<p>So my two choices are University of Washington and Brown University.</p>
<p>I’ve had my heart set on Brown for the last three years. Brown has given me some financial aid, but not enough to keep my parents from saying, “UW! UW! UW!” I understand that with our financial situation, we really cannot afford Brown without taking huge amounts of debt. I’ve been reading on the thread lots of opinions and most seem to be go to the cheaper school (and espcially since UW is a great public). However, to most of people these replies were too, the private school wasn’t a school like BROWN (no offense to anyone). I’d be giving up an Ivy for a public. While I know Ivy League is just a name…it’s a very good name. If I go to Brown, I’ll be racking up at least 85k in loans/debt while I’ll come out of UW basically without any debt. I plan on going to grad school and getting a medical degree too :-</p>
<p>I would have chosen UW over Brown already except for a few things. I absolutely love the open curriculum. Granted, with my IB and AP credits, my core at UW is basically over. But the open curriculum at Brown just changes the whole atmosphere there. Brown is sooooo laid back and liberal (I’m a staunch liberal). And quite frankly, I don’t want to be surrounded by those taking “addition and subtraction” their senior year, I want to be surrounded by people to whom I can go, “Wow…if I only knew half the things they knew…” And finally for the big reasons, Brown’s neuroscience is freaking awesome. UW’s is good too, but they don’t even have neuroSCIENCE, it’s neurobiology. Brown has neuroscience, cognitive science, and cognitive neuroscience. Oh, and I plan on double majoring with biophysics…which Brown has but UW doesn’t.</p>
<p>I’m still looking at the possibility of student loans. What would you guys say the ceiling for debt should be for Brown? Initially, I didn’t care about debt, I figured I could easily pay those after grad school. (Starting salary for a neurosurgeon is about half a mil!) But then after reading sooo many people’s opinions and talking with my parents I’m having second thoughts. Paying off debt will take away from my college experience, and plus how many people actually become neurosurgeons, right?</p>
<p>I believe that University of Washington is the better choice in your case. The thing with loans/debt (and with an amount as huge as $85,000) is that while in college, at the back of your mind, you're being constantly pressurised by that huge amount and are not able to enjoy the undergraduate experience fully. After college, you are barely able to enjoy the fruits of your labour, and have to use all that you earn to pay off loans which you took when you were 19 or 20. It isn't a good experience to be a full professional and still paying for that pizza you had one night in college.
But that's just my opinion. Think deeply about what you want to do.</p>
<p>I was in a similar situation and went Brown.</p>
<p>This was the place for me, I was comfortable here, and I can excel here. Four years of happiness, experience, an atmosphere, and the opportunity to do more than I would have elsewhere was more important to me than the money. BUt that's the type of person I am...</p>
<p>I was in just about your exact situation...it came down to UW vs Brown for me too. Luckily my parents could afford it so I wont have any debt when I graduate, but had I been in a situation where I would have had $85k in debt my decision likely would have been different, that is a BIG hole to be in at 22 years old. Especially with someone who wants to go into medicine, going to UW versus Brown wont make THAT much of a difference in the long run. If you can justify the 85k in debt, Id say def go to Brown, its an amazing school.</p>
<p>I'd pick UW, seeing as how you'll be well over $150,000 in debt by the time you're done with medical school, had you gone the Brown route. But again, it really is a personal choice. I guess the real question is: how confident are you that you'll make it into medicial school, or be financially successful in general?</p>
<p>look at what classes you would take for your double concentration. How close to it can you get at UW, if it's almost the same, but with different dept names, choose UW, if you can't get close to it, choose Brown. Are you PLME? I assume not, but if you are, def choose Brown, it will make everything much more relaxing.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind, it is probably much easier to transfer from Brown to UW than from UW to Brown. Maybe you should see how frosh year goes, if all you think about is money, transfer.</p>
<p>Actually, I have no idea, this is a very important decision, I don't really feel qualified to give you advice.</p>
