OOS so expensive, should I just look elsewhere?

<p>I visited Michigan last month and loved it. I want to go very badly but I am OOS (from the Midwest) and tuition is crazy high of course. It seems Michigan does not have any scholarships, and I have also heard they are not very generous with merit aid to oos applicants?</p>

<p>I love it so much than my home state school and other Big 10 and Big 12 schools I have visited. But my financial situation is tight. Won't qualify for much, if any, aid. And yet we cannot really pay for what our EFC states.</p>

<p>Should I just look elsewhere? Is Michigan out of the picture for me? I figured I'd post here to get some opinions and maybe any inside information such as special scholarships that maybe I didn't hear about. I'm just trying to keep my hope alive.</p>

<p>Talk to your parents, we don’t really know.</p>

<p>What’s your EFC?</p>

<p>It’s a pretty random question. Yes UofM is expensive for out of state kids…as many other state publics are for out of state kids unless they are a public who is using tuition discounting as a method of raising the caliber of the student body (like Alabama). Most publics gap and don’t meet EFC for out of state kids. It’s all going to be relative to wherever else you are considering.</p>

<p>Not worth the debt you will incur if you can’t afford it. You will most likely be happy no matter where you go, and can always go to U of M for grad school.
50 grand a year is a lot of money unless you have wealthy parents. In my opinion, University of Michigan is not worth that kind of money for undergrads considering the poor level of teaching ability of many of the graduate instructors that they put in front of the students.</p>

<p>Just a more general question I guess, but what is the ideal or rough amount of debt that should be looked at to graduate with? Obviously $0 is ideal, but what would be a fair limit to consider?</p>

<p>For undergrad debt, IF you are going to straight to the job market with a marketable degree, I would say try to keep your debt under $50K. Of course this is highly individualized but even at $50K you’ll be paying off your debt for several years. </p>

<p>You are so right, $0 is ideal. Do expect to do some work study during the academic year and full time work in the Summer. Those help at least give you spending dollars and hopefully cover books as well.</p>

<p>I say keep it under 25k tops, I can’t imagine suggesting someone go all the way to $50k-- that’s where I’m at and it’s EXTREMELY limiting. 50k is nothing to screw around with unless you KNOW you’re going to be making big bucks when you graduate.</p>

<p>why not apply and get accepted first, then worry? app fee is only like 60 bucks or so.</p>

<p>Even at my state school (I won’t qualify for much if any fin aid) I’d probably have $30k debt. And that’s one of my cheapest options. Is 50k really bad?</p>