$250K Loan for a Top Semi-Target in a Major City — Is It Worth It? (Hoping to ED2)

OP I would encourage you to consider or share what area of IB you are interested in.

As you seem aware there are some well worn paths and or schools targeted for IB analyst jobs. If however you go into college with a specific IB area in mind you can potentially set yourself apart down the road. Examples being math and game theory for the potential trader or derivatives role, geology or mining for commodities or trade finance jobs, real estate for CRE IB, hard science classes for emergent technology or renewables IB, engineering for transportation IB, etc.

Not trying to complicate your thought process but suggesting you can enhance your likelihood of eventual access to IB in ways other than crippling debt.

Edit sorry our posts crossed. Please read what I posted above and try and think more narrowly about what interests you.-

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No! I meant changing my focus on my career path in college (applying elsewhere and picking up that dual degree in CS that I was talking about earlier) if internships and seemingly everything doesn’t work out earlier on. I apologize for being unclear.

I’ll keep it short but essentially I was able to “shadow” someone in IB for a couple days. Family friend and they were working from home at the time so I saw their day-to-day (dare I say night-to-night also) and found it fascinating. Went home, read articles on it, etc.

My parents did this when I was there. But yes, I’ll do a deeper look into it. I was on a time crunch because the ED2 was yesterday (but really I have until the 10th – can choose to switch from RD to ED2 then according to the portal).

Yes, I’m aware of this.

I never said this…if I implied this I’m sorry.

First of all, Catcher is giving terrific advice.

Second of all,

being on a team advising on a merger and able to see my work have a lasting impact
[/quote]

You could spend 18 months on a deal team and have ZERO lasting impact. Deals fall apart. Justice Department rules that a prospective deal is illegal for some (or several) reasons. Interest rates rise and the entire financial premise of the deal structure blows up. The company you’ve recommended as an acquisition target turns out to have serious issues violating sanctions with Iran and your client decides to walk away rather than take the reputational hit. Your client runs into a serious legal issue (class action suit on product safety for example-- children dying from ingesting contaminated food) and YOUR institution puts the breaks on serving them.

“Lasting impact” is not a good reason, and if you think I’m delusional, talk to five young analysts or associates about their experience and listen to what they’ve worked on and what satisfaction they’ve felt.

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I think I’ve responded to this to another poster before so I’ll try to be concise…I’m interested in it because I’ve shadowed someone working in it and I’d like to do various things with it (see above)

I agree. I’m just stuck with letting a semi-target go.

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I’m sure. NPCs are showing EFC above the estimated cost of attendances published by the school so that’s implying full-pay.

Trying!

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Yes – I also love the school outside of IB. I have to let go of it emotionally :slight_smile:

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Others have covered the career issues well.

I do question how you’re framing this. You use the phrase donut hole family…but suggest you wouldn’t receive aid at even the most generous schools (?) and then mention a 2nd property that’d cover your and a sibling’s college educations. That doesn’t sound like a family that needs to borrow 250k.

So, what is the actual financial position? Is your parents’ retirement savings on track for them to meet their goals? What do they have saved for college expenses and how much can they fund from income without affecting retirement savings? And, is the investment property part of their retirement plan or is it “extra”?

On another note, if you shadowed someone in the field, that’s your best resource. And a continued relationship there is likely to have a larger impact on your future career than your choice of school. If that person can help you get early internships in the field it’s a huge advantage.

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I agree with all the other posts. You can’t even remotely afford to go to this school. Uconn seems affordable. I would recommend going there. :slight_smile:

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Then that begs the question…how much will your parents pay annually for any college for your undergrad schooling annually. If the meets full need schools don’t show you having any financial need…can your parents fund college costs in any way…for ANY college…not just elite ones?

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Some of your questions up thread were discussed here and perhaps some of the other info might be helpful…

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You are saying even UConn would require loans…how much in loans?

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Regarding my family’s financial situation, our gross income is around $220k, which I’m very fortunate to benefit from. After taxes, which are significant (since we live in Connecticut), our net income is around $170k-$190k. We also have two mortgages on two properties, totaling $900k, and a high cost of living in our area, which impacts our financial flexibility.

While my parents have $130k in savings, my mom recently switched from a full-time to a part-time job. Although she’s always earned far below the poverty line, this change significantly increased our insurance costs, which has made a noticeable dent in our finances. We also receive rental income from the second property, but it’s important to note that the mortgage on it is substantial. This rental income isn’t part of their retirement savings; it’s more of a supplementary income source. My dad also has money tied up in investment accounts but he doesn’t want to touch that with the removal/transfer fees.

