<p>You will need to attend a college where your family can pay the bills. I would suggest that you figure out an affordable option for undergrad and consider pursuing grad studies at your “prestige” school. </p>
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<p>No…your level of income puts you out of the need based aid realm at MOST universities in this country.</p>
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<p>$4000 is a drop in the bucket for the cost of attending UPenn which exceeds $50,000 a year. So…you are saying your parents can pay $46,000 a YEAR for you to attend UPenn? If that is the case, there are hundreds of colleges where they could afford to send you without getting a dime of need based aid. I would suggest you find one of those since you say money is an issue. I will say…saying that getting $4000 of need based aid to attend a school that costs over $50,000 a year really doesn’t sound like you have much financial need to me.</p>
<p>And there are PLENTY of options besides the Ivy League and MIT. If you are really a competitive applicant for these schools, you should have applied to schools where you could have garnered significant merit aid…and ditch the “prestige” attitude.</p>
<p>Yes having one sibling in college, will lower your EFC, but obviously not by much. I suggest you call the FA officers at the schools you get into. Don’t put the cart before the horse, you might not even get in. Make sure you apply to some safety schools. The CUNY school system is fine, and the SUNY school system is terrific. You may not have a choice.</p>
<p>Lastly some students do community school and then transfer into the big name school. That saves a lot of money</p>
<p>It is by ^no means an attitude; it is the result of my research done such on websites like wallstreetoasis.com that in order to land ibanking/consulting positions I must attend a “prestigious” university. I would be more than happy to attend a less prestigious school if I was going into any other field. I do have some offers with merit aid lined up from other schools. I am set on these schools and was merely asking for assistance in ideas for paying such as loans I may not have heard of or well paying side jobs.</p>
<p>since you apparently think you will be making so much money in banking, borrow, and pay it back…that is always an option. Banks love to lend money. I doubt you will have time for jobs while attending Wharton</p>
<p>I appreciate your help ELkyes. I was already accepted into some state schools such as UT Austin (which has offered me an OOS tuition waiver). I am highly considering that offer.</p>
<p>avatarmage…you need to attend a school where you can pay the bills. If you are a senior who has already applied, I agree with others…I hope you have a school in your list that is financially doable for your family. The reality is that even IF you get some need based aid, it is not going to fully fund your college costs at any of the schools you have mentioned. Your family is going to have to pay first and foremost.</p>
<p>It’s nice that you did your research…now you need to look at the best AFFORDABLE option because otherwise you will not be going to college at all. </p>
<p>Those “prestige” schools have grad programs and NO they aren’t a bargain in cost either…but a grad degree is only two years…while an undergrad is four. </p>
<p>Go to the best undergrad school your parents can afford to pay for…get tippy top grades, and then apply to your “prestige” grad school.</p>
<p>There are a ton of really good colleges out there. Yes I Bankers do often come from select schools BUT…listen carefully to this…SOME IBankers come from places other than the top schools. They are hard working, high achieving kids who excelled where they DID go to college. </p>
<p>If your family cannot pay the bills for MIT or the Ivies, you cannot go there…period. I know that isn’t what you want to hear but there it is. You can wish that you will receive significant need based aid with your family income of $200K per year or so…or you can get a reality check and look for other affordable options.</p>
<p><i>Does anyone know from experience the best way to go about paying for college with this level of income? This level of income puts me JUST out of need based aid and it’s not like we’re even upper middle class in this part of the country. We have a decent 3 bedroom house, 3 cars over 10 years old. If we have to pay for college too, my parents may have to move into an even smaller house with 2 bedrooms ( do those even exist?). Advice please!</i></p><i>
<p>First of all, no matter what part of the country you live in, you are still upper-middle-class. Your money may not go as far in Los Angeles or New York, but you are still upper-middle-class and a $200K household can still live a very comfortable lifestyle in those cities. I live in New York on a salary of ~$40K and I live a quite comfortable lifestyle, and my father raised a 5-person family on roughly $60K in NYC and we lived a middle-class lifestyle.</p>
