<p>Financially, UT is the better deal by a long shot, and I've been accepted to the Dean's Scholars honors program for physics. However, I really would like to live in New York and go to a school with a really great physics program--but it would mean loans, probably about 10k a year.</p>
<p>What is it like to be in the Dean's Scholars program? Is Columbia worth the cost? I need help deciding.</p>
<p>Thanks guys.</p>
<p>For 10k a year Columbia is worth it (especially if you value living in NYC a great deal)</p>
<p>What does the Dean’s scholars program provide?</p>
<p>10k a year is worth the debt for the experience of nyc plus having columbia .</p>
<p>Well…I overestimated. I apologize. I hadn’t checked our savings fund in a while, and what with the stock market–it went down.</p>
<p>UT would be only room and board payments (no tuition), and I’m in the Dean’s Scholars Honors Program for Physics.</p>
<p>Columbia gave our family enough aid to bring the total cost down to 43k a year (something, more than anywhere else, but not anywhere close to the cost of UT).</p>
<p>Please ignore the 10k loans part. My family could probably muster around 20k a year, but for the rest I’d kind of be on my own.</p>
<p>Being poor in New York City is not very fun…</p>
<p>In response to vociferous’s question:</p>
<p>Here’s the Dean’s website(s): </p>
<p>[Dean’s Scholars | Home](<a href=“http://web2.cns.utexas.edu/ds/”>http://web2.cns.utexas.edu/ds/</a>)</p>
<p>[College</a> of Natural Sciences | Dean’s Scholars](<a href=“http://cns.utexas.edu/current_students/programs/dean/]College”>http://cns.utexas.edu/current_students/programs/dean/)</p>
<p>Wiki:</p>
<p>[Wikipedia:WikiProject</a> University of Texas at Austin/Dean’s Scholars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_University_of_Texas_at_Austin/Dean’s_Scholars]Wikipedia:WikiProject">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_University_of_Texas_at_Austin/Dean’s_Scholars)</p>
<p>Basically, it provides smaller honors classes, research opportunities (a senior thesis is required), extra seminars and trips, and better dorms (although this isn’t really a huge factor).</p>
<p>Agreed with Tyler09. I would NOT recommend taking 23k a year in loans, unless your parents are willing to cover at least half of those loans (in addition to the 20k).</p>
<p>UT. Being on a tight tight budget in NYC is no fun. Plus the environment at UT just seems really cool and chill.</p>
<p>GO to UT. Sucks you can’t afford Columbia, but who can these days? The Dean’s scholars program looks great. Research opportunities definitely give you a leg up for grad school.</p>