<p>I mean they are good for education, but they are so expensive $200,000 for just undergraduate >.<
My parents leave the decision up to me, I have 200k in my college fund, but do I really want to waste it all on undergraduate?? I know schools like Cornell and NYU never give any merit scholarships to regular applicants who meet the standards and I do not qualify for financial aid? What should I do!!!</p>
<p>This is a great thing to think about. Since you have the money, maybe doing the state U and then grad school would be the way to go. Is the $200k plus private better than the 80k public? I would say you can get a great education from both. There are a handful of schools (HYPMS) that may be worth it. 5 years after you graduate, it will be more of what you have done than where you went. Save the money for grad school.</p>
<p>You are in the enviable position of being able to afford a top institution without financial aid. This means that you can apply to any institution that interests you, and then choose freely between your acceptances next spring without having to think about the money. Don’t worry about “is Cornell worth it” just yet. Worry about building a list of colleges/universities to apply to that includes at least one admissions safety that you really like, and any academic matches and reaches that you like as well. Then, get those applications off in time!</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>If you qualify for Ivy admission, then you should qualify for merit scholarships at many schools that offer them. Good schools for merit aid include Brandeis, Davidson, Grinnell, and Rice. Chicago, Duke, and JHU also offer a few merit scholarships (but the competition for these would be especially intense).</p>
<p>I’d say stay instate man or find another refutable college that gives scholorship money. Graduate school will get you places. Save your money and find a good school that doesn’t cost 40+K a year</p>
<p>Just so you know, no Ivy schools give merit scholarships. It’s all need based financial aid</p>
<p>My son chose to spend the 200 on undergrad, then worry about loans for grad later. I can’t say I agree, though.</p>
<p>It’s really all about grad school which is what you should ideally save your money for. If you have an idea what you want to do early on and do well at it then that is what matters. Grad school is much more expensive than undergrad tuition and classes get more interesting in ones major the further you go. I figure why pay lots of money for the fundamentals plus couple of electives? Some like to party their first few years but I’d save the money to pick a comfy n classy grad school n program that best suited what I want to do with an interesting selection of classes. When you are done with your undergrad essentials, being able to tailor your grad degree to your own personal interests and specialty is what is worth paying more for.</p>
<p>Define “worth it”.</p>
<p>Anyway, why decide now? Submit your applications and think it over throughout the year.</p>
<p>
I see this sentiment a lot, and there’s a few things wrong with it.
[ul][<em>]Many people don’t plan to attend graduate school and only want a BS/BA. Alternately, many who apply do not get in.
[</em>]Graduate (not professional, there’s a difference!) school is almost always paid for. If you’re good enough to be an adequate researcher, you should be getting paid.
[li]Graduate school admissions is very, very tough in many fields, and attending a top college often helps a great deal.[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>A student interested in law or medical school would admittedly often be better off at a cheaper school and/or pursuing merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Students paying full freight are actually quite common at top colleges. Here’s the percentages of students not receiving need-based grants at several top schools:</p>
<p>61% Johns Hopkins
60% Brown
60% Northwestern
56% Penn
55% Cornell
53% Columbia
53% Stanford
49% Duke
49% Yale
47% Dartmouth
44% Princeton
43% Harvard
40% MIT</p>
<p>Would I personally pay full cost at a private? Certainly not. I had an excellent in-state public and would not have considered the others worth the cost. Still, others can and frequently do choose to pay full freight at those schools.</p>
<p>As others have said, there is no need to decide now. Many of the Ivies and other elites have < 10% admit rates, so I think you’re counting your eggs before they hatch. ;)</p>
<p>@warblers: I also find the “save it for grad school” sentiment somewhat odd, unless the money is specifically earmarked for educational expenses and cannot be saved for other purposes. I can think of plenty of advantages to starting out with a small nest egg already in place.</p>
<p>If you can pay for it, definitely yes. So many people get huge debts just to go to a private school.</p>
<p>The top 25 National Universities and the top 10 LACs are worth it. After that, less so.</p>
<p>What do you plan to study? Some majors have little appreciable difference in undergrad quality between Ivy/top and 2nd tier schools. If you intend to go to grad school, that could mean huge savings with little downside. </p>
