UMass Honors Business vs Northeastern vs Ohio State

<p>I am a white, male HS senior from Massachusetts.
My school is quite competitive and doesn't do class rank.
My weighted GPA is around a 4.18 / 5
On the ACT i got a composite 33 (34 math, 33 reading, 33 writing, 30 science, 9 on the essay)
SATs: 750 math 650 writing 620 reading, 2020 total</p>

<p>UMass honors business will be around 20k per year
Northeastern will be around 35-40k per year
Ohio State will be around 23k per year</p>

<p>I want to major in finance, which school should I go to?</p>

<p>and Alabama would be about 14K because of the Presidential Scholarship. I think the deadline is Dec 1. </p>

<p>I’d do UMass Honors. Have you checked out the new honors dorm? The less debt you have coming out, the better. No one is going to care where you went to school once you’ve been out a few years. </p>

<p>Have you run the net price calculators and determined that you and your family can afford all these schools? Have yo had the talk with your parents?</p>

<p>Many students at my school are considering Alabama, mostly girls looking to party.
I have checked out the new dorms at umass and they seem really nice. I was thinking it was a solid education for the price.
The prices above are with aid because my parents make enough that I won’t get much aid. They said they will pay about 45k of my college expenses, which should cover around 2 years. </p>

<p>So at 11K for each of four years from your parents, how are you going to pay the difference at the non-Alabama colleges? You can only borrow $5500 your first year and $27K for four years. You can only save about $3-5K most years, and that will require your working during the school year. Think this thru OP.</p>

<p>I think that they are taking out an additional loan after they pay for the first two years and are just making me pay the payments each month after I get a job even though the loan is in their name. Their loan wouldnt be limited to 27k as well, would it? I know with interest it will end up being a lot more than the original price @jkeil911 </p>

<p>Their loan is not related to yours. They could do a PLUS loan, or they could use a home improvement loan where their equity in their home acts as collateral. YOU still have to pay off that loan, OP, so the more you borrow the more you have to pay off. </p>

<p>The rule of thumb around CC is that in an optimal economy a MechE graduate should be able to handle paying off the federal loan limit, the 27K I mentioned. Any more than that gets tenuous. You might make more money as an engineer in this or that location, but your cost of living will be higher there, too. What if you drop out of engineering? Will you get a job outside of engineering that will pay as much? Not likely. You will want a car and a nice apartment when you graduate. You will want to sock away some money for a house. All those things are endangered when you borrow more than you have to. Owing your parents money is also fraught with problems: by signing or cosigning the loan, they own the loan. If you lose your job, they’re responsible. If you’re disabled, they’re responsible. If you die, they’re still responsible. It happens, OP. Many many parents have co-signed loans for their kids or loaned the children money only to be disappointed when the economy tanks as it did in 2007. It creates all kinds of family relationship problems, too. With your ACT, you might not have to go down that road. Alabama, for instance, has an excellent engineering and STEM program and new lab buildings. </p>

<p>That is all very good useful information and I appreciate it. I plan on majoring in business- finance. Not engineering. If that makes any difference to what you keep mentioning about Alabama</p>

<p>Did you go to Alabama/live there? What makes it stand out to you? Just trying to get a broader picture</p>

<p>I just re-read your post. Where did I get MechE from? :-B Schools of B are also strong at many state flagships, and I’m told Alabama is one of them. Finance is even more reason to keep expenses low. Unless you’re headed to Wall Street, it really doesn’t matter where you go to school, and if you’re intent on Wall Street none of these schools on your list will be much help. OSU, maybe. UMass, maybe, better in Boston banking probably.</p>

<p>I will do some of my own research as well. After running the NPC for Alabama, it ends up at around 9k per year. Wow. Do you know of any others in the ballpark? I appreciate the help</p>

<p>You really do need to get your app into Alabama. the scholarship is assured but there is a Dec deadline. the app is SUPER EZ…takes like 5 minutes.</p>

<p>Alabama has a very good B-school. </p>

<p>Both of my kids went to Bama. They were Math and ChemE majors. They were seriously challenged and did very well there. And, they love the school. </p>

<p>30% of the school has an ACT 30+, so lots of very strong students. </p>

<p>Over 50% of the school is from OOS. </p>

<p>@TJC5MA‌ </p>

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<p>With your parents’ contribution, you should be fine.</p>

<p>The University of Alabama’s beautiful campus</p>

<p><a href=“The Capstone of Higher Education: Bama by Drone on Vimeo”>http://vimeo.com/104625184&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFxGS0pjP1o&sns=em”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFxGS0pjP1o&sns=em&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZYeT-40jLE&sns=em”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZYeT-40jLE&sns=em&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://cba.ua.edu/”>http://cba.ua.edu/&lt;/a&gt; Culverhouse College of Commerce</p>

<p>Do you think you could visit? </p>

<p>I would probably go visit over February break or something, not now. But yes, it is a possibility. </p>

<p>You should visit each, as each is different. For Finance, Northeastern has the better program of the three, but it looks like NU will cost more than the state schools. If you’re considering taking out private loans to cover the cost of college, I would try to keep the student loan debt down for when you graduate.</p>

<p>Have you already gotten into these schools or are you still waiting. Your stats are decent for Ohio State and UMASS, but they are not a shoe-in at Northeastern. Congrats if you got in to all three! </p>

<p>Alabama doesn’t have much of a reputation in finance, but if you can’t afford the other schools, it may offer a cheap alternative if you can get in-state tuition. Otherwise, I don’t see why you should consider it over your own state school.</p>

<p>@informative How does he pay for this if his parents are only going to contribute $11k and he has a high EFC?</p>

<p>I talked to my parents and i will be able to make it work as long as it is under 35 or 40 thousand dollars a year. I will be able to afford UMass and Ohio State pretty comfortably, paying for a reasonable, not excessive, amount myself. Northeastern will be a stretch financially, but it will be possible.</p>

<p>What i said before is not exactly true, i now realize. I don’t know exactly how much they will be paying, but i can make it happen. I misunderstood my situation. Money is a factor, but not as big as i previously believed</p>

<p>That’s great news. Hopefully, Northeastern will give you merit aid.</p>

<p>UMass has a great honors program. If you end up going there, you should be in good hands. However, for a finance major, the internships provided by Northeastern may have more value.
Best of luck in your future!</p>