I have been accepted to UMD College Park and will probably be going there. After what my parents can pay, I will accumulate around $40k of debt for all 4 years. I do wanna go to graduate school as well, probably not right after though.
Will I be able to pay of $40k easily with a Computer Science degree from UMD College Park?
Is a college degree in CS worth a 40k investment? Yeah probably. Same goes with a degree in most subjects.
Do you have other choices with less debt or are you contemplating not going to college because the debt is too great?
Will your parents be willing and able to co-sign loans for you? Otherwise, as a student, you’re not eligible to borrow that much. What are your other options? Any with lower or NO debt?
What are your other options, at what cost/debt?
$40,000 is more than the federal direct loan limit, so you need parent loans or cosigned loans, which are usually not a good idea.
I also got into Cornell as a guaranteed transfer and into stony brook. Not gonna go to cornell cause it would cost me $80k and upwards of debt. Stony brook is a safe bet and would not cost me much. However, I visited and am not too fond of the college and have heard not so great reviews.
Stony Brook seems like your obvious choice if it means no debt or debt under the federal direct loan limit.
Graduating with little or no debt will give you far more options for your future. Debt is really a dead-weight that will hamper your choices upon graduation and can keep growing until it’s paid off. $80,000 is like buying 4 new Honda Fits and driving them off a cliff. That money could go toward the down payment on a place to live and car for you.
I do know that debt is hard to pay off. However, my question was if a $40k debt would be feasible to pay off. I absolutely love UMD and it has a pretty high rank in CS compared to Stony. Is $40k too much? I believe my parents will co-sign.
If you’re absolutely certain about the CS major, I would go to UMD, assuming your parents can make the finances work. I think it offers the best balance between CS prestige and cost of your three options.
Yes. I don’t think you will have difficulty paying back 40K, assuming you do well and stick with it. CS is probably to most marketable undergrad degree right now and UMD CS is respected.
However, employment prospects can vary depending on economic or industry cycles. Students going into CS in 1998 graduated into the tech bubble crash when it was extremely difficult to get a job.
If you really hate Stony Brook, $40K in debt for a Maryland CS degree should be manageable.
I’m in basically the same boat, but for a less reliable degree.
It might help you to consider the per-month cost of your degree.
10 years @ 6.8% with a $50 minimum payment you’ll be spending about $460 a month to service your debt.
CS seems to be a really reliable major!
yes.
SB has a good CS program though - not sure that UMD is worth that much more. However, if you get a decent CS job you shouldn’t have trouble paying it off.
I certainly agree with @wildestdream and @insanedreamer though I think it’s tricky to provide comprehensive advice on this type of debts. It’s a long-term commitment and it requires some thought in regards to choosing the right career path. If you have the passion for it, very good. It would likely pay off in the end since having a degree in computer science looks kinda future proof to me. All depends on the willingness to life-long learning and of course getting a job that will allow you to easily pay it off.
Yes, UMD is really strong in CS and 40k is only ~3k more per year than federal loans. You would easily make that much from an internship. Because of the demand for CS majors you shouldn’t have trouble with it.
Are you saying that since the future is uncertain people shouldn’t be taking even the most reasonable risks? Is your underground fallout shelter fully stocked for 25 years for when the North Koreans send the nukes? Do you have gold coins buried in your home’s foundation for when anarchy breaks out and all other world currencies are worthless?
Success requires taking calculated risks. IMHO, this is one of them. By all accounts and predictions, borrowing $40K for a CS degree from Maryland is far more likely than not to have a positive outcome and is thus a reasonable risk.
The tech bubble crash is very different from the situation today: back then, it was due to lots of investments on websites, essentially. Nowadays, CS is everywhere not just one professional field. There’s literally no professional field I can think of that’s not impacted by CS.
We have a similar choice between UMD & a couple of other colleges. The 4 year differential is $70K, although no debt would be incurred since we’re fortunate enough to be able to pay for UMD. I started another thread on that subject as well. My D likes the campus as well as the CS courses offered there. The question of whether UMD is worth $40K or $70K or $100K more is a difficult one to answer since we don’t haven’t made up our minds either. In the end, I think we’ll have to go with our gut. Study the coursework differences between Stony Brook & UMD. If it feels like the latter is significantly more aligned with your interests, go with your heart.
Many CS majors are able to get a summer internship after sophomore year that pays around $15,000 and provides transportation and housing. If you were able to do that for two summers, you wouldn’t have that much debt.