<p>im an oos student and penn state gave me absolutely nothing in terms of aid. i love the school and i really REALLY want to go there but i dont know if its worth taking out so many loans and coming out of college is a huge pile of debt. on the other hand i have a school that if i go to i wont come out in hardly any debt at all but i dont like it as much. i dont know what to do, does anyone know of someone who came out of school with lots of debt and regretted making that choice? or maybe of somone who made that choice and would gladly make it again if they had the chance?</p>
<p>What are you planning on majoring in? And what is the other school?</p>
<p>I, too, am interested in the other school and major. My daughter is out of state as well and dead set on attending. PSU also offered nothing at all (not unexpected though as a large public university though). Maryland at least offered $2K per year. Privates offered much more - Tulane at 24K and Randolph Macon at 17K per year. My daughter was accepted as a psych major but already wants to switch to another science.</p>
<p>Personally, I wouldn’t of chosen to attend main if they did not offer me the money they did. Would of either went to a branch or Rutgers where they were offering good money as well. I couldn’t imagine paying the full OOS tuition.</p>
<p>Twilight, How much debt are you talking about and what is your intended major? (An engineering student is generally looking at a starting income much higher than, say someone in communications.) Are you planning to go to graduate school? Will your parents qualify for PLUS loans? Some types of loans, such as home equity loans, are getting harder to obtain. You don’t want to get yourself into a situation where you are halfway through and then run out of money. You personally will have access to a limited amount of loan dollars. (I don’t know the details, but maybe $3500 in a Stafford loan and $4000 if you have a very low EFC and qualify for a Perkins, annually.) There are debt calculators on the college board website; I recommend you take a careful look at them. If you are looking at $40K in debt, that might be reasonable. If you’re looking at $100K, it’s probably not.</p>
<p>Twilight- same scenario with me (those new yorkers lol)
just 5k in loans a year nothing else
stupidd- but still love the school</p>
<p>Hey I am in the exact same situation! Except that I have ALOT of scholarships so the OOS tuition for me would drop to $12,000 a year (housing and tuition). On the other hand I could go to my state school for completely free. I really want to go to Penn State but it is hard to justify paying $12,000 a year when I could go to college for free, what would you do if you only had to pay $12,000 for PSU? Would you go PSU?</p>
<p>I really hope that all of you OOSs find a way to get to PSU! It’ll be sad if you couldn’t come because of the financial gap.</p>
<p>i definitely think it’s worth it. to me, college is not just about education but the experience and the aftermath. penn state has such warm and welcoming alumni & penn state itself is my “dream school.” i was told that i would most likely not even get in, but now that i have, i refuse to see my acceptance letter as a milestone & nothing more.
i’m planning to take in 10-15K in debt this year. all i can say is i’m gonna scout for scholarships & hope for a more generous sum next year. i can’t pass it up.</p>
<p>thanks for all the advice everyone, i actually have decided to attend the university of maryland, im oos for that too but i am also in the scholar program and in penn state i was just 1 in the thousands, im really excited and i wish the best of luck to all of you :)</p>