What do you think of this? Should the author be applauded for turning down the dream school so she wouldn’t go into debt? Should she be scolded for allowing herself to get into the situation where she had no other choice than to take a gap year if she turned it down?
Considering the amount of debt ($80,000) and her career aspirations in journalism (not very high paying), taking on the debt for undergraduate would not have been a good idea. Also, her recently expensively divorced parents may not have been able to qualify as cosigners (their money is probably now funding their divorce lawyers’ kids’ college).
Looks like she enrolled in another unnamed college.
I feel she made the right decision. I do not think Northwestern was a viable option given their financial situation. Everyone has to make these types of decisions. There are plenty of people who cannot afford their dream school. My son would be included in that as well.
This case raises the issue of the inaccuracy of the NPC (presumably due to the divorce angle), assuming the family used the NPC prior to applying. But, I didn’t see that mentioned. (For a budding journalist, that’s disappointing…)
It also sounds like the author didn’t actually have a choice to make because she wouldn’t have been able to borrow 80k on her own.
She didn’t turn down anything, as above, she didn’t have that option in the first place. I wish when she was 17, her parents had given her a clue.
@Sybylla maybe her parents didn’t really have a clue either. We never let our kids think they could just choose a ‘dream school’ and go but I am lucky enough to have been here and figured all that out
It’s all an individual choice with no right or wrong decision. The question is, would you be at peace with the decision or would you be saddled with the nagging self-questioning for the rest of your life. The fact that she’s written this article several years after having made the decision is an indication that she’s still trying to comes to terms with it. I’m sure it will revisit her thoughts from time to time for the rest of her life. Dreams don’t simply go away that easily. Not saying that she’s made a wrong decision. As I said, it’s an individual thing. Speaking of an individual decision, I chose my own dream when I was faced with a very similar situation a few decades back. No regrets as I’ve attained my personal dream that was so important in my life and the incurred debt is now a thing of past long gone.
Unfortunately, “can’t afford the dream school” tears are not at all uncommon. The way to avoid it is by having the affordability discussion between parent(s) and child early in the process.
She’s a senior at DePaul, and her LinkedIn suggests she’s gotten terrific internships.
I applaud her vulnerability and decision. I think the article brings up the interesting point that it is not just the prospective student who gets caught up in “dream school” idealization. Peers, parents, relatives, adult friends, and even teachers/guidance counselors often all reinforce the idea that there is not cost too high for a “dream school” experience. A significant number of individuals that surround the student and his/her family all make the make the internal calculation of “value” in such a way that the dream school opportunity outweighs literally ANY cost. This makes the decision to be fiscally responsible at least twice as hard.
Anecdotally, I hear a lot of stories like the authors…students who made a difficult decision (or had their parents make it for them), who realize that the school they went to gave them every opportunity or more than their dream school. I also hear the opposite – those who chose debt and the dream and they don’t regret it – but 100% of those have been defended by the 4 year college experience fulfilling their dreams, not by a career or salary advantage that helped to pay off the debt.
Yes. In addition, it is best to avoid fixating on one particular “dream school”. Most students will find good or acceptable academic and non-academic fits at a range of schools, so there is no particular need for most students to have a “dream school or bust” mentality. It then comes down to finding which of the range of schools are doable in terms of affordability and admissibility. Obviously, students with stronger academic credentials and parents able and willing to contribute more money have the advantage here.
Between Dec 15th and May 1st the family had nearly six months to figure the situation out—whether going to NW would be a dream or fantasy. In fact, it should be before submitting ED. Not to blame the girl but it really blows my mind that someone could indulge in wishful thinking for six months without a plan B.
Between Dec 15th and May 1st the family had nearly six months to figure the situation out—whether going to NW would be a dream or fantasy. In fact, it should be before submitting ED. Not to blame the girl but it really blows my mind that someone could indulge in wishful thinking for six months without a plan B.
Between Dec 15th and May 1st the family had nearly six months to figure the situation out—whether going to NW would be a dream or fantasy. In fact, it should be before submitting ED. Not to blame the girl but it really blows my mind that someone could indulge in wishful thinking for six months without a plan B.
I would suspect an expensive divorce is a euphemism for something other than the actual cost. Parents who split and are on different pages are common enough, mixed messages are sure to be an issue. Looking at the financial decision as being hers to make as a teenager if just hyperbole really. Family applied ED too. If the balance was actually only 80K it would have been a decent offer too, right? $20K a year COA for NW in 2013?
An expensive divorce probably moved parental money from her college fund to their divorce lawyers’ kids’ college funds.
Probably true, in addition to the financial disadvantages that divorce brings.
Krupp wrote of having a $30,000 per year budget, which implies that Northwestern offered her a $50,000 net price requiring $20,000 per year loans that add up to $80,000 after four years.
I read the 30K budget as her post gradation living budget. Frankly if she had 120K to blow on college in the first place I am not sure she would have had an actual story.
I also read the 30k as her expected post-college salary. If you assume that’s an accurate assessment of an entry-level journalist salary, it would be almost criminal to let someone go $80k-85k into debt.
How can it be a new thought to anyone that college hopes and dreams need to be filtered the lens of financial reality?
And what a poor guidance counselor for not pointing this out to her (of course her parents share some blame in this as well). I’m left very surprised at the poor counseling she received.
It has been discussed before that counselors tend to avoid any mention of finances, not even telling students about net price calculators and talking to parents about finances before making the college application list.
Every April, there are students (or their parents) who make anguished posts about how their top choice college that they got admitted to is too expensive. Or worse, all of the colleges that they got admitted to are too expensive.