<p>My son has narrowed it down to these two very different schools. We live in Michigan, so over 4 years it will be $100,00 less than Macalester. When is is worth $100,000 to go to a school? Is it ever worth it? They are both great schools, just wanted to hear from people who picked the more expensive school - was/is it worth it?</p>
<p>We picked the more expensive school and it was totally worth it. S got everything out of his LAC (Grinnell - which is similar to Mac in many ways) that we’d hoped he’d get: the mentoring from faculty, the attention to his writing and communication skills, the state-of-the-art facilities, the nurturing community, a culture where the values are consistent with ours, and a supportive environment from which to ‘launch.’ Worth every penny it cost over his (otherwise well-respected) in-state U.</p>
<p>But - and this is a big ‘but’ - he is graduating without debt and we were not severely constrained by his choice. His sibling’s choices were not circumscribed as a result of his decision. His graduate education will not require him to assume crippling debt or to make career choices he wouldn’t otherwise make, because he will be able to pay off grad school debt in a reasonable amount of time. If this were not the case, we might have felt differently.</p>
<p>So yes, it was worth it to us. That doesn’t mean it will be worth it to you.</p>
<p>Michigan’s a better school than Macalester in the first place, and then you want to spend 100k to not go to Michigan…</p>
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