Hello,
I’m a senior from Washington state. I’ll just get right down to it and skip all the fluff: nothing about me is particularly impressive. 3.3 GPA, 1250 (new) SAT score, a couple extracurriculars like volunteering and student council, but overall nothing super impressive.
After college, I want to become an editor somewhere, hopefully a publishing house. I don’t think this requires anything above a BA, so I will only be attending a school for undergraduate. That being said, California is my dream. Specifically, San Diego. Besides the appeal of the environment and life that California offers, SDSU’s extensive alumni network could help me get a job there and stay in California. However, for out-of-state students, it’s 40k a year. Boise State is only 24k for me thanks to the WUE - a program that allows Washington students to get a 10k discount from regular out of state tuition. Nothing about BSU appeals to me, and I dread having to settle for that school. My parents have 30k put away for my college fund through a program that would award 15k to me a year for two years, and have also said they’re going to help me as much as possible.
So basically, I’m looking at ~100k vs ~50k of loans for a bachelor’s degree. I’m torn between being as financially responsible as possible and being miserable at Boise or saying “screw it” and taking out a lot of student loans to go to San Diego State. I know I could always move to California after I graduate from Boise, but I feel like college is the time to familiarize myself with the area and have great experiences there, plus I’d lose the alumni connections, too. My parents have both told me how they won’t allow me to go to community college for two years so I can afford SDSU, for some reason, so I’m stuck. I don’t know what to do.
You cannot take out more than $27K for 4 years in student loans yourself so the price difference between SDSU and Boise State will be placed on your parents. Are they willing to take out the additional loans needed to attend SDSU?
These are your only 2 options? Would you and your parents consider a Gap year and reapply to better match schools next year?
Also an FYI, getting into SDSU as an OOS transfer is more difficult than getting in as a Freshman.
You can only take out 24k? Even from private loan sources?
Move to California AFTER you graduate because you will need a LARGE income to support yourself in California.
What if can’t find a job and you incur tremendous debt? Some of the parent loans start charging your parents while you are still in school. Can they afford it?
Private loan sources will not lend a student that much money. Your parents will need to take out the loans.
^Yes, @kennyleigh you can only get a loan for $5500 during freshman year.
$6500 during sophomore year;
and $7500 for Junior and Senior year.
Well, either way I don’t know if I should put my parents and myself into that much debt for a school that may or may not be worth it. But on the other hand, I’d have to settle for a school I’m not very fond of. I’d like to go to school this coming fall, and yes those are my only options.
You didn’t apply to schools in your state? I cannot imagine paying OOS even WUE, for Boise. You can’t afford either school.
Well, if your parents will not consider community college for 2 years and then transfer. You will not consider taking a gap year, then your choice is obvious. Just remember that where you go for Undergrad will not define you, it is what you do with the opportunities you are given. Make the best of the situation and shine.
@Sybylla That’s a little rude, but whatever. Yes i did apply to in state and plenty of other schools but all other out of state ones were way too expensive, and I never had any intention of staying in state.
Boise is super affordable under WUE, it’s less that the CSU’s are in state, probably cheaper than your in state options in Washington. As a graduate of San Diego State I would say hell no, it’s not worth out of state tuition. It’s a great school, but not worth that kind of debt, even if you could take out enough in loans- which you can’t. Boise is an awesome city and Boise State seems like a super fun school. Can you visit?
I have spent a fair amount of time in both places. Boise is a love it or hate it kind of place. If you love the hunting, fishing, skiing, that surrounds it, you’ll be in heaven. If you get the sense you’ll hate it now, you probably will after moving there. That said, I wouldn’t pay OOS tuition for SDSU. Of all the schools in the Western US, you applied to just these 2? There are several CSUs and 1 UC that participate in WUE - not to mention UNR, NAU, Ft Lewis and a bunch of schools in cool places in other states.
Are these really the only options for you?