The classic debate: Private, expensive dream School versus Inexpensive Public

<p>"Good. It should, because if you don't have health insurance, you need to pray that you never meet one in a head-on collision. Welcome to the Real World, where responsible adults need to think about such things before they decide that they don't need health insurance because they, themselves, always drive responsibly. Large metro areas are full of illegal immigrants with limited big-city driving skills and no assets with which to satisfy any legal judgment against them."</p>

<p>1) angry in the sense that your attitude suggests that only illegal-immigrants are the irresponsible drivers...
2) someone from a small town also doesn't have driving experience
3) Your superiority complex is just irritating. I say that health insurance is worth obtaining to protect me from drivers like who think they themselves never do wrong, more than the "drunk illegal-immigrant"</p>

<p>I'm thinking of becoming a orthodontist.. so maybe SD is better? but then i might change my major.. for USC i got in as architecture major.. but i'm changing my mind now after hearing from the current USC arch students who are suffering 24/7. Reward IS, though sounds very materialistic, one of the factors in determining a career at least for me. I do want to make money after studying my butt off.. once again it sounds really cheap but that's how I am. So USC SD OR NYU?! i've been thinking too much about where I should go that my brain is about to explode</p>

<p>Don't apologize - I think reward for working hard is a pretty reasonable approach to life...we do, last time I checked, live in a captialist country...</p>

<p>My view on a medical / dental degree is go to the cheapest undergrad school you can - and get the best grades you can in the core courses. If you do well on the entry boards and have good grades, you'll get in and have money to pay for it. NYU Stern would certainly be good for a business degree, particularly finance. </p>

<p>Have you visited the schools? If not, do so - even a trip to NYC, while expensive, is probably worth it if you're going to invest $180+ over the next four years. Somewhere else on this site someone suggested 'accepting' each of your schools for a week, i.e., today, you 'decide' to go to USC - live with that for a week. Next week, you 'decide' to go to NYU... Pretty quickly, you'll get a feel for what is important to you.</p>

<p>Good luck</p>

<p>I Strongly Disagree! Alot Of Nj Students Wish To Attend Rutgers. I Myself Can't Wait To Enter In The Fall. Maybe U Should Do Research On Rutgers Instead Of Just Crossing It Out Due To How U Think Other Nj Seniors Feel.</p>

<p>Im having the same problem with UF and Cornell</p>

<p>i also feel like way to many NJ kids feel Rutgers is a bad school. they view it as a "safety" school or say things like woah im so dumb im going to go to Rutgers when in reality its a very good school. that just the rep that Rutgers has on kids who grew up in jersey. personally i don't want to go there because i don't want to stay in this state but its a very good school and other people outside jersey feel its good as well.</p>

<p>I'm a HS senior facing the same decision and I chose the full-ride state school. I know I would enjoy the private LAC I got into more, but 47k+ a year more? No. I think it'll be a more valuable experience to graduate from college free of debt, able to travel or experiment or attend law/grad school afterwards guilt free. I'll thank myself in 5 (or maybe less!) years.</p>

<p>Honestly, if I hate the state university experience I can transfer. If I went to the LAC and decided I made the wrong choice, that full-ride won't be waiting for me anymore. Also, my whole experience at the LAC would be colored by the money I was spending (oh no, I don't like this class/roomate/whatever was it worth the money?!) but I'm really sensitive to monetary issues.</p>

<p>My parents said they would find a way to pay the money - we have 70k saved up. I appreciate the thought but don't want to do that to them. LAC: 46k a year: 184,000-70,000= 114k to be paid for somehow. Not even mentioning grad school. Or, state school: free, with 70k I can use to go to my dream grad school. Grad school, esp. for law, is what matters. I'd rather spend that money where it counts.</p>

<p>Anyway, there are thousands of other students at your state school who are extremely bright and made a similar decision. Obviously from the popularity of these threads every smart, engaging person isn't going to an Ivy!</p>

<p>And if you think that not having the more presitious degree will hurt you when job hunting, don't. Way more people have gone to state schools than ivy leagues, and they'll never hold your choice of college against you! Seriously, how many orginzations are completely run and staffed by only HYPS grads?</p>

<p>Just my thought process.</p>

<p>UCLAri said "in some parts of the country $200,000 is half a house."</p>

<p>Actually, in some parts of the country $200,000 is an entire house. In my community $200,000 is 1.3 median-priced houses.</p>

