Out of college with debt free or having debt?

Hello

I’m asking for advice and hopefully, I can get some honest replies. I’m a college transfer student who is planning to schools for fall 2017. I’ve applied to:

Binghamton University
SUNY Stony Brook
SUNY Albany
SUNY University at Buffalo
Utica college
Penn State University

Out of 6, I already got accepted to two which were Utica college and SUNY Albany. My overall GPA is 2.60 with at least 65 credits. Let’s say I got accepted to Penn State (my top choice) my parents would take out loans to pay half of the tuition. My Dad works at a university and will pay around $20,000 or so dollars. The reason why I want to attend Penn State is a number of resources that the college offers. When I visited it I was in love and felt like I was home and campus felt like UCLA. If I attend Penn State I will be majoring Meteorology with a possibility in double majoring in Chemistry. If it doesn’t work out I would minor in Biochemistry and Molecular biology. I’m kind of worried about the large lecture halls because some of the classes I will be taking will be

PHYS 211: Mechanics

PHYS 212: Electricity and Magnetism

PHYS 213 + 214: Thermal & Quantum

Organic Chemistry 1 and 2
Calculus 2 and beyond

Regardless of what college I attend, I would still have to take the above courses. I got a D in Organic chemistry and withdrew from Physics 1: Mechanics. I’m retaking Calculus 1 because I got a D and I can tell you that I want to thank the professor for giving me a D. I’m understanding the material much better and often don’t ask for help but still do. Anyways Will attending Penn State be good? If I attend a NY school my dad job will cover the full tuition.

You can only borrow $7500/year for your last 2 years. That won’t be enough to pay for Penn State. There are plenty of good schools in NY. Attend one of them and graduate debt free.

Maybe don’t make any big choices until you have all of your decisions in hand? Bit of a moot point if you’re still waiting on four schools.

Stay in NY. It’s not worth the OOS costs.

The NY SUNY system is a gem of a program. No reason to not attend if your in NY. I wish we had such good public schools in MA.

You will be years ahead of your peers if you can get your degree debt free.

These schools in fall 2017 offered meteorology–

SUNY Brockport
SUNY Oneonta
SUNY Oswego

If you want to transfer into one of these programs later, I’m sure that you could do so. Or you could take a gap year and appy for next year, maybe

best of luck

If you are struggling this much with the required courses in your intended major, I doubt that Penn State would be the right choice even if you got in and had the budget to pay for it. Focus on your SUNYs and affordable small colleges where you will get better support.

^Transferring later wouldn’t be necessary, as someone interested in a career in meteorology can major in a variety of related things to get to the same set of careers. The University at Albany has an atmospheric science & meteorology major. At Stony Brook, the related major would be atmospheric and oceanic sciences. At the University at Buffalo, environmental geosciences may be the most relevant major, and there’s also a geological sciences major. At Binghamton, a major in physics with a minor in geophysics might be the closest approximation (or maybe geological sciences - not exactly the same, but related).

  1. Wait until you have your choices in hand before making a choice.
  2. I would not go into debt for Penn State when you have strong debt free options.

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Regardless of what college I attend, I would still have to take the above courses. I got a D in Organic chemistry and withdrew from Physics 1: Mechanics. I’m retaking Calculus 1 because I got a D and I can tell you that I want to thank the professor for giving me a D. I’m understanding the material much better and often don’t ask for help but still do. Anyways Will attending Penn State be good? If I attend a NY school my dad job will cover the full tuition.


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You’re already struggling at a community college. It’s very possible that you won’t do well at PSU and then what??? You’d drop out and have big debt…or change your major to something easier and have to go longer and have even more debt.

Take the free option. Read @juillet 's answer. She knows what she’s talking about. Others posting do, too.

No matter where I would go, I would still struggle. But at penn state there’s so many tutors and I could seek help. Nothing in life is free, so why not go to a college that I will feel like I’m home. Albany is my second choice follow by stony brook.

SUNY Albany has a [tutoring center](http://www.albany.edu/advisingplus/academic_assistance.php) too. You can go there for tutoring, weekly review sessions, and help with papers. They also have [online tutoring](http://www.albany.edu/advisingplus/50962.php) several nights a week until midnight. I think you should save your money and go to Albany.

“Nothing in life is free, so why not go to a college that I will feel like I’m home.”

Because it will likely make you poor later on.

And because in your case, SUNYs ARE free, or close to it, since your dad’s job will pay for SUNY tuition.

As the wife of someone with a Master’s in Meteorology, go debt free! The field doesn’t pay well and the SUNY Schools are excellent schools. I was born & raised in NY and now that my son is a high school senior, I so wish I still lived there as the caliber of state schools is awesome and so much cheaper than our state options in NJ.

This ^^^

And this VVV


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@NASA2014 "Nothing in life is free, so why not go to a college that I will feel like I'm home."

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@Hanna Because it will likely make you poor later on.


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@NASA2014 your response is not only very naive but very impulsive and lacking foresight.

Taking on large debt to go to a particular college is a terrible idea. Taking on large debt to go to an overly expensive and more difficult college where your grades will likely be WORSE than they current are (not very good), is crazy.

Chances are, you’re going to be overwhelmed at PSU. The risk is very real that classes like Ochem and Physics are going to destroy your GPA as they do so many people.

REALLY…answer this…Is your REAL dream to be a meteorologist for a lifetime multi-decade career?

Or is your dream to spend 3 years at PSU and then drown is a bunch of debt after you leave?

Which on is your real dream?

Accepted to University at Buffalo and rejected to Binghamton. Thats weird. Anyone know why that happened? Now the wait for stony brook and penn state

You have a 2.6 GPA. That seems low for Binghamton and Stony Brook. Congrats on the Buffalo acceptance though.

Yea. My friends told me Binghamton is hard to get in.

A 2.6 is a low GPA. First, figure out why you’re struggling so much and how to fix it.