<p>Besides that point…you live in NYC. You have all of the CUNY and SUNY schools at your disposal. One great option is Baruch College, one of the best undergraduate business schools in the country. Many Wall Street companies get graduate sfrom Baruch, and you have access to it at in-state prices. There’s also Hunter, Lehman, and City College - all respected schools in the city - and outside of NYC, there’s Stony Brook, New Paltz, Albany, Geneseo, and Buffalo to just to name some. That UT Austin offer is a great one and Austin is a well-renowned school; you should have very little problem with the reputation of that school.</p>
<p>You don’t have to attend a prestigious school to get an i-banking job. That’s a myth. It may make a bit easier, but there are plenty of people working on Wall Street in investment banking and consulting who DON’T have prestgious degrees. The Wall Street consulting firms used to come recruiting at my #59 ranked LAC in Atlanta - and Wall Street is not the only place where investment banking and consulting take place. The other thing is that you can get any business job, work for 3-5 years, and get an MBA at a top-ranked business school and THEN go into i-banking or consulting.</p>
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<p>I saw on the Lake Tahoe advice thread that the op was giving advice on ski resorts as two weeks ago he/she was at one. I’m sorry, but on one hand you are worrying about college costs and on the other hand you are taking a ski vacation?</p>
<p>I guess I must be missing something about your needy financial situation.</p>
<p>I never said it was a needy financial situation. I just wasn’t aware of the fact that I would have to make some pretty drastic changes to my lifestyle. Call my spoiled if you wish.</p>
<p>“I just wasn’t aware of the fact that I would have to make some pretty drastic changes to my lifestyle.”</p>
<p>Lots of young people don’t understand this when they start looking at colleges. Don’t feel bad about that! However, now that you do know more of the facts, sit down with your parents and find out how much they will be able to contribute for your education so that you can make a list that is reasonable for you.</p>
<p>Banks will NOT lend to you. Your parents would have to co-sign and I doubt they’re going to co-sign $200k in loans because it would be a foolish thing to do. Waaaayyyyyy toooooooo much debt…even a quarter of that much debt is too much!</p>
<p>As for “working your butt off” to pay for these privates…there’s no way that you can NET $50k+ per year to pay for these schools…not even close. Do you have any idea how much a single person would have to earn to net $50k+? </p>
<p>At most, you might be able to net $10k-25k per year…and even that would require working too much for an undergrad. </p>
<p>I don’t think that you’re thinking this thru. If you were to get yourself in a situation which required you to work full time during college (probably with lots of over-time) to somehow come up with a large amount of money, then you won’t enjoy your college years at all. You’d burn out, feel overwhelmed, and likely your grades would suffer. </p>
<p>I don’t think starting at a CC is a good idea because then paying for the last 2 years would still be a problem. This student needs to use his stats to grab a huge merit scholarship as an incoming frosh.</p>
<p>We live in NYC and have an income of just over 200,000. We have one in college, one in grad school and one hoping to go to private high school in the fall. We are not rich for the area, but we are comfortable and more importantly, stable. We feel humble, grateful and gleeful that we have such amazing kids to educate and that, uneducated white trash as we are, we can afford to actually educate them! Here’s how: our deal with our older kids is that if they choose to go away for college, they must take and pay back their Stafford loans. D1 had a huge merit scholarship, so that didn’t come into play for her first two years, but years 3 and 4 she chose to live at home after major surgery. No debt for her and we paid tuition out of income. D2 chose to go to a state school in another state. She got a merit scholarship bringing it down to the cost of our state schools (the program is completely unique to the other state school), she takes her Stafford loans, we pay the rest out of income after cutting the fat out of our budget. It’s not always fun, but it is doable. Using coupons at the store, adjusting the thermostat, packing lunch, foregoing vacations and nights out. Both girls have always had jobs for their own spending cash, and why shouldn’t they? If you’re making this money in NYC (as we are) you need to sit down assess your budget, tighten the belt, and then consider what schools are best for applying. If you need merit money, don’t pick the Ivies. Unless the name is more important than the financials, in which case take loans and pay them back. It’s all in the priorities.</p>
<p>Investment banks love St. John’s University graduates. I also personally know a handful (anecdotal, but true) who are grads of Loyola Maryland. There’s a pipeline.</p>
<p>Avatar…I’m a little confused. In June 2011, you posted on another thread that “next year I will be a junior”…which would mean you are a junior NOW. How is it that you have college acceptances now if that is the case?</p>