I recently committed to Ohio State for 100% financial reasons: they offered me a full ride while my other choices (all of which I liked a lot more, and which were more “prestigious” than OSU) would have been ~$35k/yr, which would have required taking on loans. I’m already regretting it and feeling pretty depressed about where I’m going.
I know the choice I made was the most pragmatic and that I will appreciate graduating debt-free but I just can’t seem to get excited about this school. I feel inferior talking about college with my classmates, whose future schools include Vanderbilt, UPenn, UVA, UMich - I can’t shake the feeling that I’m accepting mediocrity. Anyone here have similar experiences with “buyer’s remorse”? I know it’s important to go into college excited and ready to be part of a student community, so how do I convince myself to like OSU rather than just thinking about the schools I could have gone to?
think of how much better you will feel not being crushed for years under the weight of $140K in student debt.
my very bright niece could have gone to lots of places and she LOVES Ohio State.
besides you can’t suffer buyer’s remorse if you haven’t bought anything. OSU is giving you a free ride. it’s a gift. there is no such thing as “gift-recipient remorse”. the only way you could have gotten buyer’s remorse is if you paid thru the nose for “prestige” and spent years paying off the massive debt.
hey, if you’re upset about a free ride to OSU my son would gladly take it off your hands. you are not realizing that whatever scholarship got you a free ride to OSU is a badge of honor and prestige in itself.
my gosh, only in modern day America could someone get a free ride to Ohio State and find a reason to cry about it. stop complaining about your precious prestige and have a great time at OSU.
So many kids would gladly trade places with you. OSU is an excellent school where you will have ample opportunities. A great education costing you $0 is a wonderful gift. Be grateful and enjoy your time at OSU.
Firstly, don’t think for another minute about where other kids are going. In literally about two months, you will probably never see most of them again:-) Secondly, you are graduating debt free! Who’s the smart one? Thirdly, there will be a huge variety of kids and you will have many opportunities to meet a ton of interesting people. Fourthly, it’s ranked 52 in the country for best universities. That isn’t mediocre. That is fantastic, especially considering there are 4000 colleges in the country. Plus, no one gets excited when those other colleges have a football game. When Ohio plays, it’s big news.
I have to say, I just read through the USNWR blurb, and I am actually pretty impressed with what this huge university offers. All freshman have to live on campus, there are lots of clubs and activities, all kinds of special opportunities, study abroad, diversity, and a surprising number of not-huge classes. I think it sounds great. Spend some time on the website and look more deeply at what this college has to offer. See what things you can sign up for beforehand. Join the facebook page or similar for accepted students. You will see that if you make a little effort to involve yourself in what is coming, it will be more exciting for you.
This. You got a full ride. You aren’t paying (much) for college. Ohio State is an excellent school and you’re essentially getting paid to attend. Life could be a lot worse. Maybe it’s hard to see now because all you’re focused on is a name. But in four years, when you DON’T have a loan payment to make, you’ll be very happy.
Do this simple exercise. Figure out how much in loans you would have needed to attend the more “prestigious” schools. Now compute the monthly payment over ten years at X% interest. That’s money in your pocket.
I took the free ride at my state flagship (Rutgers, currently ranked #72 as compared to OSU’s #52) back in the day and it was a great decision, socially, academically, and economically.
I’m sure that many of your classmates at OSU will be the ones who passed on Vandy, Penn, Michigan. You can congratulate yourselves on having made the smart choice to graduate debt free.
Hey! You’re in a great position. I was similar to you - I ended up going to my state school despite getting into more prestigious private schools. First of all, I LOVED my college experience. At state schools, there are plenty of incredibly bright people and you will be among them. You are far from the only person who chose OSU for financial reasons. I personally would not have chosen to go anywhere else. I ended up at an Ivy for grad school but honestly nothing compares to my time at undergrad. I felt the same way talking to my friends, because they were all going to great private schools, but odds are they’ll just be a closed chapter of your life soon. Also, you’ll be surprised at how many people end up at state schools from your school that you didn’t realize.
Secondly, as someone who graduated last year, let me be the slightly-older-voice-of-reason. I have zero debt. No loans whatsoever to pay. It’s an amazing feeling. I can afford a great apartment, don’t need to worry about the occasional night out, have plenty of money to put into savings and my IRA… you can’t even imagine how different it is from my friends who are burdened with $300-500 a month in student loans, and how trapped they feel that this is going to be their lives for years.
Do not fall into “the name game” with colleges because you will only upset yourself. There are many avenues to happiness and success besides the name of a higher education institution. I was very unhappy at a prestigious school and transferred. It is called THE Ohio State University for a reason and their alumni are successful, passionate and devoted. I know many students and two Top 10 students in my child’s HS class, that chose The Ohio State University. Google their football marching band for Michael Jackson’s Moonwalk and be amazed at just that! I was, when my student’s friend posted about her exciting experiences at OSU. College is more than academics and OSU has lots to offer. Most of all … IT"S FREE!
I would be bragging on that! Even if your friends aren’t impressed with FREE, their parents will be!!!
About 30 years ago I made a similar choice–I took the full ride my state flagship offered rather than attend the #1 or #2 tech school nationwide. Its ranking was similar to or slightly lower’s than OSU.
