<p>Unless your parents are rich, I totally agree with the others that assuming that much debt is the opposite of smart. But I still beleive that you need to run the numbers when all siblings are in college at the same time, and for how many years?</p>
<p>How many of the anti-debt voters on this thread would change their recommendation if it is Yale for $12k/yr NET vs. UMinn on a full ride?</p>
<p>I agree with blue, that the numbers have to crunched <em>prospectively</em> with each scenario in mind; theoretically, your family situation changes as each kid enters college (we just had this discussion on the Wesleyan Forum, so I know it’s confusing.) You should have a frank, heart-to-heart with the Yale financial aid people.</p>
<p>*How many of the anti-debt voters on this thread would change their recommendation if it is Yale for $12k/yr NET vs. UMinn on a full ride? *</p>
<p>It would depend on the major, future grad/law school plans, and whether the student could work a lot over the summer to contribute a big chunk so that the $12k wouldn’t be all loans.</p>
<p>raff365 - just as an aside. You mentioned that you’re interested in patent law. My understanding is that the US Patent office will fund law school for employees after they’ve worked there for a specified amount of time and conditional on their agreement to continue employment there for some time. If that continues to be an interest for you, it might be worth exploring, given the cost of law school!</p>
<p>Minnesota Engineering + 3.8+ GPA + 170+ LSAT = Top 15 Law School</p>
<p>I would go for Minnesota.</p>
<p>Prestige is good, debt is bad. That much we can all agree on. </p>
<p>But let’s look closely at this, people. The OP wants to study engineering, possibly chemical engineering. For engineering the University of Minnesota (US News #22 undergrad engineering) is hands-down a better school than Yale (US News #40 undergrad engineering). For chemical engineering the University of the Minnesota is world-class (US News #3 chemical engineering), Yale at best an also-ran (US News #41 chemical engineering). So for what the OP wants to study, he can go to the BETTER school for a fraction of the cost. That’s a no-brainer. </p>
<p>And if law school is in the picture further down the road, a high undergrad GPA and top LSAT score will get the OP into the best law schools in the country; it won’t make a dime’s worth of difference whether the undergrad degree is from Yale or from Minnesota. Prestige in his subsequent professional career would flow from his law school, not his undergrad institution. </p>
<p>So let me get this right: some people are advising to OP to take on $100K of undergraduate debt, to be compounded by perhaps another $150K in law school debt, so as to attend the school that is weaker in his intended field of study, in pursuit of fleeting “prestige” that will end up pretty much irrelevant to his professional school aspirations and subsequent professional career, because it’s the prestige of his law school and not the prestige of his undergraduate institution that will matter once he’s an attorney? </p>
<p>Gosh, this Ivy-mania makes some people even more irrational than I ever imagined.</p>
<p>blue & john</p>
<p>Do not be so quick to pass judgement.<br>
Do either of you have 4 kids? Any idea what it takes to raise 4? In my area it is over $10,500/year for day care. Perhaps 1 parent stayed home when all the kids were young. Medical premiums for my family this year are over $19,000 - that is premium - add to that office visits, prescription costs, ortho. We can’t assume all family members have always been healthy.</p>
<p>Financial Aid doesn’t take into consideration a parents “life to date” earnings - simply a surrent snapshot and then assumes that snapshot was always the financial picture.</p>
<p>OP - I vote for the state school. It will alleviate much stress for all family members. By the time sibling 3 or 4 come along, your parents may not even be able to get loans for them if they have taken so many for you. </p>
<p>Worst case scenario - You hate the state school and transfer.</p>
<p>Longhaul, if you were the OP, my answer would be different. I know that may sound illogical, but, the fact is, the OP’s parents have already said they are prepared to contribute ~125,000k towards a Yale education. Presumably, they know what it takes to raise four children; I’m not going to second guess them. My suggestion was that they try to get a better idea of what the actual brick would be after four years, not what it appears to be now, based on the first year’s EFC (and with only one child in college.) Then, make the decision. It may still be more money than they would want to be on the hook for, but, at least they would be making the decision based on complete information.</p>
<p>Frankly, for someone who already knows what they want to do with the rest of their life and are reasonably confident it can be achieved w/o a Yale degree, it may not be as life-changing a necessity as it might be for someone else who needs to test the waters or experience the cognitive dissonance of living with a lot of people with competing ambitions. I think, ultimately, that’s what makes a middle-class kid want to travel half a continent away from home just to get a college degree. It isn’t just for the prestige.</p>
<p>Longhaul:</p>
<p>Please specify where I was passing judgment…I was making a simple statement, IFF parents are rich (however the OP defines it), spending full price for Yale maybe rounding error. Or it may not be. Only the OP’s family can decide that value, AFTER calculating the net costs with four siblings in college. Perhaps the correct answer is that all four go after full rides at Minnesota. GREAT choice. Or perhaps an answer is that a private college – forget HYP for a moment – is worth $12k out-of-pocket per year. And, for how many years might the number be that low? IMO, THAT is the value proposition to be discussed. And without more facts for analysis, the rest is pure speculation.</p>
<p>Yale does not try to run the same kind of engineering program as UM. Its engineering majors are more likely to go into investment banking or business consulting than to become licensed, practicing engineers. They can make more money in these fields. </p>
<p>That alone might not be enough to justify the added cost. Strictly from a cost-benefit perspective, it comes down to how well you can take advantage of the Yale environment. That environment combines a critical mass of sheer brilliance with great social network connections and rich financial resources. So Yale is more fertile ground than UM for starting up the next Google or the next Teach for America. However, the people who make such things happen are a minority even at Yale. To comfortably bet on that kind of success without generous aid, I think you need to be either very extraordinary or very well prepared to foot the bill. For most people, $100K in debt would not be a good bet. They’d take the solid education in a practical program at a good state school.</p>