<p>Alex, try picking up a newspaper occasionally. Lots of formerly rich folks out there right now who are either close to insolvency or heading off to the federal penitentiary. If your future father-in-law is under investigation by the SEC, better enjoy the ride in the Bentley now before the government grabs it (and all the other fun assets along with it.)</p>
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Sure i might graduate with 200,000 in debt, but hey, I am now considered family in one of the richest families in the world.
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<p>.....uhhhhhh....No. You will not be considered family. Your children will be family. You will always be the hired-help. ;)</p>
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I plan to go to an ivy league school and take out as much debt as i need. However, while I am there, I will be looking for any attractive, rich woman that i could marry.
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I think I saw that movie and it didn't work out so well in the end.</p>
<p>Just to throw a thought into the discussion:</p>
<p>My daughter is a college sophomore. Recently, she had a chance to talk with a friend from high school with top academic credentials who is attending our state university on a full-ride merit scholarship. Accepting the merit scholarship made good sense for my daughter's friend because she is a premedical student, and the money not spent on her undergraduate education will be available for her use when she goes to medical school.</p>
<p>This girl, though, is not entirely happy with her choice of the state university. She told my daughter that it is difficult to find other students there who are as serious about academics as she is. Even though she is in the university's honors program, she feels out of place. She was accepted at several colleges that are far more selective than our state university, and sometimes she regrets not going to one of those colleges, where she would have had more of a peer group.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how often this situation happens -- or how much of a problem it is when it does happen -- but I thought it was worth mentioning.</p>
<p>Well we will wait and see about that know wont we. In all seriousness, IF i get accepted to a selective college and HAVE the luxury of choosing between the selective college(go into debt) or state U for free(notice that mine is the University of Minnesota), my choice will definitly be the selective college. Not only do i think that they prepare you better for the real world, but i also think that some of the contacts you meet at those types of institutions are priceless.</p>
<p>In the end, what ever happened to the american dream huh? ok go ahead and flame me some more but why kill you kids dream. Sure he worked his butt off in highschool. Sure he didnt have a social life because he was to busy attending the Model UN convention. Sure he finally got accepted into Yale or Harvard, some of the most prestigous colleges in the world!! That may not seem like a big deal to you, or more likely, it is a huge deal, but it just doesnt weigh out the debt factor. Well parents, I can tell you this right now. We dont want to be thinking about future unless it involves trophy wives and bentleys. We dont want you to lay out all of your "empirical evidence" or spill prophecies of doom for us. No, we just want you too be happy that we finally achieved what we wasted at least ten years of our life on. And we want you to be happy without the "but XYZ college is cheaper" at the end of your proud congrats.</p>
<p>curmudgeon: if you want to look at it like that, then at least my children will have the life that i never had. I would gladly sacrifice it all for my children and I am only sixteen (Well after I got to at least enjoy the Bentley =)</p>
<p>Marian,
There is such a coincidence that the case you are describing might as well be about my D. with exception that she is very happy with her choice. D. graduated from small private well known school at the top of her HS class and instead of going to some elite college has chosen to be in combined bs/md program at state school. Most of her tuition & R&B are covered by Merit $$, she is guaranteed a spot at medical school (no application needed), she can apply out if she chooses to do so. She is a star student here with a lot of privileges being in Honors (top 200 of freshman class) and tons of opportunities that are open to the very top students. She is a sophmore and continue loving her school. Her combined program has only 10 spots for entering students. She is surrounded by valedictorians primarily from private schools. Her classes are extremely challenging and she does not feel that they need to be any harder.</p>
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We dont want to be thinking about future unless it involves trophy wives and bentleys.
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<p>No, no, no, this is all wrong. The trophy wife is the SECOND wife. The first wife is the one you dump because, after she stood by you while you made your fortune, you decide she's looking a little shopworn. Rest assured that you need not attend a selective school to get a trophy wife; all you need to do is establish a net worth in the high tens of millions, and she will find you.</p>
<p>Ah I am sorry SlitheyTove, you are of course right on this. I was getting a little ahead of myself lol</p>
<p>going into debt for a dream. Hmmm...sounds familiar. Can you say housing bubble? Seems like some of us got a bit too comfortable with the idea of taking on debt...and now we're all paying for it. There is no guarantee that you will make the income (or find the rich spouse) you need to pay back 200K of debt. Just like there was no guarantee that housing prices would always go up.
For those who can comfortably manage the cost, go for it...whatever "it" is. No argument here. Going into debt is a BIG deal though. Free state U is starting to look good to a LOT of folks out there. Hey, maybe not Cindy McCain's kids. But a lot of others.<br>
And to alex the golddigger, you've been watching too many silly movies :)</p>
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<blockquote> <p>This girl, though, is not entirely happy with her choice of the state university. She told my daughter that it is difficult to find other students there who are as serious about academics as she is.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>She should hang out with other pre-meds. The ones I met were pretty serious about school and willing to work hard to achieve their goals.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>This girl, though, is not entirely happy with her choice of the state university. She told my daughter that it is difficult to find other students there who are as serious about academics as she is.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>She should hang out with other pre-meds. The ones I met were pretty serious about school and willing to work hard to achieve their goals.</p>
<p>I hate to tell you this alexzeig456 but rich people marry other rich people so if you want a rich wife you had better make your fortune first. People with money also tend to hang around with people with money so going into serious debt to make "contacts" may not work out in the end.</p>
<p>Taxguy,</p>
<p>We don't need to look very far to analyze how well State U grads have done. We should take a survey within parents forum here.</p>
<p>I will state my own situation - I graduated out of a State U with a graduate degree in Pharmacology. Found myself in one of the top 3 Pharmaceutical companies pursuing top notch, envelope-pushing, innovative Pharmacology research fairly soon after my graduation. My Bachelors degree is not even from a US State Univ (!) but is from Bombay Univ. I wake up every morning looking forward to conducting Clinical Research in CNS area and completely enjoy my R&D work. </p>
<p>I have seen other peers from Brown and UPenn doing exactly the same kind of work I am doing. </p>
<p>Having said that, if one is incredibly obsessed with getting an Ivy affiliation on their resumes, it doesn't hurt to do post-doctoral research at Ivys or equivalents. And best of all, it doesn't cost you any money to do post-doc at Ivys! I have seen many MDs in my line of work, do their residencies at Ivy or other top institutions.</p>
<p>Ivys are no longer the only TOP institutions in research by the way. There are schools like Wash U, UCLA, JHU which conduct far more innovative research in CNS these days than HYPS.</p>
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Ivys are no longer the only TOP institutions in research by the way.
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<p>Actually, with the exception of Harvard I'd say the Ivies now struggle to keep up...</p>