It’s making a lot of sense now. Thank you so much for everything you’ve said, not a lot of people will write multiple paragraphs to a high school kid online to help him decide on colleges. You’re amazing.
You remind me a lot of myself. I cried and cried when I didn’t get into MIT, especially since it felt like all my friends did.
But, surprise, here we are four years later, where I’m not only doing well, but I think far out-performing what I could’ve done at MIT.
EDIT: Not to mention that I can’t imagine not having all the life choices that I have now because I DO have money saved. It’s… really kind of life-changing to be in that kind of position.
So, maybe it’ll help and/or comfort you.
“I’ve been able to live in neighborhoods that the kids with student loans can’t dream of living in. I can have a nice wedding that kids with student loans can’t dream of having. I can travel almost indiscriminately to visit all the exchange students my mom and I hosted; kids bogged down by loans cannot.”
That reminded me of the last piece of amusing advice (“This Is Obvious to Everyone You Know”) here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/business/how-to-ask-someone-out-at-work.html
@CourtneyThurston Yes! My ds is engaged. He has no debt, $$ in the bank, a fully paid off car (bought from his own savings and nothing to do with us), and living off his grad student stipend. His fiancee has no debt either. I cannot imagine how different their situation would be if either one of them or both of them had student loans.
When deciding on which grad school, they had no limitations. They do not have any stress from figuring out how they are going to deal with their debt. They are going to grad school fully focused on grad school and their future—whatever they opt to do with it.
Applying to Bama, UAH, UNM, U Arizona gives you choices.
You don’t have to decide where to go yet, but if you don’t apply soon, those big merit offers will be gone.
My daughter didn’t have the scores you, OP, have but she was solid and also had an athletic scholarship offer. She also had some state merit money she could only use in Florida, so it made much more sense for her to stay in Florida at an ‘unknown’ school. Success story for her too. She graduated in civil engineering and had a job at graduation. She does have 15k in student loans, but had half of that in the bank when she graduated to use to get herself set up with a car and apartment. She could pay it off in a year if she wanted to, but no hurry. She didn’t do any internships while in school, but one of her sorority sisters took a year to do 3 different ones at NASA, Johnson and Johnson and one other company. Another had 4 offers for full scholarships for grad school and went to Columbia over Georgia Tech. Students get astronaut scholarships and work in all areas of the space program and have a few astronauts on staff (Buzz is one).
She has soooo many more choices than her sister because she has lower student loans and a good job. And a nice car.