Hey guys! I was recently accepted to University of Michigan. I was so excited until I realized that as an OOS student, there is virtually no way to pay tuition without accumulating immense debt. On the other hand, I was accepted to University of Missouri’s school for Journalism and offered a full ride there. I do not want to attend the University of Missouri–UMichigan is my dream school and has been since I was a kid. Because of these financial circumstances, my parents are basically ruling out Michigan as an option. I understand that Michigan in no way will give me a full ride to match University of Missouri, but can anyone provide me with any opinions on whether you believe that if I make my case that one of the best journalism schools in the country gave me a full ride they will give me offer me more aid? I thought that this would work because they are both public universities.
If this sounds naive or uninformed, please excuse my mistake (I am very stressed out about this entire situation). If anyone could provide me with any ideas of how to handle OOS tuition at UMich (work study, scholarships, etc?), it would be greatly appreciated.
It will be difficult. Michigan does not offer that much FA to out of state students. If you don’t want to accumulate 200k in debt, I would consider going to Missouri or applying to some private schools with good financial aid.
Go to Mizzou. Journalism is a shrinking field with poor job prospects. If you wants to become a journalist, you will have to get used to saving money and Missouri is a good school.
Did you GET a need based financial aid package from Michigan? Did you complete the fafsa and Profile forms?
Are you even eligible for need based aid?
UNiversity of Michigan is NOT going to a match an offer from University of Michigan…and it doesn’t matter that the journalism school at Missouri is top notch.
I promise you there are UM students who would give an arm to be a full scholarship student at Mizzou’s journalism school.
UMich isn’t going to crack open their FinAid coffers any more for you – they’re stingy for top In-state applicants. You’ll love Mizzou and the lack of debt after graduation.
That means actual vacations and your own car and apartment…
Did you do this? Did you compete the 2017-2018 fafsa no Profile forms? Do you have a financial.aid offer from Michigan? Michigan does not guarantee to meet full need for OOS students.
Mizzou has offered you a great net price and it’s a great school.
Also, if you rec’d a full ride merit scholarship at Mizzou – you’ll be one of the biggest fish in the pond. Every dept head will know you, the top administration will know you by name and face. Your contacts/networking opps will be enormous the day you step on campus. Why? Because you’ll be a poster child of what the school considers its “top students” and will dote on you accordingly. You’ll be invited to sit on panels and boards. Internships will have your name stamped on them.
<<< there is virtually no way to pay tuition without accumulating immense debt. >>>
Do you realize that most journalists (even the eventually successful ones) have very modest incomes for quite awhile?? Your income will likely barely put a roof over your head, much less pay any debt.
Take the free ride.
You can alway politely contact UMich, tell them that you’d love to attend but it’s unaffordable and that Mizzou has offered a free ride. UMich may say, “you’ll be happy as a Tiger,” or they may say, “let’s see what we can do,” and make it more affordable.
However, even if UMIch tosses you some money, the school costs over $50k per year. If your parents won’t pay the rest, then it will not be affordable/
If Michigan does up their offer…you need to find out what hoops you will need to jump through for the subsequent three years to keep that increased offer.
It is very important to make the right financial decisions in life. UofM will most likely not match the offer from Mizzou. Journalism just doesn’t pay that much to justify you taking 200K in loans. If you were an engineering student then it would be worth it to take loans to go to UofM…not for Journalism.
@thumper1 Starting salaries in computer science/engineering from UofM are $95,000 on average. It is not only worth it, it is a smart financial decision (in absence of other better offers from top 10 schools in engineering).
On average! No guarantee that. Engineering student will,garner that $95,000 a year job. Sorry…there isn’t. And there are plenty of strong engineering programs that do NOT cost $200,000 out of pocket.
And anyway…this student is a journalism major who has gotten a full ride to Mizzou which is a very stron journalism program.
Just to add to my post #7, a co worker’s daughter was a top student and admitted to UMich. She wanted Ross Pre admit and didn’t get it. However, she got the President’s full tuition award at Oakland University (north of Detroit). With that, she became one of the feted students entering that year. The University president knew her personally. The instructor in every one of her classes knew her and were glad to be teaching her. She was on multiple panels and school committees. She was invited to school functions with important visitors. She had multiple internship offers every summer due to her faculty and administration contacts. She had a meaningful research job with a nice stipend. She studied abroad on a university fellowship. She accepted an offer with a top accounting firm with a nice signing bonus.
Not bad for someone who was turned away by Ross pre-admit.
@thumper1 There is no guarantee in anything in life. But statistical data does matter, considering how widely different the incomes are from different universities today in a field of Engineering. But I agree if you can’t be an average engineering student or better in a particular university you should not attend it to be in the bottom of the class.
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Starting salaries in computer science/engineering from UofM are $95,000 on average. It is not only worth it, it is a smart financial decision (in absence of other better offers from top 10 schools in engineering).
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So what? Companies don’t pay you more based on the school you went to. The same company would pay the MSU grad the same…and would pay the Missouri S&T grad the same.
When my ChemE son graduated, his classmates walked into $85k per year jobs, and the CoE isn’t ranked even in the top 75. And that was 4 years ago.
To claim that taking on $100k-200k of debt for UMich OOS eng’g is “worth it” is not good advice, at all.
@3CsinLife Your claim doesnt’ match UMich’s own reported info regarding starting eng’g salaries.
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2014/2015 [engineering] graduates who accepted a full-time job within a year of their graduation earned median salaries between $60,000 to $95,000 for Bachelor's <<<
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^^Those same reported numbers can be found at probably 100+ engineering colleges in the US>.
