The title pretty much says it all.
I’ve been offered a few scholarships at local schools cause of grades, extracurriculars, etc. but most of the schools are my last choices for a college. My dream school, however, costs 60k a year (30k more than my family can reasonably afford & I wouldnt be eligible for need based aid). In theory I could work during the school year and the summer and get lots of scholarships along with that, but it would be A LOT of work. Nonetheless, I’ve dreamed of going to that school for years.
Basically I just want opinions on which school is the better choice- inexpensive safety or expensive dream. Thanks!
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My dream school, however, costs 60k a year (30k more than my family can reasonably afford & I wouldnt be eligible for need based aid). In theory I could work during the school year and the summer and get lots of scholarships along with that
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You won’t have the means to come up with the $30k per year. You can only borrow a small amount. Getting private scholarships for the years other than Frosh year is HIGHLY unlikely. Outside scholarship awards are typically for frosh year only…very hard to win, and often have a "need’ component. Even the outside awards for frosh year are small and hard to get. They probably wouldn’t even cover more than a couple thousand…for frosh year only.
If your parents won’t pay for the $60k school, then you won’t be able to attend.
You’d be lucky to work/save about $6k per year. You’re not going to be able to save every cent you earn for college costs. You’re going to need spending money…otherwise how will you truly enjoy this “dream school”?
What is this dream school??
What are your stats? @leahmarie98
Why are you assuming that the choice is limited between the unaffordable school and some “local schools”???
It makes no sense for you or your family to rack up $120 in debt. I’d go to an affordable school.
What @mom2collegekids says. This school is unaffordable for you - you won’t be able to borrow or make the money to cover an additional $30K a year.
Take the cheap school! Trust me, it pays off in the long run.
Actually the title does not say it all.
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It’s impossible to answer expensive dream school or cheap safety without knowing the schools. Your “safety” may have a perfectly fine reputation and be many kids’ “dream school.” Status and reputation of schools is in the eye of the beholder. Why not reveal the schools and see if your assessment matches CC’s.
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There are lots of schools that can offer merit aid to bring costs down to $30K that may or may not be on your list. So this is a false dichotomy. Is your list final? Why not see if there are other schools that might be compromise candidates.
Bottom line: Many, many kids cannot afford to go to their “dream school” and find another alternative. They do just fine in the end. The fact that you cannot afford the “dream” does not mean that you are doomed suffer for four years at a school that doesn’t meet your expectations. You just need to be a bit more creative.
“Dream schools” are wants, not needs.
$30,000 per year is far more than what a student can reasonably expect to be able to self-fund with federal direct loans and work earnings.
There’s a lot in between Dom Perignon and Budweiser.
I think you need to understand how much $30K is in relative terms.
Assume a 40-hour work week at $10 per hour; unless you are extremely lucky and get a higher salary, that’s about where your pay would be as an unskilled, uneducated, inexperienced worker.
That is $400 per week before taxes, or $1600 per month (before taxes). Your total yearly salary would be $19,200 per year, before taxes, at a full time rate. How would you make up the rest of that $10,800?
As @mom2coIIegekids has indicated, you won’t be able to get that amount in loans; they just don’t give that kind of money to students. Your parents may or may not qualify for unsubsidized loans; I wouldn’t want to take on that kind of burden.
Your “dream” school is unaffordable and unrealistic. Do you ever plan to purchase a car? A home? Clothing?
That won’t happen when you have to repay outrageous loans. You will NEVER get out of debt and you will have a really poor credit score, such that new purchases would be out of your reach. Think about that for a while. Is that what you really want from your college experience?
If the people in this article were could go back and make their decisions again, what do you think they would decide?
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/student-debt-squeezing-parents-children-070134663.html
Debt limits your future options. $120,000 in debt is way too much to consider for a college degree.
I wish I had taken the full ride offered to me by my state flagship. Instead, each year I borrowed the max federal student loan amount to go to a higher ranked private university. Plus I took out additional loans for grad school. It took a painfully long time to pay it all back.
By the time I entered grad school, no one cared what undergrad college I went to. Now that I’ve been working for many years, if ever I need to mention my educational credentials, i only mention my graduate degree.
Count me as another one who wishes she’d taken the full ride from the state flagship. Instead, I maxed out the government loans - both the regular ones and the extra ones they give to kids who are really poor. Dumbest thing I ever did in my life and I now refuse to let my children be burdened with undergraduate debt. Not when we can also reasonably afford 30k per year. That’s a boatload of money. You should be able to find something in between local schools you don’t want to attend and your dream school. Our oldest is in college now. Yes, she also had an expensive dream school and local affordable options which she didn’t like at all. But she ended up with two excellent affordable options, neither of which is within three hours of our home. I’m sure you’ll find some too. Start looking.
Applause to everyone here who suggested the cheaper option. We simply must eradicate the idea of ‘dream or “elite” college at any cost!’ As was aptly said in a Spike Lee movie…“you been hoodwinked…lied to…bamboozled…sold a bill of goods!”
Go to the affordable school. Get a good education, come out debt free and be able to live without $120,000 debt.
Without knowing more, I would say take the money. However, with more information, I might say something different. What are the schools? Have you already been admitted to the safety schools and/or the dream school? Do you have financial packages in front of you that you can compare? Do you know for certain that you won’t get aid at the dream school? Have you run its net price calculator?
Given the time of year, I imagine that you might have information from schools that offer rolling admissions but your dream school will not get back to you until spring of next year. Maybe there are some in-between options that will split the difference. Where did you apply so far?
What are your stats? The dream school might be within your grasp or so out of reach that this conversation is merely hypothetical.
Have you run the NPC for your schools? If the dream school is indeed $30,000 a year beyond your means, forget about it. There is no school worth $120,000 of anyone’s debt. I would not let my child put me into that kind of debt and I would not let my child take on that kind of debt for undergraduate education.
When my child was looking at colleges, she may have had dream schools that I inadvertently nixed because if I saw a net cost to me that was more than I could afford, I told her the school was off her list. In the end, she applied to one unaffordable (and it was more affordable than your dream school) school with the caveat that if FA came back with too high a cost, it was off the table. Sure enough, the net cost to us was about $15,000 beyond our limit. She was fine with that outcome because she knew what to expect.
So what do you do? Well, there are probably colleges that fall between “local, last choice” and “dream school”. Go look for them.
I’ve said it in other threads, but is worth repeating: I’ve always dreamed of driving a Porsche Cayman S ($65K). But I can only afford a car that’s half that amount (not even half…). So what do I do? I drive what I can afford. It’s that simple. And, not only that, suppose I’d need to buy a new one every year for four years (without the benefit of a trade-in, so paying the full cost EVERY YEAR). So why do people not understand that simple concept in the context of colleges?
Can you find reasonably priced match schools?
^Word, @digmedia. I think more students and parents need to approach the decision like they would the purchase of a car or home. I’d love to buy a Park Avenue mansion but I simply cannot afford; there’s no way taking out a $7 million mortgage would be a good idea in any universe on my salary. So if people wouldn’t buy a Bugatti or a Parisian vacation home with their money, why make the unwise financial decision to pay for a degree you can’t afford?
It seems the OP hasn’t returned, but in my opinion this is a false dichotomy.
OP, what characteristics do you like about the 'dream school"? The CC community is very knowledgeable and we’ll help you find colleges that share these characteristics but may give you merit money.
What’s your EFC? Is it 30K? Have you discussed the situation with your parents?