My daughter got off the oBerlin wait list. She had already put a deposit into Bing. With oberlin’s financial package it means she would have to take out more loan$ to make it happen than bingI really don’t want her to be in a heavy debt situation after graduation, but many of her friends are influencing her to go to Oberlin. She had applied as a pay major, but she really doesn’t know what career she wants to purse. She knows she likes helping people. I would really appreciate some knowledgeable feedback.
At Oberlin she would have smaller classes and would get to know her profs. better. There is music there all the time, from both the conservatory and the other kids who are interested in music.
Binghamton offers a more diverse student body and social life. The kids there are mostly “nice” with a smaller proportion involved in political action.
Depending on how exactly she’d like to “help people”, Binghamton also has a nursing program downtown. My guess is this is of little use to those not enrolled in it specifically. This city f Binghamton is quite depressed, there are certainly a greater cluster of folks there who could use to be “helped”. don’t know what mechanisms are there to do it.
She applied as a “psych” major, don’t how pay came up. After touring bing, I did find their nursing program impressive but I have nothing else to compare it. She is more of a social work/psychology type and really that impressed with the idea of going there. She just chose it because it is considered the best of the nys sunys. She really wants oberlin.
She will have a limit to how much she can take out in loans. Otherwise, they will be your loans. If she can attend Oberlin with only the Stafford loans, then she should choose based on which school she likes. If your will need to take out loans for her and/or cosign them if she goes to Oberlin but not Bing, ten Oberlin isn’t a good idea IMO.
Psych/social work tend to be low paying careers and she will likely need grad school as well.
Stay at Bing. Oberlin is not worth going into a lot of debt for
Definitely Bing. If she wants to pursue psych or social work, grad school is in her future. Better to approach that without undergraduate debt.
Thanks for the feedback! With the amount of work study awarded, the total cost would be only a thousand or so above the cost of bing. The workstudy$ would have to go directly towards tuition. I have told her this. Is there anything I am missing about workstudy? If our income remains pretty much the same is it most likely our FA will remain for the next year? Admissions said it all depends on family income going up or down? Again, an I missing something? Thanks
Couple of things = first of all, how easy is it to get a work study job at Oberlin? My D went to a SUNY and she wound up only able to get a WS job in the library between 2 and 4 AM three days a week. Second, if the program she is taking is rigorous, you might prefer that she have time to study and do hw. Third, can she work over the summer or breaks to make up the financial difference instead of relying on WS, which might not stay the same? Next, if you are this tight on the expenses, how are you planning to cover travel to and from, etc.? Lastly, some people like the idea of going to school with people who are financially much better off while others don’t. We moved from a community where we were pretty much at the top of the food chain financially to one where we are nowhere near the top. It has had an impact on my kids that I didn’t count on - to be that kid whose family can’t give them a car, etc. I prefer my kids to be at SUNYs so they can see that we really are okay financially.
Good luck.
All good points to think about Techmom99. From what I heard about the students at Oberlin, things sound pretty chill and not showy at all in terms of $$. I have been more concerned about the extra radical behavior of some students. My daughter is not support political. Since oBerlin aims for diversity, I would guess it has a range of socio economic levels. Please anyone in the know, chime in.
She should have no trouble getting work study hours - a residential campus always needs student workers, even if only in non glamorous jobs like shelving books or helping at the cafeteria.
If the difference is only $1,000 i’d go with Oberlin. Stronger academics, smaller classes, better recommendation letters, more comfortable learning resources, career network - bing is great academically but currently it’s suffering from growing pains, it doesn’t have enough space in its library or students waiting to see a professor during office hours may not be able to due to larger class sizes.
Oberlin is one of the best colleges in the country,and you have an opportunity to go there. If you attend, you will be with very bright and accomplished people from around the world. I had to choose between a state school and Oberlin and am glad I went there. It is a different environment where intellectual thought and accomplishments are strongly encouraged.
Why not give it a shot? If it doesn’t work out, you can transfer to a state school. It would be very difficult to transfer from a state school to Oberlin.
I am directing the above to your daughter.