Should I sacrifice better education for scholarship $$$?

Paying for College
1

Hello! I am a senior in high school, and I am looking at colleges. I am interested in engineering and/or business. I am also interested in pursuing a graduate program. After reviewing my resume with my college counselor, he told me I have an excellent chance of getting into top-tier schools if I apply ED/EA, but only average to below-average chances if I do RD. I have narrowed my top-tier choices down to Washington University STL, Carnegie-Mellon, and Vanderbilt. However, all of these schools cost a boatload of money, and I will have student debt out the wazoo because I won’t get any financial aid or merit scholarships.

I have considered going to a school with education of a lower magnitude, but with the potential of scholarship offers. U-Minnesota, U-Iowa, and Missouri S&T Rolla are on the table right now. Is it better to go for the highest possible education and worry about cost later, or should I sacrifice some education to reduce my student debt after I graduate?

2

The magic formula: you go to the best possible school you can get into, for the least amount of money. A fancy degree isn’t that helpful if you’re 80K+ in debt afterwards and spend the next 20-30 years paying it off. Debt can affect you in lots of insidious ways–it affects which jobs you pursue/accept/stay in, where you live (and who with–parents, 5 roommates until you are 35), whether you can buy a home, if you can afford to get married, how many kids you can have, etc.

Here’s the thing: generally speaking, you’ll get a fine education and have successful life outcomes/similar life outcomes even if you go to a “lower tier” school than the super elites. The ones you mention are perfectly good schools where you would get a decent education and be tapped into alumni networks that will get you jobs (I’ve heard especially good things about Minnesota). And frankly, once you get your first job, no one really cares where you went to school.

There’s also a middle ground–if you’re an attractive candidate, there are schools in the higher tiers with both generous financial aid policies as well as merit aid opportunity. Round out your current reach/match list with some of those schools to increase your odds of good offers come next April. And then go to the best school that offers you the most money :slight_smile:

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@proudterrier Thanks for the advice!

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Undergraduates are very limited in how much debt they can accumulate – you wouldn’t be able to get much more than $5,000 a year in loans. Anything over that would be loans to your parents, and I’m sure they are not eager to be saddled with $200,000 in new debt to pay for your bachelor’s degree.

You don’t have a choice here to go to those overpriced universities. Just focus on those you can possibly afford to attend. If you want to apply somewhere expensive and fancy for the sheer satisfaction and bragging rights of getting admitted, then by all means apply, but do so with the understanding that you will still be going somewhere else that is affordable.

By the way, Minnesota and Iowa are both members of the prestigious Association of American Universities that the Ivies and the “top-tier” universities you listed belong to, and Minnesota is ranked in the top 50 universities in the world on four different global rankings. See AAU member universities for more ideas of where you can apply: https://www.aau.edu/about/article.aspx?id=5474

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You are in the same situation many students and their families face. If you are a strong student who comes from a family that won’t qualify for aid, but can’t afford 60 to 70 grand per year for school then seeking merit at those schools that are not super elite is the only way to get costs down without loans. Best of luck, you are thinking about this in a good point in the process.

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Are you a US citizen? If so what is your state of residence?

How much can your parents pay each year for 4 years?

What are your stats?

Are you referring to a high school guidance counselor or a private college counselor that you are paying?

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You need a firm number from your parents of how much money they will pay. With COA hitting $65,0000 per year, a merit scholarship of $20,0000 may not be helpful to you or that amount might make all the difference in terms of affordability.

Here are some links to start with:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/mobile/local/college-grants-for-the-affluent/1526/

http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com

http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com

Also look around the CC financial aid forum (this is where these links are from).

I would look carefully at the Honors programs at state universities.

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I will have student debt out the wazoo because I won’t get any financial aid or merit scholarships.


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Guess what?! You won’t have a boatload of debt because YOU won’t be allowed to borrow much.

YOU will be limited to the following amounts:

frosh $5,500
soph $6500
jr $7500
sr $7500

See…so…no debt out the wazoo for you!

How much will your parents pay each year? Ask them!

BTW…as an eng’g major, you will not be sacrificing anything by going to a state school. State schools tend to have excellent eng’g facilities because states have a vested interest in producing qualified engineers for their states.

You should also apply to Alabama because it sounds like you’d have the stats for an award of $110,000 in merit. Alabama has amazing new eng’g facilities.

<<< worry about costs later? <<<

that would be foolish.

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http://uanews.ua.edu/2011/08/stem-path-to-mba-offers-top-students-shorter-degree-path/

check out Alabama’s STEM to MBA program.

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Your college counselor needs to know the financial criteria for your family. If you cannot afford to pay for a >$60,000 a year college, an acceptance will do you no good at all.

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You may sacrifice “prestige”, but you are unlikely to sacrifice quality, as you can get merit at some very good top 100 schools.

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I really appreciate all the feedback!

@Madison85 I have a 35 ACT and a 3.85 GPA, but my GPA is low because of a severe concussion that knocked me out of my entire first semester sophomore year. I have taken 6 APs to date (Physics, Calc BC, Gov, Lang, Euro, Micro), and I am taking 5 this year. I have plenty of ECs and leadership positions, so I’m going to spare you the time of listing all of them. I attend a public high school in Missouri, so my counselor is a public one. I have already filled out the FAFSA and looked at EFCs, and my number was higher than that of schools. So basically, I’m not going to get any financial aid from schools.

