<p>Since colleges are raising their tuition should students choose the less expensive school?</p>
<p>Absolutely. Who wants to be in a mountain of debt upon graduation? Especially if one plans on pursuing education past a bachelor’s.</p>
<p>Students and families should ONLY choose schools they can comfortably afford so they don’t end up with crushing debt, with or w/o a degree (since some never complete anyway, sometimes due to finances). This has always been true, but especially in these uncertain times when any pensions are very iffy at best, as are jobs and investments.</p>
<p>Choose a school you can afford,but go to the best you can afford…</p>
<p>^^^I agree with qdogpa.</p>
<p>It is not necessary to go to the absolute least expensive school, if you can afford a more expensive school.</p>
<p>But don’t go to a school you can’t afford for any reason.</p>
<p>Should money be a problem for college students?</p>
<p>A common question amongst students. Often they don’t think “money” should have any part in their college considerations.</p>
<p>I’m reminded of kids picking toys out from the old Sears Toy Catalog for their Christmas lists. No concern about money because “Santa” was bringing the gifts. lol </p>
<p>That’s what I think when I see kids making lists of colleges without any concern for how their education will get paid for. It’s one thing if they know the parents have the money…or they have some other means that they know all costs will be covered…but for many, these kids don’t have the money, their parents can’t pay their EFCs, they can’t get into full need schools, they have a NCP that won’t pay, etc. Yet, they don’t want to consider how they will pay for college. They don’t think that should be a consideration at all. </p>
<p>Money is a problem when it comes to paying for college. “Going away” to school is a luxury…and taxpayers aren’t often going to pay for that.</p>
<p>Go to the least expensive school that has the programs you need for you to achieve your personal goals.</p>
<p>There is no proven correlation between cost of a school and the quality of the education - nor, for that matter, between the prestige of a school (or the USNews rankings) and the quality of the education.</p>
<p>What you do when you get to college is a lot more important than where you go.</p>
<p>*Choose a school you can afford,but go to the best you can afford… *</p>
<p>That depends on major and long term goals.</p>
<p>Even if you can afford a pricey private, if your goal is med school or law school or ???, then spending $220k for undergrad isn’t a good idea if that means you’ll have big loans for professional school. </p>
<p>If you can get a good pre-med (or ???) education at a good state school or a good private with lots of merit, so that you can put your college money towards prof school then that can be a better plan.</p>
<p>Annasdad, are you saying there is no difference in a secondary type state school, and say, a school like a Lehigh,or NYU…because that would be ridiculous…Please give an example of a cheap school you consider on par with a pricey school.</p>
<p>My friend’s daughter was accepted ED to an expensive LAC that was barely affordable in their estimated financial aid. The final package was reduced further due to some things that were adjusted when the final income numbers were submitted. Unexpectedly, though the young lady had notified all colleges of the ED early in the season and withdrawn all apps, she was accepted to the honors program at SUNY Binghamton. Considering that she was fully loaned up at the LAC with Perkins, Staffords, sub and unsub plus work study, and still was going to have to pay considerably more out of pocket to go to said LAC, she decided to go the SUNY. A lot of trouble getting out of the ED commit and it was ethically not the right thing to do, but financially it was a big relief to the parents. They could pay the SUNY costs out of pocket, barely, but could. And I think in terms of getting a good education, the young lady was very happy. She is one of the top programs of its kind in the country and is with many of her academic peers. All things equal, she would have preferred the ambience and amenities of the LAC but not for that much more. </p>
<p>It really comes down the the affordability and value of the difference.</p>
<p>.Please give an example of a cheap school you consider on par with a pricey school.</p>
<p>This is easy for a lot of majors…</p>
<p>A state flagship can often deliver a very good education in Engineering, Nursing, Biology, Chemistry, History, English, Education, and many other majors …on par with many pricey privates.</p>
<p>Rarely does anyone ever need to go to a pricey private to achieve their career goals. Rarely.</p>
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<p>Please cite evidence that disproves my statement: “There is no proven correlation between cost of a school and the quality of the education …”</p>
<p>The urban myth is that you can get a better engineering education at, say, Northwestern University, than, say, Southern Illinois University Carbondale. I’ve never seen any evidence to back that up. If you have such evidence, please enlighten us with it. (Hint: USNews ranking is not objective evidence of the quality of education; comparative entrance scores are not objective evidence of the quality of education; average graduate salaries are not objective evidence of the quality of education; grad school admission rates are not objective evidence of the quality of education; etc.) There’s a lot of opinion about what schools are the “best,” but precious little evidence. </p>
<p>If you have the money and want to spend it on the expensive school, by all means, go ahead. But if you can’t afford the name brand, don’t worry - there’s no evidence that you’d get a better education by spending more money to go to the pricier school.</p>
<p>If said student is going to be the one paying back that money than yes, I would hope money is an issue! Don’t just assume you’ll be able to pay off the loans. Do the math and do the research.</p>
<p>But don’t just blindly decide to go to the cheapest school. If you do enough research you can find plenty of fantastic schools that are affordable to go to. There are also ways around paying the high tuition costs at universities. Community college, going part time, working while attending school, and commuting are all good ways to work around those costs. </p>
