are much older, but by then we may have to adopt. We will have to go without all the extras. Pets would probably be a mistake, vacations are out of the question. Our wedding will be cake and punch at the local park, no honeymoon and most of the family will not be able to be invited because we can’t afford to have them. And worst of all, we will always have to worry, worry, worry about making ends meet. I am a slave to my debt.</p>

<p>Having grown up a bit, I see now that going to the college that is “just right” is not the most important thing in the world. It was not worth the decision I made. I could have gone to a less expensive school, probably gotten a better education because I would not have been so horribly stressed about how in gods name I’d make ends meet after graduation. I have given up so many things for the rest of my life just to have these four years. And for what? Was going to THIS school really all that important?</p>

<p>The answer is a definite no. If she really doesn’t think UVM is the right place, she can take a semester off and apply elsewhere or transfer. She doesn’t need to go to a school she doesn’t like, but she doesn’t need to $80k in debt either. I deeply, deeply wish my parents had said no to me. I wanted to be here SO bad and I would have been devastated, but that does not compare to how I feel now knowing that all the basic things people expect to be able to get from life-- a house, a car, the ability to provide for a family, are now all question marks for me. Maybe things will turn out better than they look right now, we will do our best to make it so, but I would not even be in a position to worry about it if I had been more sensible about my school choice. I made a huge mistake. I traded stability for the next several decades for four years at this school. I was young and stupid and I really needed my parents to help me make a more mature decision. "</p>

<p>This whole thread would probably not be a bad read for you.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/917704-no-win-situation.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/917704-no-win-situation.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Here is another interesting tidbit from that thread:</p>

<p>"Loan Calculator</p>

<p>Loan Balance: $80,000.00
Adjusted Loan Balance: $80,000.00
Loan Interest Rate: 8.80%
Loan Fees: 0.00%
Loan Term: 10 years
Minimum Payment: $50.00</p>

<p>Monthly Loan Payment: $1,004.77
Number of Payments: 120</p>

<p>Cumulative Payments: $120,571.89
Total Interest Paid: $40,571.89</p>

<p>Note: The monthly loan payment was calculated at 119 payments of $1,004.77 plus a final payment of $1,004.26.</p>

<p>It is estimated that you will need an annual salary of at least $120,572.40 to be able to afford to repay this loan. "</p>

<p>And following this estimation, you would need to make EVEN MORE to be able to afford not only that loan but your law school loans, which are going to be expensive really no matter where you go-- and presumably you don’t want to go to Umich undergrad only to go to a no name unranked law school because you’re too broke to afford something else.</p>

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<p>Emaheevul: You’re a Umich grad? What was your major? =(</p>

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<p>I am a senior majoring in poli sci. I don’t graduate until 2011.</p>

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<p>dude , UT all the way.what the **** was the thing about the lack of prestige??
UT rocks, go there FULL STOP</p>

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<p>

If you are going to grad school immediately following undergrad, what political science “extra opportunities and such” are you expecting?</p>

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<p>Emaheevul, thank you for posting what many 18-year-olds are reluctant to accept. You are indeed wise beyond your years now, and I hope both parents and students consider your comments the gift that they are. I would like to add, however, that you can and will overcome your situation, and that life is a journey, not a destination, so do everything in your power to enjoy the journey. Blessings to you.</p>

<p>To JackDaniels – I know it is a compromise, but are you willing to consider deferring your acceptance to work and save full time for a year in order to attend Michigan within a manageable debt load? Granted, that will only get you one year ahead, but with summer employment the following year (which for UMICH is four months) a reasonable full time job and frugal habits could have you then save up about $7 - $10 k for the next year, plus work study, and then do so each year so that you’re only actually borrowing about $10k each year over 3 years?</p>

<p>Alternately, what about attending UT for your freshman and sophomore years, saving all your summer earnings, then transferring to UMICH (if you still want to) as a junior. Again, that would reduce your debt-load to a more manageable standard.</p>

<p>In actual fact, the only place you “can” be happy is inside your own head. The environments are truly moot. Decide to be happy, and let the rest unfold. You’d be amazed how you might look back one day and say “Thank gods I went to UT, if I hadn’t, I’d never had had x opportunity…” Really. Life is weird that way.
Best wishes!</p>