Let’s break down a what prestigious undergrad degree gets you, besides bragging rights. 1) Almost all of the students are very smart, and you will have lively discussions both inside and outside of classes. 2) There are a very small number of industries that hire mostly from prestigious colleges, mainly in finance and consulting. 3) Your alumni network will be stronger and may make a small difference in where you get hired in your first job and later.
IMO, #1 matters little, particularly if you are part of a honors program at OSU. The students in my honors program were every bit as bright as those that attended HYPSM. In fact, most of my friends and I ended up at graduate school at Stanford, MIT, Columbia, etc. And to this day, the single brightest person I have ever known in my life is someone I met at the state flagship, and I have known some people who have been incredibly successful.
2 matters a great deal if you want to be in consulting or finance right after undergrad. Otherwise, rather unimportant.And if you really want to be in these fields, you can get an MBA.
3 is more nuanced. The single largest determinant of your future success is how you perform on the job. Once you are in a company, nobody cares where you went to college. When you are searching for jobs, the name of the college matters a slight bit, but is over-ridden by your performance.
My advice to you is to join OSU and find your “tribe” among other the smart students that attend there. Get a great GPA, which you are certainly capable of, and then use that to get a great job or an entry into grad school. Take the money you saved and invest it. Don’t look back.
My son felt that way in HS–he was going to state flagship (great school) but others were off to all sorts of ivy type schools with big price tags and he felt a bit left out. But as soon as he got to school he realized that his peer group were kids who all could be attending those schools except for the price tag. He LOVES his school and felt it was the best decision ever.
@Wien2NC I guess I haven’t been able to see the value of a free education as a truly tangible benefit because I’m sheltered and have never really had to grapple with any amount of money as massive as college costs. Thanks.
I was in a similar situation, and I also chose the full ride instead of the more prestigious school. For me, it was between a very nice (but lesser known) private school and Duke. I thought of it this way: If I paid around 1000 for small fees for this school, Duke would have been around 130 times more expensive. Because Duke was certainly not 130 times better than the full ride offer, I chose the full ride.
Perks of being at nice but not top-ten school? Not everyone is academically hypercompetitive. Like it or not, students at the most competitive schools have hustle, and the kind of environment was not present at my college. Students still have high aspirations, but the stress and anxiety is much less prevalent. You also get more leeway to spend money on clothes, food outside of campus, and so on because you did not pay thousands of dollars toward tuition. Forty-thousand dollars spent toward tuition disappears in a flash, but you remember and cherish even a $20 dinner with a friend.
When I had to choose, I also worried that I sold myself out in exchange for giving up prestige. But if I could choose again, I’d definitely choose the full ride.
i’m sorry if i came across too strong but i would imagine close to 100% of the HS students applying for this fall would take your OSU deal in a heartbeat and do cartwheels of joy on the front lawn. you should consider yourself extremely fortunate.
Time to get over the prestige thing and realize that you have an amazing opportunity --you will attend a fine college and no debt at the end. Do you have any idea how many people would gladly jump into your shoes? Go to Ohio State and make the most off your opportunity. If you do well there, you can go on and do anything you want in life (unencumbered by debt).
It is time to stop looking backwards and start looking forward.
I have talked to SOOO many graduates who found their state education gave them same or more job opportunities at all points in their careers as fancy named schools–main exception MIGHT be on Wall Street. Graduating debt free gives you LOTS of options…you can take low paying cool job, you can go to graduate school,etc…other students with debt may have to take job they don’t like for bigger $…you don’t know what you’ll want to do later and having that flexibility and freedom will be awesome. I work at bigger state school, I’ve worked at small private…I’ve talked to MANY businesses about whom they hire and students about where they went. It’s going to be fine. I went to state school because it was all I could afford and I was same way as you…I was smart and disappointed I could go other places. BUT…career wise…it’s been fine and now I realize what a great school it was. AND when I talk to very successful people I often find out they went to same school. AND I recently went to awards event with the best and brightest students from whole state and they were announcing where they were going…and I think 2/3 or more were going to state schools. Maybe the truly smart people look at big picture and take debt into consideration. You’ll certainly be in good company. And Ohio isn’t ANY state schoool…that’s a great school. You can go to big name school for graduate school if you want. Be in the honors program, do research and internships…make the most out of your time there…look up Wiki and learn the history of your new college and embrace it. Nothing to be embarassed about…you’ll be very happy later.
Also…keep in mind that $35,000 debt is something like $300 a month payments for 10 years until you are about 31…you’ll be able to save for house or major trips or graduate school instead when you get out into world.
I think there is a website called something like student debt crisis…anyway if you google student debt stories on the web, you will quickly feel a whole lot better. What you said, OP, about never having to grapple with such a large amount of money is so true. Our house cost less than the sticker price of half the colleges our older child was considering…the mortgage was a thirty year commitment. possibly many student loans end up being a lifelong commitment as well. really unfathomable for most kids (and parents)
I went to state school because it was all I could afford and I was same way as you…I was smart and disappointed I could go other places. BUT…career wise…it’s been fine and now I realize what a great school it was. AND when I talk to very successful people I often find out they went to same school. AND I recently went to awards event with the best and brightest students from whole state and they were announcing where they were going…and I think 2/3 or more were going to state schools. Maybe the truly smart people look at big picture and take debt into consideration.