I’m able to attend USC for a total debt of around 35-45k over four years of attendance for undergrad. My major is going to be Communications/PR with a minor or double major in Psychology at Annenberg, and I’m extremely interested in the program as well as the myriad of benefits that it’s undoubtedly going to offer.
However, I cannot ignore the fact that I have also been accepted to UC Davis for the same major (and I can easily change to a major such as Psychology) with a Regents Scholarship that will essentially allow me to attend for free.
I am not exactly sure what I want to do yet for my career, but I don’t want to regret taking out such a large number of loans if my degree isn’t exactly too helpful.
I was thinking of working as a PR consultant or HR with a possible venture in Psychology or Law for Grad School, which USC would undoubtedly be helpful for, but the fact that I could graduate from Davis with no debt is still very appealing, even if I do not find the school’s campus or area very interesting. (Rural area compared to L.A., let’s be real here guys)
Go for free or nearly free! You will have a great experience I’m sure wherever you land! You really don’t want to start your after college life in much debt. You have a whole life ahead if you!
No, it’s not worth it. I know UC Davis (and other UCs) alum & I know USC alums: with only one exception (and she’s a unicorn), the USC kids are no better off than those who attended other UCs. (the unicorn pitched her idea to a film producer senior year & he told her if she wrote it as a novel he’d help her get an agent + movie deal… & she did. Not normal) Especially if you’re thinking about grad school, do your undergrad debt free. Your 30-year-old self will thank you!
I don’t think $35K-$45K debt after four years is that big of a deal. If you can get into Annenberg Communications and you don’t like UC Davis, seems OK to me to go to USC.
Let’s assume for argument’s sake that u can borrow 40k, at 4.5% interest rate, 10 yr term.
Let’s also assume that as a communications grad your starting salary will be 40k/year. After tax, your take home will be roughly 75%, or ~$2500/mo from which u need to pay:
Rent
Utilities
Transportation
Meals
Insurance
Phone
Clothing
Entertainment
Healthcare
Miscellaneous expenses
Student loan pymt $415/mo for TEN YEARS.
And you’d like to save for a house downpayment and retirement, and maybe even take a vacation now & then. But instead, you will be paying back 5 grand a year for the next 10 years.
Even if you didn’t owe interest on ANY of it, you’d still have to pay it all back. Divide 40k over 10 yrs; that’s $333/month, every month, for 10 long yesrs.
I expect to make more than 40k a year when I’m 25, considering how 40k is not enough to justify earning a degree for. 40K a year after bachelor’s is really a low estimate living in so cal.
Even if you made a decent salary coming out of college, your loans wouldn’t work like that. After taxes and necessary expenses such as bills/insurance etc., that starting salary of ~60K drops significantly. Then add in food and other necessities. You’re down quite a few G’s now. You also have to save some money on top of it in savings, set aside another portion for strictly emergencies (car breaks down, health issues, having to travel somewhere), then pay off the loan on top of everything else.
Maybe you should wander over to the parents’ section and read up on why student debt is such a crippling nightmare for thousands of Americans today.
According to payscale.com, the average starting salary for USC graduates is $51,700.
For UC-D graduates, it’s $50,800.That $900 average USC starting salary advantage shrinks to a $100 average USC salary advantage by mid-career.
I get the sense you’re not really looking for advice, you want someone to tell you “USC is worth it!”
An example of shaky thinking. From the perspective of a HS kid it might seem like degree → job, and its true in some vocational majors like accounting or engineering (although even in these actual experience really stands out). But for most kids its what they do on their own initiative that helps them get a leg up. Things like internships, part-time work, etc. The degree isn’t what gets them their job.
Lets take PR as an example. You seem to be thinking “With my shiny new Comm Studies degree, one of the helpful USC alumni is going to hire me for a great job and I’ll be on my way!” Not gonna happen. Whether you break into PR depends on what you do in college. I know a guy in PR that makes over $300K a year in his 40’s, degree from CSUN. That’s right, a school even Davis people sneer at. How did he do it? He started volunteering in a political campaign in college, they liked him so much they offered him a job part-time working in the district office, he went to full time after college, then got hired as a lobbyist at a company with state business, kept rolling from there.