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<p>NYU is overrated considering what they charge. At that price I’d expect the absolute world out of them, but their programs for my major didn’t even impress me. I know some people who just had to go to those pricey schools, and they’re pursuing the same career as I am. I know what the typical entry-level salaries are for that field, and I know how hard it is to find jobs and to work your way up to the top. I’m just wondering why in the world they think they’ll be able to pay all that back without a lifetime of headaches. I dunno, maybe their parents are paying or maybe my friends are smarter than I think they are and got amazing scholarships, lol. </p>
<p>You have to be realistic about this or you’re going to be in a lot of trouble once you get out into the “real world”. You have to consider that you won’t only be paying back education costs after college, but also the cost of an apartment/home, car, insurance, bills, food, gas, etc. Then throw in your monthly loan payment/payments- not to mention however much credit card debt you managed to land in as well. It’s a lot to take on as you’re starting a new career, and personally I wouldn’t want to go through all that with a mountain of debt on my shoulders.</p>
<p>It 's tough to beat a fully equipped state university with graduate departments and research up the whazooie. SUNY Buffalo is not a top ranked school by any stretch, but a student who wants to learn can do as well there and get further up the difficulty hierarchy in more disciplines than in many schools, including a lot of private colleges. There are departments and opportunities that rival the best colleges and universities. </p>
<p>I happen to be a fan of the small LAC for a number of reasons, but they have their drawbacks. If a student is truly advanced and wants to be at the leading edge of research, that is not always the place to be. My neighbor transferred from her beloved private LAC when she realized that she wanted to get into graphics and design, and had depleted all of the college’s offerings in that area. If you decide you want to go into accounting or teaching, it might be beneficial for you to go to a state school to get certification more efficiently. Around here it is the state schools that are certified by the top groups for accounting and business, not the privates, and I see kids from ivies teaching for peanuts at private schools while their peers who went the education route at state schools are making double at public schools. So there are many situations when a less expensive school is a wiser choice.</p>
<p>^ this is true. Very few of the private schools around me even offered programs (or decent ones) in my major while state schools offered nationally ranked ones.</p>
<p>To answer the title question, yes, for most students money should be a problem. Unless your family or you can comfortably pay college costs, money should loom in the picture. You are an adult when you embark on your college life, most of the time, and it is really time you start to learn the realities of money and where your family stands financially. That can be a tough go for some families. </p>
<p>I happen to love private schools and I think NYU is a great choice IF you can afford it. I know some kids who are in so much debt and their families are in trouble because they decided that they should just damn the costs and go where they wanted to go. Yes, it was a joint decision and the parents were irresponsible. But those kids knew well that there were financial troubles afoot at home, When your parents are unemployed, and the collection agencies are calling and your parents are fighting about money, you know that borrowing for college is not going to be a smart thing to do in most cases. Sure, going to NYU is preferable to a CUNY, but the ultimate cost to all involved may not be worth while. The sad thing is that these kids I know who did this, are not gainfully employed. It’s not as though choosing the pricier options and borrowing all of this money paid off. </p>
<p>I know kids with premed aspirations that are convinced, as are their parents that Johns Hopkins is where they should go. So they borrow, the family scrmps all towards the goal that said student is going to become a doctor in 8-10 years, a rather long time for someone 18 years old who is liable to change his/her mind about anything many times in a week. And the truth of the matter is that Hopkins may not be the place to gain the best advantage for med school admissions given the competitiveness there. So the kid ends up with a Social Sciences degree instead, $60K in debt with the parents in on it too with loans they cosigned and no job or a job that is not a living wage. In many cases, s/he would have done better going to one of the local schools here and taken advantage of a premed program and avoided the debt and heavy ug payments.</p>
<p>I know kids with premed aspirations that are convinced, as are their parents that Johns Hopkins is where they should go. So they borrow, the family scrmps all towards the goal that said student is going to become a doctor in 8-10 years, a rather long time for someone 18 years old who is liable to change his/her mind about anything many times in a week. And the truth of the matter is that Hopkins may not be the place to gain the best advantage for med school admissions given the competitiveness there. So the kid ends up with a Social Sciences degree instead, $60K in debt with the parents in on it too with loans they cosigned and no job or a job that is not a living wage.</p>
<p>Very true…unless money is no object or the student qualifies for a heap load of FREE aid, it’s silly to go pricey for pre-med. </p>
<p>Frankly, I think a pre-med student is almost setting himself up for failure by going to an elite school for pre-med. You’ll have 100s of other super-stat pre-med classmates all vying for the limited number of A’s that are given out for those weeder classes. </p>
<p>Such a student is better off going to a good school where his SAT 2280 is amazing, and he’ll likely be at the top of every class he takes. His profs will know him, he’ll grab the research opps, he’ll easily snag great LORs…etc. </p>
<p>I’m not suggesting going to a school where his SAT 2280 is so rare that he won’t have smart classmates…but go to a school where the mid 50 range isn’t so high that all classmates are brainies.</p>
<p>Our state flagship U also offers nationally ranked programs. It has been a good option for many kids. They get a quality education & graduate with little or no debt. It might not be their “pie in the sky,” but it’s a decent option and worth seriously considering.</p>