<p>Hello all. I would love to attend Brown University, if I got in. Now I am not so sure. As an Ivy League school, Brown does not offer merit scholarships. Could I pay for an Ivy League? -Yes. Would I rather invest that money elsewhere? -Yes. So what is your opinion? Is paying full tuition for an Ivie worth it or not? </p>
<p>Do a search on this forum. You will find at least a dozen threads with the same question.</p>
<p>There is NO way to answer this question for you.</p>
<p>If money is no object, then go for it. Remember, you have to get accepted at Brown, and that isn’t guaranteed.</p>
<p>Here is my opinion…if you plan to go to medical or law school, you might want to consider saving your money for those.</p>
<p>It depends entirely on the person. Are you a teenager? Do YOU have the money, or is a question as to whether your parents do and will give you a quarter million dollars for 4 years of college and let you decide how you spend it as long as it involve getting that bachelor’s degree in 4 years? </p>
<p>What happened to Pomona and Duke? On June 15 those were your “dream schools”.</p>
<p>Bcs u are even mentioning that Brown doesn’t give merit scholarships suggests your family doesn’t have limitless money. There are a lot of better non-ivy schools out there that do give merit money.</p>
<p>Paying full price for Brown is like buying a full-price designer golf shirt in some weird color no one else wanted to buy, just so you can walk around w a stupid logo on your chest.</p>
<p>It’s hard to establish without proper information, but I must say GMT’s metaphor is interesting to say the least. lol.</p>
<p>Oh yes, I do love Pomona and Duke, but that does’t mean I don’t love other places too. Btw, Pomona doesn’t offer merit aid either, which is really disappointing for me.
And I do plan to go to graduate school.
I love the metaphor too GMT.
Thanks guys!</p>
<p>Did you try running Brown’s NPC? What about Pomona or Duke?</p>
<p>Catria…this student says in thei OP that they CAN pay the full cost to attend an Ivy League school. </p>
<p>OP, I gather that your family doesn’t qualify for need based aid…and therefore you would be full pay at places that give need based aid only. </p>
<p>Only you and your family can decide if the money is worth it. No one here can really tell you.</p>
<p>Pomona & Pitzer don’t give merit aid, but CMK, HMudd & Scripps do </p>
<p>I fall into the camp of applying to schools that are still highly selective but give generous merit scholarships. Maybe not Brown level selective, but unless you are stuck on an Ivy nameplate, which apparently you are not, these schools will provide an excellent education and preparation for grad school and/or professional schools. There are WUSTL, Emory, Vanderbilt, and several others at the top of that list, and Miami (FL), Tulane, and a few others that have even more merit money and have great undergrad programs and excellent results for their graduates. To deplete your savings for Brown or Duke or Pomona doesn’t make much sense to me, especially if you do end up in grad school. The school that provided your highest degree is the school that is considered your academic “pedigree”, especially if it is a Ph.D.</p>
<p>Ask if your parents can afford 4 years of Brown and 4 years of grad school. If the answer is yes and it’s not an imposition on your family’s lifestyle and does not impact any sibling college education(s), then add Brown to the short list.</p>
<p>The strong implication, to me at least, was that Brown and any other school that doesn’t offer merit aid would be a financial drain, even if technically affordable. Am I right, @whaletale? BTW, which is your state flagship school?</p>
<p>Whether the top private elites are worth it depends a lot on future career aspirations, IMO. Granted, that’s a lot to ask a teenager to know, but you can try to put a probability on these things.</p>
<p>Also depends on the kid in question. Some folks would take greater advantage of the extra opportunities of those types of schools. Some folks actually would do better as a big fish in a small pond.</p>
<p>I completely agree with @purpletitan. Ivy league schools (and attending any school for that matter) should be determined based on the end goal of the student. If you want to have your student go to an Ivy league for the connections, make sure your student is outgoing and will actually network with people to make those connections. </p>
<p>I agree in principle that top privates can be “worth it” in some sense, but personally I believe that no school is worth heavy debt, no matter the career goals or advantages that can theoretically be taken. Since no one has a crystal ball, to take on $50K, $75K, $100K+ in debt for any school seems foolish. Especially since studies have shown that kids smart enough to get into an Ivy League school but that choose to go to an “ordinary” school end up just as successful as those that pick the Ivy. So to start out debt free or with small debt makes that success even more likely.</p>
<p>My daughter loved her Brown education but was on a great deal of financial aid, so I really can’t answer your question about ‘worth it’. I wonder what the ‘it’ is to you. For her, she was able to get into a funded PhD program so if she had paid full price for Brown, she wouldn’t have the cost of grad school. Maybe it is ‘worth it’ in that way. There are many research opportunities at Brown to help with making you a stellar grad school applicant. Of course if the goal had been med school, for instance, then that savings wouldn’t apply. And of course she may have gone to grad school from another college.</p>
<p>I know one kid who was was given the entire amount of 4 years COA outright to be spent at his college of choice. He was accepted to Brown and a few other colleges.He decided to take a full tuition offer from a tiny relatively unkown engineering college. After some years that student ended up in medical school. I’m not close enough to the student to know more insight/happiness/regrets, but I suppose the money is going to good use now. There is a younger sibling was that did go to a very top LAC that doesn’t give merit.</p>
<p>I’m not saying this is you, but I notice that some students think their parents can afford it because they only know raw numbers and don’t really understand how finances work. But if your family really can afford it, it’s like a luxury item, for some people it is worth it for the best for them and others don’t see it that way.</p>