<p>It hasn't come up in this thread, but it came up under the financial aid thread (where I also posted this). So I thought I'd address it here too. With regards to the comment about the people at the school, I realize it can be very stuck up. And after reading it, you might come to regard me as such and won't accept any explanation towards why I said it. However, I'm going to give one anyways. I'm not trying to say that I'm better, because I KNOW there are A LOT of people smarter than me at UW. I've talked to many of my friends at UW, and a lot of dislike the people there. I asked her why she didn't like it, what with 40k people there. She said 20,000 are anti-social, and the other half are not fun people. Of course I don't know for sure since I don't go there, but it's a source nonetheless. Without a doubt, any college I go to I'm going to meet RIDICUOUSLY smart people and some people who could care very little about college. At UW though, it seems that the latter group is larger than at Brown. That type of thing also seems to play into the atmosphere surrounding the college. I know I'm not that smart, I know UW has many great professors, I know there's sooooooooooo much I could learn at UW...I made that statement too rashly and bluntly. And it's not that I feel all the UW kids are stupid and really take addition and subtraction as their math class, it was just a hyperbole. I know that as a senior, there's going be hundreds of freshman smarter than i'll ever be at uw. I made an over-generalization that I should have written better, or at least explained it.</p>
<p>you know, i never thought about transferring from brown to uw if the money stress becomes too much. interesting thought.</p>
<p>i don't really think graduating in three years is really an option. although I have the IB credits to maybe do so..I don't think it's wise. For one, I'd like to stay in college as long as I can and learn as much as I can. Secondly, I'm already younger than everyone by a year...so I'd be coming out 2 years younger, quite the difference haha.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advise guys. I've made my choice and I'll be sending in my commit form for UW today. I can assuage the pain by knowing I can at least get a better laptop now...lol...</p>
<p>Money, after all, is just a money, my friend. Are you going to throw away once in a life time ivy education/experience for just a money?
Not just any ivy, but Brown?, a famed liberal artsy ivy?</p>
<p>By the time u're 40, u might be thinking whatif........</p>
<p>exactly what I said, in a while youll be thinking, im only making $40,000 a year, which is hwhat it wouldve cost to go to Brown, where I then would be making 160,000 a year, and couldve paid off all my student loans in a year, and have gone to a name dropping ivy leauge school like Brown... think about it... this choice will affect the rest of your life...</p>
<p>Um... let me just point out that if you're a good enough student to get into Brown, you'll have opportunities to make a lot of money pretty much no matter where you go to school. UW is a well-respected state school, and if you do well there, you will have a lot of opportunities open to you. It's true that the Brown "name" and network of alumni will be a powerful resource to you, but it's not everything.</p>
<p>Also, money is not everything. How do you guys even know the original poster is interested in jobs that will pull six or seven figures? Education is about more than preparing you to make money. It's about preparing you to be an intellectually curious, analytically thinking citizen of the world.</p>
<p>There are lots of advantages to Brown, and I would say that they are probably worth the money. But don't let people tell you that you can't be financially successful from UW, and don't let people tell you that you should pick colleges just based on how much money you could make in the future. If you take those attitudes, then Brown might not be the right school for you in the first place.</p>
<p>Heh, yea. It was so hard for me to say no >_< But I guess all the adults' advise was getting to me. Since I'm planning on going to grad/med school, no one will place that much emphasis on my undergraduate degree (or so they've convinced me as such lol). And you're right ILoveBrown, I wasn't planning on going to Brown because I thought I'd make more money in the long run. I really liked the open curriculum and the freedom associated with it. But alas, I shall make due with what I have. Hopefully you guys will meet me in a year or two when I plan to transfer :-p</p>
<p>Isnt who8 planning on going to med school? If she is then is it not the grad school that is the most important. I hope that you know that UW is the top medical school in the country for primary care, and in the top ten for research medical schools. It is the only school to be in the top ten for both categories. Brown is ranked #40. SO I dont see how she will make less money from a UW degree than from Brown. Granted she will need to work harder for medical school than if she came from brown. Congrats and good luck at UW. I am in the same situation as you are. I gave up Johns hopkins, and Univ. of rochester to attend Uconn with only 3000 to pay. Hopefully this will pay off in the end for both of us.</p>
<p>Btw I'm a guy :-p Something about my writing style that makes me seem like a girl? I've been told my handwriting is girly (cause most of the other guys have chickenscratch) lol</p>
<p>"is it not the grad school that is the most important"....errrr typo?</p>
<p>And I know Brown is ranked low, but that's because Brown's grad school really isn't that great. I never did plan on attending Brown's med school. I was looking for the undergrad experience, which Brown is well known for.</p>
<p>Btw, where'd you get your rankings from? I was just checking US News yesterday and UW was ranked between the 10-20s for almost every category o.O (Though that's still great, especially for a public.)</p>