<p>After applying to Columbia ED I ve got told not to bother. let me explain.</p>
<p>I wanted to go to Columbia to start a career in journalism, marketing and publishing. When through connections I got in contact with some people from Conde Nast, Hearst and JP Morgan they told me not to bother.</p>
<p>“your wasting your money. the only degree we care about is the masters. i see it all the time, these kids that get into crippling debt trying to pay for their undergraduate education. what did they think? they were going to be able to use a BA in the real world. the only people that can do that are people with extremly good connections. Like wintour.”
(exacly what the conde person said)</p>
<p>So Ive decided to go to school here in australia. Part of my course here is i get to live in Paris or Geneva for a year. gain connections in paris and sydney, then go to the US for the degree that really matters…your masters.</p>
<p>I didnt want to admit it. but theyre right. BA is a cereal box degree.</p>
<p>What do you guys think? are you going into debt to pay for your undergrad?</p>
<p>Yes, I am going into debt and so do most of my classmates, but not into “crippling debt.” If you would have financed Columbia with a $40K per year loan, then I agree that it’s not worth it. However, $3-5K per year as part of a financial aid package are very manageable.</p>
<p>I would have incurred a similar amount of debt to go to college at home and I have been enjoying my experience here immensely, so I don’t have any regrets.</p>
<p>elaboration: if you want a real career you have to do your masters. A BA or a BS (which is mostly whats on offer) they just see as your prep for grad school.
its the same here: if you do either of those degrees you get this look and then people say “oh so you want to be a teacher.”</p>
I presume you meant a career as a journalist and you are speaking from experience. You might still want to check out the CC link I posted earlier. Carolyn, a professional journalist, has some real good advice for future journalists.</p>
<p>
It might be true for journalism and publishing. It’s certainly not true for marketing or other professions. For example, you can have a very successful career as an engineer or an i-banker without ever going to graduate school. Where you get your undergraduate degree can be the door opener for that lucrative first job.</p>
<p>The reason I’m confused is that you mentioned Harvard which doesn’t even have a journalism school. Northwestern probably has the best undergraduate program in journalism.</p>
<p>Whether an undergraduate degree, postgraduate degree, or no degree at all is necessary to enter a field of employment is entirely dependent on that particular field. Once you are clear about your career direction, you need to find out what degree(s) are necessary. There are many fields where the smart way to go is to do your first degree on the cheap nearer to home.</p>
<p>I found that I added many school to my list, about 12 schools . And if I apply to all 12 schools,that will cost a lot. But if I apply less than this ,then I won’t be sure that I will get in with a financial package caused it really hard.</p>
<p>I plan to apply to Nanyang in Singapore which ranked top 20th in World Engineering , has a really good financial support, and have a really good contact with my high school( everyone that wanted to go there , got in) </p>
<p>Do you think going to Nanyang is better than wasting a lot of money with a little chance?</p>
<p>Honestly I’m not going becaues of the degree… I could get my medical degree here in like two less years… and be in about $80 000 less debt but I want to go for the undergrad experience. I mean its nothing like what you get here.</p>
<p>its the same where I’m from too. I’d save 2 years going here, but in addition to my family graduating, I kinda want a fresh start too, more opportunities. I mean, I could do research and get much better facilities, explore many more activities and feel free to become a new person. If I stayed here, everything would basically be the same as most of my classmates would go to the same university. I must say though, they’d get hands on experience from the first year (cutting people open etc), but at least I’ll be in america actually getting to broaden my own knowledge beyond straight med and not feeling like I’m just cramming for a degree.
Besides, med is expensive here too and substantial scholarships only come with you being bound to the country for 5 to 10 years working…I’m not sure if I’m up for that. I’m better off getting good fin aid from these universities. Their packages are usually better.</p>