<p>A little background: I am a junior in high school, but after visiting a number of schools with my brother, who is now in college, I have a general idea where I would be interested in applying next year. I know that I can be competitive in admissions at Cornell, Penn, and some other ivies as well as some prestigious smaller schools on the east coast. My parents both paid their way through college and grad school and are requiring both me and my brother to do the same. I have no financial need, but will have to foot the whole tuition bill on my own. I can currently, if accepted, graduate with no debt if I went to Shreyer Honors College at Penn State because of my parent's employment at the university and various other scholarships associated with the honors college. However, if I would attend a school such as Cornell or Penn, I would probably have to pay close to full tuition with little in the way of financial aid. Do you see any justification for not going to SHC, even if I would be accepted to more prestigious Ivy League or other private schools, as a biochem major? Would going to SHC instead of a more prestigious private institution set me back at all in grad school choice 5 years down the line?</p>
<p>You cannot go to any other school but Penn State if your parents won’t contribute any money. You cannot borrow 50-65K each year. You have no collateral. You have no way to pay interest on that loan. It doesn’t matter if you’re competitive if you cannot come up with the cost of attendance.</p>
<p>Penn State is a fine college and your parents are fortunate to be able to offer you this opportunity. In a very real sense, they’ve paid for your tuition by working there and not someplace that paid a more competitive commercial or industrial salary. Full disclosure: my children could go to the school where I teach for free, but that hasn’t influenced what I say here.</p>
<p>The only way I can see out of this situation is if your grades and scores and ECs are so excellent that you could earn a full ride scholarship somewhere else. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1505285-automatic-out-state-tuition-waivers.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1505285-automatic-out-state-tuition-waivers.html</a></p>
<p>Bottom line: it doesn’t matter where you go undergrad (unless you intend to work finance on Wall Street or teach at an Ivy). It matters that you do very well and take full advantage of the resources you can find inside and outside your college.</p>
<p>If the school does not have merit aid, do not apply there. You’d have to be insane to take on $200k+ in debt to go to any school in the country, I don’t care how good it is. Your option with Penn State sounds great. Follow the advice of the above poster.</p>
<p>Even if you wanted to teach at an Ivy, where you go to undergrad doesn’t matter - it’s where you get your PhD. And I live in NYC and I know tons of Penn State alumni who work at top consulting firms. They have a huge and influential alumni network (my former roommate and a good friend of mine is a Penn State alumna).</p>
<p>And no, your undergrad college won’t affect where you go to graduate school. I am at an Ivy League grad school and my classmates range from having attended Ivies themselves to colleges I’ve never heard of before, and everywhere in between. It just so happens that I actually know a whole bunch of Penn State alumni at my grad school because of my former roommate.</p>
<p>Basically, Penn State is a great school and attending their honors college for free is a tremendous deal. So you should do that, rather than go into ridiculous debt.</p>
<p>@bigwords: OP CANNOT take on $200+ in debt. Undergraduates only get to borrow $27,000 TOTAL for their education, and only $5,500 freshman year. </p>
<p>@OP: Unless your parents have a deal like: they pay for your education and you pay them back later, in which case yes you could attend Cornell or whatever school you’d be admitted to.
When your parents went to college, it was possible to “self fund” because in today’s dollars tuition cost about $5-10,000. (I know someone who went to a state school for $400 a semester in tuition in the late 70’s/early 80’s.) With federal grants (which were changed into federal loans in the 80’s) and work or work-study, it was possible to self-fund. Today, it’s just not feasible. In fact, today, debt is taken for granted, which is a new development, as debt used to be considered par for the course only if you went to a private college. Many public universities were inexpensive enough that students could manage without borrowing or with very minimal borrowing.
How does your brother manage it, BTW?
Anyway, either you get a merit scholarship somewhere or you have SHC. Not a bad choice, especially since SHC has an excellent reputation. You also have the Cornell “State” schools (cheaper than the “private” Cornell schools).
You won’t be able to pay tuition at an Ivy League or another similar college on your own.</p>
<p>Curious…how is your brother paying for his education?</p>
<p>If he’s taken out large loans, that is very sad. Hopefully, he’s going to PSU or somewhere else on large merit…otherwise he’s going to have a miserable adult life paying back a couple hundred thousand in debt.</p>
<p>A person like you who is planning on going to grad school really needs to minimize ANY borrowing because loans grow while you’re in school (since yours won’t be subsidized). </p>
<p>Would going to SHC instead of a more prestigious private institution set me back at all in grad school choice 5 years down the line?</p>
<p>Absolutely not. My older son went to our state flagship (Alabama) and he was accepted to EVERY PhD program he applied to. He was a math major. He had a perfect GPA, very high GRE scores, excellent LORs, and impressive research. His classmates in his PhD program are from a variety of schools ranging from Flagships to Ivies, but also LACs and one student is from a regional public.</p>
<p>This isn’t unusual. When looking at various profs’ CV’s you’ll see that many went to “good schools” for their undergrads and went to “better schools” for their PhDs. </p>
<p>Once you have your test scores, you need to apply where you’d get HUGE merit. Are you a likely NMF? What was your PSAT?</p>
<p>Keep in mind that admissions into SHC is highly competitive and unless faculty’s children have a big edge, there’s no guarantee that you’d get in.</p>
<p>P.S. I think your parents’ plan is nutty. And since they actually work at a major univ and should be familiar with costs, etc…that makes their plan even more nuttier. Sorry.</p>
<p>Go to Penn State. Shreyers is highly prestigious. NO school is worth debt. I went to Penn State, have a Ph.D. now, and going there never held me back. If you can’t get merit scholarships anywhere else, GO there.</p>
<p>First, as others mentioned, it is impossible to borrow 50k-60k a year for the Ivies. No school gives the “family is rich but prefer student to pay by himself” option. </p>
<p>So to go to an Ivy, you must borrow from family, in which case it would still be a mistake to take on 200k of debt. Sure, your family is much more forgiving than the loan companies, but you don’t want to harm your family relationships for an Ivy degree. </p>
<p>There are two exceptions. If you confident you want to get an engineering degree with very strong career prospects, you might take the Ivy route. I know several companies that simply don’t take anyone from lower ranked schools, honors program or not. </p>
<p>The second exception is if you are certain you want to work for a top management consultancy or investment bank, and more importantly, have the ability to excel enough at the Ivy to be accepted. Once again, the top consultant companies and investment banks just don’t take anyone from a lower ranked school (unless if you later go to a top grad program).</p>
<p>Why is there an assumption that the student will get into SHC? Is there a “free pass” if you’re the child of PSU employees?</p>
<p>There is no free pass, but with the tuition waver provided by my parents employment and the scholarships associated with the Honors college, tuition would be very close to nothing.</p>
<p>Where does your sibling go to college and how is he paying for that?</p>
<p>There is no free pass, but with the tuition waver provided by my parents employment and the scholarships associated with the Honors college, tuition would be very close to nothing.</p>
<p>I think the SHC award is around $5k per year. That would leave you with about $10k per year in costs…unless you commute from home.</p>
<p>If I were you, this wouldn’t even be a question. Penn state is obviously the better deal. Where I live it is very highly regarded, as though it is an ivy. Penn State is a top public school, unless you absolutely hate it there and it is a terrible fit for you, definitely go there. Not everyone has the opportunity to attend AND attend debt free. </p>
<p>Just wanted to add a little tidbit here, I go to an orthopedic doctor at Johns Hopkins. She graduated from Penn State :)</p>
<p>If you are smart and hard working, the sky is limit. Use the resources available to you and STUDY LIKE CRAZY and you will do just fine.</p>