<p>Id probably take the debt for Yale --</p>
<p>I would take Oberlin. It’s free, for goodness sakes, and I have to agree that even for Yale/Pomona, 60k is way too much, and Oberlin is a fantastic school!</p>
<p>Hunt- Are you saying that maybe Pomona/Yale would be worth it for a somewhat-smaller amount? How much/Where would that line be? 30k? 40k?</p>
<p>Even though you’re not asking me, I’d say unless you really wanted to go there and absolutely hated Oberlin, 25k would be the limit. Graduating from Yale doesn’t guarantee you a job, nor does it necessarily put you ahead in the grad school admissions game much more than an Oberlin grad. Only you can decide how much you’re willing to put yourself/your family in debt when you could get an equally good education for free. And that’s perfectly fine, it’s something many people do.</p>
<p>^ There is so much more to the college experience than getting a job guarantee or increase your odds of graduate school admissions. First and foremost I would make it to the admitted students events (ie. Bull Dog Days at Yale next week) since you may develop a strong preference or dislike for one of them or for university vs. LAC. When you say you would need to cover $15K/year with “loans”, does that mean that is the full amount of your annual projected family contribution? That would suggest a fairly high family income/asset level. You would cover a good portion of this with a flexible hour campus job and summer earnings. Do your parents feel like they can cover the difference for you to have this choice? If the answer is yes, then go with your heart and choose the one you like best. If the answer is no, you cannot get those loans on your own so you will have to go to Oberlin whether that is your top choice or not.</p>
<p>How much debt makes sense depends on a lot of things, like family finances, whether you expect to go to grad or professional school, and what kind of career you are likely to have. But gosh, people borrow fairly substantial sums to buy a car, and this is for a college education. For the OP, I think it matters a lot whether this is a “real” loan or not.</p>
<p>Stats are not the most important thing. SAT scores (because that’s what we’re talking about, really) don’t have a perfect correlation with GPA (or even a very high one), and they also do not have any demonstrated correlation with critical thinking, creativity, curiosity or motivation to learn. All three of these schools have student bodies with similar levels of intelligence and achievement, so this isn’t a peer thing - Yale simply has a better reputation/is more prestigious than the other two, most likely because it’s a research institution. So personally, I think they will be equal in terms of peer group and learning.</p>
<p>So from there I think you should select the school that is the best for you, assuming you can afford it. If you say Pomona is the best for you, then go there. Were I in your shoes, I would go to Oberlin. It’s a top LAC and you can go for free.</p>
<p>I think it’s a huge mistake to turn down the perfect school for you simply because of prestige, because realistically speaking, prestige has little impact on your future trajectory. A study that was posted here a while ago showed that students who gained admissions to top colleges, but chose to attend lesser-known colleges, did just as well as their peers who went to the top schools.</p>
<p>And take this with a grain of salt. I have not been to Yale. I do, however, attend another Ivy League as a graduate student, and I TA here. IMO, the quality of teaching here is mediocre to poor. I went to a SLAC for college and I would do it again, every time. The personal relationships you get with professors is unparalleled, and I also am personally a fan of the close relationships you develop with your classmates/fellow students because of the small community. </p>
<p>OP talks of wanting to go into academia - not an expert, but aren’t name and connections EVERYTHING when getting into a PhD program with an academia track - liberal arts humanities, that is. I would think Yale would be the hands down choice in that instance.</p>
<p>No. I would not say that name recognition means nothing, but it certainly is not “everything,” and in this false the difference between Yale, Pomona and Oberlin would be pretty much negligible since they are all top colleges with top students.</p>