<p>P.S. kelseyg, I like your thought process.</p>

<p>I didn't read every page on this thread, but as someone who works at a law school, I am very concerned about student debt. Many of my students come to law school with undergrad debt and then add another $50,000 to $100,000 debt to that. When you crunch the numbers, many of them will be paying off their debt for 20 or even 30 years! Not only that, but given the cost of housing and transportation, many won't be able to live on their own very easily. Don't limit your career choices by taking on so much debt. Getting a good education is supposed to give you options, not take them away. A fabulous education is to be had at state universities and community colleges. Try to think long term.</p>

<p>hard choice to make - full ride at syracuse (45000 per year) or paying full tuition at lehigh or bucknell.</p>

<p>soccernut-- that sounds like an easy choice. Syracuse!</p>

<p>What would you guys do. I got into UF instate and i can get fulll tuition so id only have to pay for housing to go there. Or i can go to Cornell with little financial aid. My parents are willing to pay for either however i know that id be very happy going to either school. I just dont know if i can pass up such a great opportunity in Cornell. Where would you go?</p>

<p>mercymom--I did apply and get into Pace with 15K/year scholarship, but the total cost is almost as much as NYU, so I figure if I'm going to spend the money, I might as well spend it on a school I actually want to go to. I also got into Marymount Manhattan, and even though it's cheaper than NYU/Pace, they were pretty stingy on the scholarship money, so it wouldn't be worth it.</p>

<p>We'll see. My college adviser will be calling NYU to negotiate something (supposedly she's very good at this...she calls schools to the point of harassment until she's happy with the deal she's gotten)... but I don't want to get my hopes up too high. I can always go to NYU for grad school if not undergrad. </p>

<p>Thanks for the help :]</p>

<p>Also, I'm not going to NYU for the arts, or just the arts, anyway. I got into Gallatin (school of individualized study) and want to do something with creative writing/english/marketing and get my MA in publishing and possibly do theatre on the side. So that's not my sole reason for wanting to go to NY :]</p>

<p>My local option is Loyola, where I can go on full scholarship. I'm considering going there for a year or two and then transferring to NYU, but obviously NYU is an opportunity that's extremely difficult to pass up and I worry that I won't get accepted as a transfer student (though I was just told this shouldn't be a problem). But honestly, if I was going to do the transfer thing, I'd rather go ahead up to CCNY first just to get used to living in the city.</p>

<p>Can people help me decide between colleges as well? I posted all the financial aid info so everyone can see what I am deciding between.</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=324265%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=324265&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>What about differences between such schools as Vassar, JHU, NYU and W & M (OOS)? My S will get money from NYU ($8K) and W & M is about $18K less than the others. Four great schools - very confusing.</p>

<p>You're right - all good schools, but all very different.</p>

<p>Have you visited? W&M is in a town that has a smaller population than NYU, for example. </p>

<p>And what does he want to major in? How does each of the schools compare in that department?</p>

<p>One other thing you can do: add up the total 4-year costs (tuition, room, board, travel - don't forget spring breaks) and incidentals. Then calculate how much debt you would have to take on, and go then use a financial calculator to look at monthly payments. Compare that to projected starting salaries (don't forget to account for taxes (fed, state, local), healthcare, retirement / 401ks - kids should start these now), and compare that to post college living costs: housing, food, utilities, transportation, entertainment. This will give you a pretty good idea how much debt you can pay back.</p>

<p>A good place for comparable total costs at each institution is: <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/splash/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/splash/&lt;/a> - each submits its information in a common format, so all are on the same baseline. You'll want to consider your own adjustments.</p>

<p>You need to consider the lifestyle of each college; i.e., liberal, conservative as well as financial aid and how much in debt you're willing to assume. Have you applied to any state uni's? Even a state uni outside of your state could still offer a great value and an excellent education.</p>

<p>Where the Fortune 50 CEOs Went to College</p>

<p>"Surprisingly, Ivy League graduates do not dominate the top fifty Fortune 500 Companies. When measuring CEO undergraduate education, the University of Texas system has just as much representation as Harvard: a total of 3 CEOs. What does this mean for students? An elite career doesn't always stem from an elite education."</p>

<p><a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1227055,00.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1227055,00.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Anybody have any advice for me? I'm choosing between UT Austin, WashU, and Duke. At UT Austin, I would be paying a maximum of $30k for the four years, while at Duke and WashU I would be paying over $200k. Although my family can afford to let me go to Duke or WashU, I'm not sure if it is worth it or not. I plan on majoring in Biomedical Engineering and going to medical school. Right now, I'm leaning towards going to Duke. I recently visited UT. The campus was all right, but everything felt a little impersonal.</p>