<p>What careers might you be interested in? For some modest paying careers, that full-tab degree is not worth the price compared to the cheaper schools. Will networking be important, and are you sociable enough to take advantage? That could point you to the Ivies/top, where you are more likely to be surrounded by future leaders.</p>
<p>*I have 200k in my college fund, but do I really want to waste it all on undergraduate?? I know schools like Cornell and NYU never give any merit scholarships to regular applicants who meet the standards and I do not qualify for financial aid? What should I do!!! *</p>
<p>What is your intended major and career?</p>
<p>Do you plan on going to med/law/business school?</p>
<p>What are your stats? </p>
<p>(Maybe there are some good schools that will give you merit scholarships and you can save your money for grad/med/law school or a down payment on a house)</p>
<p>*For some modest paying careers, that full-tab degree is not worth the price compared to the cheaper schools. *</p>
<p>This is true…but it’s also true for those who will be going to med or law schools. NO one needs to spend $200k for a pre-law or pre-med education when going to a good school for less money can achieve the same…acceptance into a good law or med school.</p>
<p>My own son is saving his college money for med school. He accepted a full tuition scholarship at a flagship public. He wants to minimize med school loans.</p>
<p>“I have 200k in my college fund, but do I really want to waste it all on undergraduate??”</p>
<p>You’ll spend $200K at most any private school, so it’s not an “Ivy + top” issue. Unless you think that all educations are the same, you may need this $200K advantage to get into the grad school you want. You’re fortunate to have this boost; take advantage of it!</p>
<p>My sister and I are both full pay at slightly different private schools (I’m at a small LAC and she’s at a larger university) and after seeing the differences between our experiences and the experiences of people we know at larger state schools, my parents have told me that they think that the extra money they’re spending is well worth it. However, this totally depends on your financial situation and what you want out of your undergrad experience.</p>
<p>We think it’s worth it because my sister and I are in places with tons of people to help us with our classes, schedules, personal lives, etc. My friends at larger state schools don’t have this at all. Our quality of living is extremely high which is definitely important to me. My school does not have a huge name and I did not choose it based on the name. I chose it because it’s a perfect fit for me. I know that I will perform the best I can here, and that, to me, makes a school worth it. </p>
<p>The fact that you said you’d be “wasting” this money on undergraduate is a problem. It’s only going to be a waste if you choose the wrong school and do the wrong things at that school. If you choose a school that is a good fit for you, allows you to succeed, and has a ton of different resources you can take advantage of, then it’s not a waste. If you choose a school because of its name and expect its name to carry you through life, then it is a waste in my opinion. If this is what you want out of a school, then it’s not a waste for you.</p>
<p>If you are considering going to grad school, and this money is all you have, then maybe these top schools aren’t worth it since you can get an education that is just as good, if not better, at schools that aren’t Ivies or top schools. </p>
<p>In the end, we really can’t define what’s worth it and what’s not worth it for you. If money were extremely tight for me and I had to work a few jobs and take out a billion loans to get through school then maybe this school wouldn’t be worth it for me. But based on my circumstances, it’s 100% worth it.</p>
<p>"Students paying full freight are actually quite common at top colleges. Here’s the percentages of students not receiving need-based grants at several top schools:</p>
<p>61% Johns Hopkins
60% Brown
60% Northwestern
56% Penn
55% Cornell
53% Columbia
53% Stanford
49% Duke
49% Yale
47% Dartmouth
44% Princeton
43% Harvard
40% MIT"</p>
<p>At wealthier schools (in terms of per capita) of Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Dartmouth, the numbers are indeed lower compared to the poorer schools of Cornell, Brown, Penn, and Columbia. Stanford and Duke really stands out though. I would have expected Stanford to be lower and Duke to be higher on that list.</p>
<p>To the OP, do try WashU, UChicago, Duke, and other schools that gives merit based aid.</p>
<p>When you use the word waste in the OP, sounds like you’ve made up your mind. Either you see the benefit or you don’t.</p>
<p>“At wealthier schools (in terms of per capita) of Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Dartmouth, the numbers are indeed lower compared to the poorer schools of Cornell,…”</p>
<p>20% of Cornell’'s students are New York state residents attending one of its contract colleges. For them, “full freight” is at least $10,000 less then the “full freight” of: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Dartmouth.
One can deduct 20% of student body from “full freight” and recompare. This of course would be an upper bound to the impact of the state tuition subsidy on these figures, since I imagine a decent number of these people get financial aid from the university too, hence were already included in the # you reported for Cornell.</p>