<<<
would say that Stanford is worth the extra $180k. I
<<<
Of debt?
No, it’s not.
Lots of colleges open doors. LOTS. Even at Stanford, there is no guarantee that your student will garner a super high paying job right out of undergrad.
$180,000 in loans will be well over $2000 a month in repayment for ten years. Sorry, no new grad should have that kind of debt, in my opinion.
I would question the worth in the extra $180k even if there would be no debt at graduation.
If a family has the resources to pay in full for a college, that is fine, in my opinion.
But taking out $200,000 or so on loans for undergrad school is not…in my opinion.
@thumper1 If the family has unlimited resources, then $180k more makes more sense. But there aren’t many families who have unlimited resources. You could buy a house with that additional money (or at least put a substantial down payment on one). Buy cars, furnish houses, etc. Invest the money. Could provide a very sizable nest egg if left invested for 40+ years. Typically resources are not unlimited (or even practically so) so there are opportunity costs.
To me it depends on what the kid wants to do, career goals, type of kid and institution involved. Even if there is no debt. And I understand different people have different views. Different strokes.
But I agree it makes no sense to go into huge amounts of debt for undergrad.
Go for no debt. You dont’ want the equivelent of a mortgage payment to make on your student loans.
U Wisconsin Madison is an excellent school. I would not go into debt if this was my affordable choice.
<i’m not="" trying="" to="" deceive="" myself;="" i="" know="" won’t="" be="" receiving="" any="" financial="" aid.=""></i’m>
Are you sure about that? Stanford gives great financial aid- you may be surprised- but you and your parents should decide what the debt max should be if that is your dream school. We decided that if the total debt max was 20K per year then it was worth it. That is just our choice(kid and parent together) and it might not work out for us or you. But I mostly agree with everyone else. Go to UW unless you have a strong desire to attend a particular school or if it has a program that you want and is not offered at UW.
Have you actually run the NPC?
Have your parents only committed to 60k for all four years? Because that’s not enough to attend u Wisconsin for 4 years. Run the NPC for Unc Wisconsin and ask them if they can pay that for four years.
@MoeFelix What’s your FAFSA EFC?
Do,you have the stats to get accepted to schools like Stanford? Stanford accepts about 9% of applicants. That means that 91% are rejected when they apply.
Sure, the school has great need based aid…but you have to get accepted first!