Your OP was “is OOS tuition worth it.” I think the consensus is, “No. Not even close.” Your plan seems like a bad one to me. Of course, we don’t know your circumstances/hopes/dreams, etc. Good luck. My 21 yr. old daughter dropped out of Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti (right next to Ann Arbor) and worked 40 hours week for the past couple of years and could barely support herself without the burden of tuition, books, etc.
I’m sorry; I was reading from the wrong post. I thought you were from VA. Go to UIC.
I’m sorry but I doubt that.
Your OP was “is OOS tuition worth it.” I think the consensus is, “No. Not even close.” Your plan seems like a bad one to me. Of course, we don’t know your circumstances/hopes/dreams, etc. Good luck. My 21 yr. old daughter dropped out of Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti (right next to Ann Arbor) and worked 40 hours week for the past couple of years and could barely support herself without the burden of tuition, books, etc. "
Oh gosh… can you tell me more?.. I am starting to think i will never go to umich…
did she get an fafsa aid? why did she have to work so much… did she take out loans? was she paying in state tuition?
If you’re going to graduate as an engineering major, you won’t have much time to enjoy AA.
Also, you can only get a small amount of loans yourself.
Finally, is your life ending at 23? You realize that you will have the opportunity to move where you want to after graduation, don’t you?
Sorry if I was unclear. My daughter chose to drop out of school and remain in the Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor area because she “loved Ann Arbor.” She discovered that housing was relatively expensive with 40,000 college students hanging around and that all of the things she loved about Ann Arbor were expensive, as well. She worked full-time, lived in a part of Ypsilanti that kept me awake at night, and still was barely making it. There was no way that she would have been able to afford to go to school even part-time. If you’re smart enough to get into Michigan Engineering as an OOS student, couldn’t you get into Northwestern? Wouldn’t they at least meet your demonstrated need? Evanston and Ann Arbor are pretty similar, IMO, although Lake Michigan > Huron River in my book.
You have to look at the overall package of financial aid that they offer you and then think about what happens after you graduate in 2 years. What is likely to be your debt? Admittedly, 2 years is not the same as 4 but it can still leave you in a substantial hole. Perhaps you can build up some resources over the next 8 months (you know this better than anyone else) but once you get into the academic year, you don’t want to compromise your studies by having to work all the time just to stay afloat. Then you really want to go for an internship the next summer and that may not pay as well as you like but will be essential for getting a good job once you graduate.
I get it that you like Ann Arbor better than Champaign-Urbana or even Chicago but it is only two years and you need to balance living there for two years versus the difference in debt.
The other thing that you need to consider is what impact your school choice will have on your ability to get a good job after graduation. For engineers, the fact that you get an ABET accredited degree is probably more important than which university you get it from. It is certainly possible that your first job will be influenced by your school but the next ones won’t.
Anyway, you clearly have a lot to think about and decide for yourself. What most people are saying is that you need to look at all the aspects of your situation, not simply the fact that you have fallen in love with a particular university.
Good luck!
@umichalex there are many parents on this thread trying to give you a real picture. Why not attend UIUC that is better within your budget. It is like wanting a rolls royce on a VW bug budget. The VW will get you to your engineering degree. If you start at UMich you will run out of money in one semester, if you scraped enough together to go. Then worrying about how to pay for everything (remember there is a loan limit, a schedule, Fr, so, jr, sr limits). It is a recipe for disaster.
If you want to make a bad decision, don’t ask for advice. There is a student chiming in is a HS junior that doesn’t have a clue about this - clearly not in a financially stressed situation like you. A parent gave his daughter’s real life struggles to pay expenses where you plan to be (Ann Arbor area). Many of us parents with kids in college know the difference between a student being able to focus on their studies and the students who try to focus on their studies while having to work XX hours to pay the bills to be able to go to school. Engineering is hard enough without giving yourself a huge financial burden. Make UIUC the best opportunity for you - take advantage of what it has to offer.
Call in to Dave Ramsey’s radio show - maybe he can tell you to get through school with as little debt as possible. He definitely would tell you to not go to an OOS public unless someone has the cash to pay for it.
@greeninohio, NU is far harder to transfer in to than UMich (even COE as an OOS).
But it’s worth a try.
OR if your State Publics don’t have the major that you are sure you want!
Northwestern is the same amount as UMIch though.
Northwestern is also a private school that might be able to meet your need better than a state school could.
If you think your quality of life at school is going to be heavily dependent on the aesthetics of the area downtown, I think you are miscalculating. A nice downtown is about 172nd on the list of things that affect how happy you will be at college. I suppose one can get all worked up about it and make it more important than it is, but this is a choice, a choice that you get to make. Quality of life is 10x more about the people you connect with than the street scape where you connect. There are great people in Ann Arbor, but so too in Urbana/Champaign.
We are talking a large amount of money here.
Look at Kiplinger’s America’s 300 Best College Values, Feb 2015 issue. They say see full rankings, etc at College Rankings | Kiplinger. 11 page article. On the top 100 public colleges, U of MI ranked #6; UIUC ranked 36. U MI has 76% of students graduating in 4 yrs; UIUC has 68%. Even looking at the in-state cost after need based aid for UIUC ($16,093) and the OOS cost after need based aid for U MI ($39,321) That is $23,000 difference per year! U MI OOS % who borrow is 47%. Kiplinger takes several quality measures and that is 55% of their ranking; financial measures is 45% of their ranking.
ABET accredited engineering.
Make peace with this and focus on your degree plan. Good luck.
thank you guys … im a little depressed because i realize that this most likely wont happen… and ill have to settle for a worse school.
It will only be worse if you make it worse. Have you visited UIC or are you going off of prestige/ranking? It’s your state flagship so it can’t be that bad. If you go there, I’m sure you’ll be able to meet some great people, learn new things, and really enjoy it there. The quality of a school is derived from the student, not the other way around.
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if i cant make 20 grand then ill take out loans .. i did the math
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As a rising junior, you can borrow $7500 per year…not much at all. Your low income mon isn’t likely going to agree t to or qualify to borrow the rest.
You only have 2 years to go. It’s not a big deal to spend two years at a school that isn’t your fave. It will soon be over and then you can get a good paying job where you want to live.
ill work and see where it all ends. in the worst case ill settle for uic. thanks everyone
@TheDidactic, UIUC is the state flagship. UIC is in Chicago.
@SOSConcern, Interesting, but average need-based aid is pretty much a useless metric when deciding where to go. What matters are the actual fin aid packages that you get from each school.
OP: Wait to see what your fin aid packages are from all schools before deciding.
@PurpleTitan Oh okay, thanks for clarifying.
So I understand, in a roundabout way, the reputation of each. Honest genuine question for the OP, if you didn’t like UIC, why did you apply? Did you have an option to apply to UIUC?