<p>I am terribly stressed choosing between Tufts (full price $60k a year) and Rochester (40k a year after 20k merit aid). I want to study Political Science and Economics, and while I know Rochester is a phenomenal place to study those two things, if money was no object, I would be running to Tufts. RUNNING! </p>
<p>Unfortunately, money is an object. My family falls in that upper middle class grey area, and our EFC is slightly over the COA for Tufts. To attend Tufts, my parents would have to take out a home equity line of over 80k. My father is 60 years old, and I would feel terrible taking the money and running. I would attempt to pay back $80k interest free with my social science degree. Furthermore, I may want to attend law school or grad school in public policy. These options will either add debt, or defer my payment to my parents. </p>
<p>That being said, I do really like Rochester, and wouldn't be too bummed to attend there, but I would still prefer Tufts. Essentially. this is my question to you:</p>
<p>All other things equal (ceteris paribus), are the political/job network/name recognition/educational/personal satisfaction benefits of choosing Tufts over Rochester worth 20k more a year?</p>
<p>Starky, I’m a full-pay parent with a very happy kid at Tufts. She loves the school. We love the school. That said…</p>
<p>Go to Rochester. Here’s why: </p>
<p>1) The debt isn’t worth it. $80k is a whole lot of debt. If your debt level was limited to Stafford loans, well, OK. Not this much debt.
2) You are considering law school or grad school. That’s going to cost a lot of money. Save your money for that, or at least keep your debt level down so you don’t have as much debt when finishing grad/law school.
3) Rochester does have an excellent poli sci program, with a cool study abroad/internship opportunity with Parliament in London.<br>
4) The Rochester student body is full of bright students. You won’t lack for intellectual stimulation. And they love their school.
5) Every year on College Confidential, students bemoan having to go to a school that’s their second/third/fourth/last choice, because they didn’t get in to their first/second/any other choice, or they can’t afford their first/second/any other choice. By midyear, those students are saying that they LOVE their school, and they’re so glad they ended up there instead of their first/second/third/anything but last choice school. It all works out.</p>
<p>Congrats on being accepted to both schools, and congrats on starting college next fall. :)</p>
<p>^^^ I’ve also noted that the Polisci/Econ departments at Rochester seem to really rival or best the faculty at Tufts. I know Tufts is very prestigious, but some of the guys at Rochester really wrote the book on it, whereas Tufts faculty (PARTICULARLY in American Policy) seems to fall short.</p>
<p>We looked at both schools. My S was very impressed with Rochester. He got a better feeling from them than from higher ups. He felt that the profs he met were fantastic and the kids were all nice, engaged, studious, bright and his type of people. He is a frosh at Tufts now, but Roch could easily have been a contender for next in line.</p>
<p>I agree with the other posters. Save the money and have a fabulous experience at Roch.</p>
<p>I agree with the consensus here, the merit aid can be a real deal-maker. We visited U. of Rochester a few years ago when evaluating engineering schools and were pretty impressed overall. I wouldn’t choose it over Tufts if the money were equal, but to save 80K, I probably would. The campus and facilities were much nicer than we expected and the tour guide was obviously very intelligent and “cool”. While I don’t know anything about its reputation in your major, it is pretty highly regarded in engineering.
Please don’t bury your family in more debt than is necessary, you just don’t know what the future holds. And hopefully they can avoid a Home Equity loan or line of credit, see this article:
[FinAid</a> | Loans | Home Equity Loans and Lines of Credit](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid)</p>