Currently, there is $40k in my 529 plan (a “friend” told my parents we would get no financial aid if had too much money in the plan but that backfired), but none for my brother. My dad is on track with his retirement savings and will probably hit $1mm+ within the next 10 years, but my mom is significantly behind in her retirement planning.

Parents can fund my college costs for any college but it will be difficult without merit aid. They do NOT want to touch their savings/retirement at the moment (rightfully) so as little of it will go towards college, they’re looking at loans.

I remember someone saying something like “Why’d you choose a school that’s so expensive to the point you’re making your parents sell their house?” I’m not. We created a list together, they said they’ll get the money somehow even when I was concerned about it (I warned them multiple times), they pushed me ED1 to a school with the same costs as Emory, and they then suggested selling the house two nights ago.

1st semester is covered with 529. The remaining years is $40k/year so I’d assume $20k in loans (they would pull from savings because UConn isn’t that bad, I would work, maybe try to graduate one year earlier). I haven’t received my letter yet but I applied for priority and I’m hoping for strong merit – the loan amount heavily depends on that.

Why did your parents want to pick those schools? Are they chasing prestige?

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Yes. I think they also have a skewed view of costs and think I’ll pull a lot of merit even at a private. My dad came to the U.S. as an international student in the 90s’ and only had to pay $5,000 for private grad school, which he was able to do with a loan cosign. Also, in the area I live in everyone is full-pay/ED/athlete – I’m sitting in class actually and someone is literally saying they’re wondering why people wait for RD.

So prestige and perception.

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At $220k, it’s few and far between schools that will give you significant or any aid. Not to mention you have two properties.

I understand their inability to pay but your choice is to seek low cost schools in that case - beyond UCONN and Bing,

Stat dependent (gpa and sat), some can be as low as $20k all in. They will be subs to a Bing / UCONN - similar type schools.

But 99% of schools were lost at $220k income.

And that mom went part time is a future FAFSA/CSS but not this upcoming year.

But the 2nd house alone is an anchor.

So you do have your situation properly vetted.

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Just want to say it again to OP in case it’s getting lost among some of these posts — I think you are amazing and full of ambition and I love it!
I’m understanding a little better now that there IS the money but parents don’t want to pull from investments. Fair enough — they are welcome to spend their money as they wish of course. But the question then becomes should they take out loans for 250k instead of liquidating assets and the answer to that for me would be no.
If the school isn’t worth liquidating assets for then it’s a school not in the budget from where I sit.
But also could you piece together a way not to take out 250k? Maybe some liquidation, some summer work (finance internships pay well), some cash flow tightening the belt and maybe a small loan amount that you calculate you could fit into the projected salary after school (your parents take the loan but you agree to pay?)
Side note: I would kindly disagree that your time would be well spent hand calculating loan payments right now as an exercise to “prove yourself” in the field of finance. That sounds silly and punitive and honestly NOT the way to spend your last week of RD apps being open! Run the calculator in two seconds online and keep focused here on what will really move the needle.
Cheering you on from the sidelines!!

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Young people who are so invested in a career in finance that they’d borrow a quarter of a million dollars for a “maybe/kind of” chance at the desired career in finance, but they can’t find half an hour to crank out a sensitivity analysis FOR THEIR OWN CASH FLOW (not some hypothetical multinational corporation acquiring a division overseas- but their OWN money( suggests a young person who isn’t all that invested in a career in finance.

I counsel kids all the time who are “Dead sure” about their future career. But give them a simple exercise which approximates a real life problem they’d have to do in their first job and they have ten reasons why they won’t or can’t.

Quarter of a million in loans for a non-target school for “I definitely want I-banking”? Half an hour for a pretty simple financial model is really not a stretch. I’d insist on it if it were my kid.

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I came home at 10:30 PM last night and I thought the deadline was fixed at 12 PM (instead on the portal it’s saying Jan 10th rather than yesterday). Had time to sit down with my parents and quickly guessestimate because I was panicking that I was losing an opportunity. They weren’t sitting down with me before and suddenly felt bad enough to start talking about loans because they realized they forced my ED1.

I never said I was “dead-sure.” I WILL fight to break in but I know that just attending a certain school will just only get me in. Also, I mentioned pivoting to something with CS-finance adjacent (trading, derivatives) quickly in college if I can’t get internships. Emory has a Econ-CS dual major and you have to declare a major in sophomore year.

See above.

Emory is a semi-target but I think I’d be happy there regardless. Anyways there’s no point because I’m not going to FORCE them to take those loans – they’re the ones suggesting it and I didn’t know if I wanted to go for the dangling carrot.