Why do I tell you this story? Davis is 15 miles from Sacramento. If PR/lobbying was your interest then as a Davis student it would be easy to find something in the Capitol.
Like I said, though, I don’t think you’re really looking for advice, just checking in case someone has a bulletproof reason to go to Davis. Nobody will. Enjoy your years at USC!
I’m sorry OP…but, frankly USC is NOT considered a “prestige” school…no more than UCDavis would be…as a matter of fact, if you ask most unbiased objective people UCDavis would be considered a better choice overall “academically” speaking regardless of price…
You would be saving money and you would not have to answer the oft-quoted question in California…“why did you choose to attend University of Second Choice (USC) when you could have attended UCDavis?”
In the last twenty years or so, USC’s ranking has ascended from the 40’s to low 20’s recently, whereas UC Davis has remained essentially at around 38-mid 40’s. I think USC is on the rise and very possibly, in the next 10-15 years, it will be inside the top 20, surpassing UCLA, Virginia, Emory, Georgetown, etc.
Davis is a better choice! A no-brainer. You will bond with the school once you are there and be glad you attended. Do not put yourself into debt, you never know what the future holds and that debt will always be there.
Getting from the '40’s to 20’s by gaming the rankings is easier than making the move up from there.
In any case, $40K isn’t a huge amount of debt and USC is reputed to have a strong alumni network (outside of CA, not so much prestige).
However, what one poster said is correct: in PR, it will be mostly up to you and your hustle. Also, PR doesn’t pay all that well starting out. UCD is definitely the less risky option. What if something like the 2008 financial crisis happens again? You’d much rather bum out at your parents debt-free than having to do so while also paying several hundred dollars in loans every month. Debt also constrains you. With no debt, you can go do something that you discovered a new passion for. With debt, you need a job.
I’m not exactly sure how you came to that conclusion. If it’s because you are getting subsidized loans from the feds, you should note that only a small percentage of those loans are subsidized - only $23,000 total. The other $6,000 is unsubsidized. You should also know that the portion that is subsidized is only subsidized while you are in school. Once you graduate, those loans begin to accrue interest, which they will do over your entire 0-year repayment window.
Uh. The average starting salary of the Class of 2013 brand-new BA holders was $44,928. Given that you are majoring in communications and psychology, I don’t think you can expect your salary to be that much higher than that, even living in LA. Salary.com says that the median salary for an entry-level public relations specialist is about $46,000; an entry-level communications representative makes about $49,000. Payscale says it’s about $35,000 a year with less than a year of experience, and the Bureau of Labor Services estimates that public relations specialists at all levels make a median of $55,680. Incomes for HR seem similar - Payscale says the median for entry-level workers is is right at $40K, and the BLS has the median for all HR workers at around $55K.
I mean, by mid-career you should be making more. But everyone has to start out somewhere, and you are very unlikely to start out making much more than around $45-50K. And that’s before taxes and health insurance and contributions to retirement. If you make $50K after taxes your take-home pay should be something around $3,300 a month (varies depending on state); personally, my health insurance is $75/month for just me, and then maybe you’ll want to contribute around $250/month to retirement (about 6%, which is what many employers will match). You’re already down to about $3,000 and you haven’t even paid rent yet. Take away $460/month (which is standard repayment) and that’s $2,570. I live in a small, relatively inexpensive town and let me tell you that living on about $2600 a month won’t be as fun. You can do a lot with an extra $460 a month!
You don’t earn a degree only because of the starting salary - that’s a very narrow way of looking at it. You earn a degree because 1) the flexibility it gives you in the types of careers that you can do after college and 2) your earning potential over the next 30-40 years of your career. Your earnings will rise much faster than a high school graduate’s.
Let me also mention that this is $35-45K of undergraduate debt only. You want to go to law or graduate school, which is going to add MORE debt. You will have more flexibility in your options and how much you can borrow for graduate school if you have no undergraduate debt.