For those unfamiliar…the Johnson guarantees full tuition, room, and board for four years, while also providing $7,000 for summer/extracurricular opportunities.
Thoughts? Is it worth turning down W&L to attend Penn (I received 1.7K in grant aid)? My parents are willing to contribute 35-40K/year out of pocket, but no more…thus far, financial aid appeals have not been fruitful. Georgetown would cost us about 90K in loans (we have some 529 savings).
To add some context, the reasons I worry about W&L are as follows:
- Lack of a dedicated applied math/stats department; to a lesser extent, an accredited engineering curriculum. I’m very interested in applied math and stats. I eventually want to go into a job in the data science field…how easy is it to get into the field right after graduating from a liberal arts college such as W&L? Or, would I need to go to grad. school first? I know that Georgetown is not particularly gifted in this area as well, but has a statistics minor and is quite well-developed in the math field as it is a large research university. And I visited for GAAP weekend and was quite impressed with what GU had to offer…I did also consider the merits of having D.C. and the international exposure at Georgetown at my disposal…
- A possibly too relaxed/not ambitious enough of a student body…
- The bucolic setting (albeit exceptionally beautiful) isn’t ideal…but I would enjoy it nonetheless.
- Perhaps too small of a student body with too much of a boarding school feel.
To add, my parents would be able to continue supporting my equestrian pursuits (actually to a much greater degree) if I attend W&L. At other schools, this is unlikely, even impossible. This equestrian sport availability would definitely play a big role in keeping me “happy” at college, but it’s not a factor directly derived from the educational experience, so I don’t know if it’s worth considering in this dilemma.
Many thanks! I hope you don’t get lost in this musing of mine…