Ok so currently I have been accepted to 5 schools: Miami of Ohio, the University of Texas at Austin, Syracuse University, the University of Oklahoma (OU), and New York University (NYU). The only two I am currently considering are NYU and OU, but the decision is difficult. Here’s the situation:
OU: I’m a National Merit Finalist, and I have a scholarship to OU that amounts to nearly $123,000 over 4-5 years. At OU, I plan to double major in Finance and International Security Studies. I have also been admitted to the Honors College. If I go to OU, I could come out of law school without debt (even if I went to one of the top law schools, like Harvard law).
NYU: I got offered no financial aid to attend NYU, which means I would have to take out some loans to cover undergrad. I got admitted into the Politics major at NYU. I know NYU has a better rep than OU (which is important in government work), but it’s soooooo expensive.
Congrats on your acceptances. How much in loans will you (and your parents) have to take for NYU? You can take $27K max over 4 years of undergrad ($5.5K first year), anything above that will be on your parents directly or as co-signers.
Given these 2 wildly different extremes, I’m surprised that you have eliminated the others. NYC itself and NYU in particular are both expensive. Isn’t there are 3rd alternative which offered scholarship money to a NM scholar and which offers the sweet spot between the other two?
I would say OU because you’ll be able to get a top GPA there, graduate with no debt for law school (AMAZING because you won’t be “locked” into big-law as some grads are because of their large sums of debt)…but if you don’t think you’ll fit in at OU or are totally opposed to it, then you could consider NYU. If I was in that scenario though, I would probably work for a year or so to pay off the majority of those loans before law school. Are you thinking you’ll be a KJD (kindergarten to JD) or will you take a break in between?
edit: don’t take out 100k in loans, you’ll be digging yourself into a hole
Off the list NYU goes, this is not a difficult decision. $100K is too much in loans, especially as you are eyeing a relatively low paying major (if you didn’t go to grad school). That $100K will be $1K in payments every month for 10 years. Add to that potential law school loans, and nope.
Are any of the schools you eliminated more affordable? Although I do think your situation at Oklahoma will allow you to achieve all of your goals.
Nope it is cheapest for me to go to OU. I’d be paying between $2,000-$10,000 per year (depending on if I decide to stay for five years to graduate w bachelors and masters)
Then you don’t want 100k in loans. I mean regardless that’s not a good idea imo, but if you were talking like 20k or something, then taking a year off to pay most of that off would be fine.
The OU offer is too good to pass up. Even without the money, the combination of the major and honors college are better than politics at NYU. If it were Stern at NYU, it might be debatable but not for a politics major.
Even if you could take out that amount of debt, graduating with $100,000 or so in loans before you start law school would handcuff your life decisions for 20+ years after graduation. The large payments you would have to make to cover the student loans would interfere with every adult decision you make – it would mean you probably couldn’t take that amazing job at a start-up for less pay, get that new car, take a nice vacation, get the home you want etc. Grab your affordable option!
Seriously, it would be a big mistake for you to choose NYU over OK with these numbers. Study whatever you want at OK, get a 4.0 (which is very do-able for you at OK), kill the LSATs, and you’re going to ANY law school you want - which is the more important degree for you, definitely. Enjoy!