@mom2collegekids I know that I can’t personally take on all of my student debt, but my parents said that if I attend college, then I must pay back the debt in full. So even though the debt is technically theirs, I’m going to end up paying the loans.

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You have to pay the loans. Are your parents making any contribution at all?

If your parents won’t pitch in any money that you don’t have to pay back, then you need to find a close to full ride school or you will be in debt for years.

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Alabama is also very generous with AP credit.

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<<<<
know that I can’t personally take on all of my student debt, but my parents said that if I attend college, then I must pay back the debt in full. So even though the debt is technically theirs, I’m going to end up paying the loans.


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Yikes! Run away from that offer…quickly!!! That’s an offer akin to loaning you a boat with a hole in it.

Are you aware that an employer isn’t going to pay a student more money because he graduated from School X. When a company hires, it will pay the new-hires from Wash U, UCLA, CMU, Vandy, UTenn, Alabama, Purdue, GT, UCLA, CSULB, Cal Poly SLO, etc…the SAME salary. Are you aware of that?

Fast-forward your brain to about 5 years from now…you’ve graduated from a big name college and you have a boat-load of debt. Imagine how annoyed you will be when you find out that your fellow new-hires from “lesser schools” are being paid the same…and they don’t have the big debt YOU do. They are getting to buy new homes, travel, maybe marry, etc. They are moving on with their lives. But YOU are stuck with all this debt and debt payments. Hmmm…did your dream just become a nightmare? Yes, it did.

The nice thing about engineering is that there are SO MANY very good programs in the US.

This country and each state has a vested interest in having several schools in virtually every state that have quality ABET-accredited eng’g programs.

The simple truth is that this country has such a high need for high-tech engineers that we can’t depend on only a handful of schools to produce them. Heck, the state of Calif alone has over 25 schools with very good eng’g programs.

Virtually any established good school, particularly state schools, will have very good eng’g programs. They have to.

Are you saying that your parents won’t pay ANY part of your college? Or are you saying that they won’t pay more than a certain amount? How much will they actually pay per year?

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^^^Fast-forward your brain to about 5 years from now…you’ve graduated from a big name college and you have a boat-load of debt. Imagine how annoyed you will be when you find out that your fellow new-hires from “lesser schools” are being paid the same…and they don’t have the big debt YOU do. They are getting to buy new homes, travel, maybe marry, etc. They are moving on with their lives. But YOU are stuck with all this debt and debt payments. Hmmm…did your dream just become a nightmare? Yes, it did.^^^

Mom2collegekids said it all. DH works for a large multinational company; he hires and works with plenty of great engineers who started at CC then finished at the local university. The starting salary grade has nothing to do with where you got your degree. After your first job, no one will ever care where you went to school.There is absolutely no need to go into huge debt for a degree.

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Plus the other schools you are mentioning are excellent universities! University of Minnesota, University of Iowa, Missouri S&T? Well-recognized public research universities where you can get an excellent education. I always joke that half my classmates in my graduate program at Columbia came from Michigan and the other half from Penn State (and I myself turned down Emory for a full scholarship at a small liberal arts college and have never looked back). I’ve never had to make a job-related decision on the basis of whether I can repay my student loans!

Also

I always thing it’s weird when parents say that, because aside from this being a really terrible thing to saddle your new college grad with, there’s no way to force a college kid to pay back all the debt. If the debt is in their name, legally, they’re responsible for the debt and for repaying it.

I still wouldn’t take that offer, though.

18

Going to a good college like Minnesota is not a “sacrifice”. Saddling yourself with mountains of debt is a sacrifice of future freedom and well being.

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<<,
I always thing it’s weird when parents say that, because aside from this being a really terrible thing to saddle your new college grad with, there’s no way to force a college kid to pay back all the debt. If the debt is in their name, legally, they’re responsible for the debt and for repaying it.


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I agree. I’m guessing that the parents plan on co-signing, so both parent and child is on the loan. You’re right, the kid could flake and the parents are stuck paying.

That said, even if the kid is responsible and does try to pay it all back, he’ll soon resent his parents for two reasons:

1)…they didn’t help him with costs.
2)…they weren’t “the adults” and prevented this unnecessary craziness.

I think parents who do this are just 'passing the problem off" to a later time so that they don’t have to feel guilty. It’s easier to say, “we’ll help you borrow, but you have to pay it all back,” then to say, “you will be fine attending an affordable school.” Plus, you get to “sound like” a good parent. Ugh.

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@ the OP - U of Alabama gives automatic scholarships for stats like yours, and there might be an extra amount for engineering majors. Mom2 knows much more about it than I do if you have questions.

http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.html

You will not be sacrificing anything at Bama! And if you did well on the PSAT (NMF), you get even more. :slight_smile:

(P.S. OK, who slipped me the Kool-Aid? I’ve been here less than a week and I’m already recruiting for Bama?? :wink: )