UF Honors vs UNC with some debt

College Search & Selection
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We are in Florida. My daughter has been accepted to and deciding between UNC-CH as OSS and to Univ of Florida Honors program. We have in-state tuition for Florida, and she has also earns the top Florida Bright futures award which covers tuition. She will pursue cross major/programs within the business and communications departments. She absolutely loves UNC and it is a dream school. To go to Chapel Hill though she will need to take approximately $10,000 in loans per year as an out-of-state student.

I wanted to get thoughts on this - how they compare - which might be better to graduate from then also is a $40,000 student loan in the end worth it for the academics and programs at Chapel Hill with better opportunities after graduation with employment and salary, etc. then a degree from the University of Florida.

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The University of Florida is a very good university.

Aren’t UNC and U Florida ranked essentially the same? For example, while rankings are not important, I thought they were literally tied on the US News ranking. I would expect the opportunities to be about the same regardless of which of these very good universities your daughter graduates from.

I would avoid the debt. $40,000 in debt is a lot for a new graduate.

By the way, one daughter was not happy that I would not let her take any debt at all for her bachelor’s. Four years later she took a dream job that she could only afford to take because she had no debt. This led to a second job, which was a huge help for admissions to the graduate program where she is studying right now. She thanked me for not allowing her to take on debt.

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No debt is correct. But separately, consider that the odds are higher that she will end up being employed in the metro area where she graduated from.

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No debt to UF with Bright Futures seems ideal . Did you make promises before she applied OOS to UNC ? $40,000 in debt is nothing to sneeze at if it can be avoided.

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Let’s see:

  1. No debt

  2. UNC is not direct admit to business so there’s no assurance of getting in

  3. No debt

  4. No debt

UF wins

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@Lori_Florida if this screen name is your real name, I would urge you to change it to something else ASAP.

@CC_Sorin @CC_Jon

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Considering the $40k debt she’d carry, the honors program at UF she’s been admitted to, and the no guarantee of business acceptance, I’d be sticking with instate UF.

Debt is not good, and honors makes a difference in terms of getting her preferred classes which is a big deal.

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Is that $10,000 per year in loans in addition to the federally funded Direct Loan? Or is that the only loans.

The schools are both fine schools. The direct admit at UF is important to consider.

If possible, I think debt should be kept to a minimum. Any loans above the Direct Loan amount ($5500 for freshman year) will either need to be cosigned or taken out by you parents. Are you willing to do this? Those additional loans will be in your name.

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The direct admit to the BSchool is a big plus. So is the lower cost. The open question is will the Florida schools survive the current assault on education? Wisconsin was in a similar position a few years ago and it looks like they survived. It is hard to tell if the assault will continue or if they will start chasing some other shiny object( or in the Wisconsin case get voted out).

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It’s 10k per year total she would have to take loans on above what we can afford which is NOT what the EFC says we can!

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UNC is one of two publics to meet need OOS - but meeting need does include loans.

In the grand scheme of things, $10K is probably not crazy - and if you said you wanted I Banking or Finance - perhaps the edge UNC would give, even if you don’t make it to business, would be worth it.

But when you say business and communication - I assume finance isn’t the goal.

KF is a fine business school. I don’t know the current acceptance rate but an article from 2019 shows 50%.

So if you could be ok with an Econ major and business minor - or Comm major and business minor - then I suppose it could work.

But a Comm major wouldn’t be worth any debt - IMHO.

If shes’ looking for consulting or I-banking - and both are possible from UF but more likely from UNC - then I can see it.

Also, what does mom think - I mean, mom is responsible for the debt - is mom willing to pay it?

If you want to justify UNC, you can.

But looking as an outsider, it’d be hard to do so.

What part of Florida are you from? People want to go out of state - but if you live in Mimai or Fort Myers, etc. - then Gainesville might as well be OOS :slight_smile:

As a parent, it’s got to be tough to let your really smart kid leave the state!

You talk about havinig to take a $10K loan - but I bet the cost difference between the two is more than $10K - so that’s more money in your wallet - for vacation, retirement,grad school…whatever it is.

So I’m guessing it’s not just about $10K.

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EFC should be viewed as the minimum you will be paying. IIRC, the UNC-CH also uses the CSS Profile as part of their financial application process. That being the case, your net cost really is determined by the financial data on the Profile, which is much more detailed than the FAFSA data.

I think only YOUR family can determine if $40,000 in total debt is something you want to have. It would be $27,000 in Direct Loans that would be your daughter’s and $13,000 that would be yours.

Keep in mind, costs will likely increase over the four years.

The Direct Loan amounts currently are:

Freshman $5500
Sophomore $6500
Junior $7500
Senior $7500.

So are you saying that she needs an additional $5000 in loans all four years? Can some of this be made up with money earned from her working?

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As noted, you (parent) would be taking out a $13,000 loan. Your D would be eligible for the rest. Is that something you are ok with? Do you have any other children who will be entering college soon?

UNC meets full need, but for us it calculated need based on the Fafsa EFC despite also requiring the CSS profile. Your package could include a loan for the student.

UNC does not guarantee an acceptance to the business school. That is something you need to consider.

These are both excellent schools. At the end of the day it is going to depend on your daughter and what she takes advantage of. It will also depend on you, and whether you can afford to pay back your share of the loan (who is paying back this loan?). Do you have other kids? Will your EFC be reduced if another child goes to college (I would ask given new Fafsa rules?), can you afford to take out loans for other children who may be attending school in the future?

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UF Honors all the way. Great school. Great alumni network. No debt. Honors perks–dorms and preferred registration of classes (great perk). That extra money will pay for study abroad and anything else that comes up.

I don’t think there will be a difference in employment outcome between the two.

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Thank you all for the great information to think on before she commits to any school. This is a great forum with wonderful resources.

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If she wants to pursue grad school she could look at UNC again then. It is one of the top journalism schools in the country and being admitted to UNC as an OOS student is a huge coup –so big congrats to her on that – but I would be loathe to saddle my kid with debt before they start their first real job if I could help it. I do not think just having a degree from UNC is going to help her that much over a degree from UF. UNC is a great school but about 20,000 kids graduate from UNC every year (82% of which are NC residents) and it’s not like that degree is a golden ticket for every single one of them.

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I knew two Florida kids who went to UNC. For one, I don’t think money was an issue and she really enjoyed it.

The other was in the separate school of the arts and he had a full scholarship (although I know he also had BF and Florida pre-paid, but his parents let him save that for grad school).

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I think UNC is a little stronger overall academically, but it is not $40,000 stronger… especially when you take into account the UF Honors gig. That probably makes them academic equals, for (at least?) $40k less.

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And I’m not sure that it’s $40K.

The OP is taking a $10K loan - i.e. it’s $10K more than she can afford.

But it doesn’t mean the actual cost differential is $40K.

Haven’t heard back from OP on this - but I’m guessing it’s more than $40K different given the Bright Futures.

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Yeah… I hadn’t read the entire thread. I figure a minimum $40k difference, plus Honors at UF, suffice to make this a fairly easy decision as long as the kid doesn’t just hate UF and adore UNC…