<p>in full/close to full make one work harder?
I could never justify the price of NU if I was not working hard. However, paying full price at NU compared to a "eh" school where I might be spending little would probably make me work hard toward my future goals: medical school.</p>
<p>What do you think? Am I totally off?</p>
<p>I’ve seen a lot of your worried posts about paying for NU/FinAid. Since it’s likely that your Financial Aid will not be enough due to your assets (millions in real estate), you are looking at a heck of a lot of debt after a $50k/yr university + $30-50k/yr med school… I don’t want to discourage you from attending NU. Ultimately, make the decision based on what will make you happy. But keep in mind whether the debt you incur from these expenses (perhaps hundreds of thousands) will keep you from happiness.
Just because you don’t go to NU doesn’t mean you can’t get into a great med school. If that was true, we sure wouldn’t have so many doctors. a lot can be said about going to a lower ranked university and graduating at the top of your class/with honors/with great relationships with professors due to your high standing.</p>
<p>Don’t use your being at a lesser ranked school bring you and your work effort down. If you do, you have no one to blame but yourself.</p>
<p>That’s great but I applied ED… I don’t have much of a choice if I get in. Either way, I would have to go to a very low ranked school in order to get merit aid. Every private school costs around 60k and even my in-state school U of I is 40k.</p>
<p>I hope your parents are committed to helping with your college costs, since in spite of current cash flow problems it does sound like they have more resources than many families.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, my SIL has been a college counselor for over 30 years, and she says that in spite of her own frugal tendencies she has developed a STRONG bias in favor of families reaching for the very best education they can afford. She says she’s seen MANY students who chose a cheap school over the school of their dreams who end up dropping out or making a costly (in terms of both time and money) transfer later. </p>
<p>She urged us to do whatever it took (I refuse to take loans but that’s another story) to send D to NU rather than the several full-ride options she had, and much to my surprise so far we’re all making it work and are all feeling VERY good about that decision.</p>
<p>Remember that even a “free” school isn’t free when you consider that you devote at least 4 of the prime years of your life to going there.</p>
<p>If it TRULY helps in the long run, my parents are more than willing. If I got a 4.0 at NU will I really be better off than a 4.0 at Loyola (Chicago)? I could not see myself being happy at the latter with over a large majority from my school attending Loyola/Depaul/UIC.</p>
<p>Maybe you should show your parents the table from the NY Times Article in the thread “What Business Leaders Say”.</p>
<p>If you drop out at Loyola/DePaul etc., or lose motivation, that’s serious business in terms of your life plan. </p>
<p>None of this is to say that folks from those schools can’t do well in life as they obviously can.</p>
<p>Also remember that NU offers students who apply for them some amazing opportunities through research grants once you’re there.</p>
<p>MomCares, thank you so much. You have truly made me feel much better about my dream school. My mom (nursing assistant) recently spoke with a doctor, who attended NU and whose son is currently at NU, and she said that I had to go to NU if I got in and wanted to be a doctor.
Do you know if NU offers current students merit aid? If you do extremely well your first year or so? I doubt it but who knows.
All that’s left is to get in at this point.(:</p>
<p>As far as I know, virtually no Merit aid ever (very little for NMS, etc) since, as they say, “every student at NU deserves Merit Aid”. </p>
<p>They do, however, seem very generous with grants for special projects that students come up with. For example, D will be having an all-expense-paid trip to Qatar this spring with her A Cappella group.</p>