<p>I posted this before but I think I have a better argument.</p>
<p>Frostburg VS. Kutztown</p>
<p>FROSTBURG:
cheaper $17,000 a year
Friends going
Not many advantages</p>
<p>KUTZTOWN:
Closer to home
Better reputation
More expensive $28,000 a year
Looks better on job application to graduate from here</p>
<p>NEED HELP I am majoring in Elementary Education and plan to teach anywhere I go to college.</p>
<p>Hope to get some financial aid and go to the one with the better reputation. It’s easy to find people to associate with at any college, so don’t worry about going where your friends are, you can always visit them on vacations and in the summer. But only go if you can afford it with financial aid.</p>
<p>Sit your parents down, and ask them how much they can afford to pay each year. Can they afford Frostburg without any loans for you or for them? Can they afford Kutztown without any loans for you or for them?</p>
<p>Sit down with your former elementary school principal, and two or three of your old elementary school teachers, and ask them about the employment situation for elementary school teachers in the region where you would like to work. Ask if for your target job market, it will really matter whether you choose Frostburg or Kutztown. Given your academic record and test scores, do they have any other suggestions for you that are more likely to get you a job. Then ask them how long it will take you (assuming you do get a teaching job right out of college) to pay of the amount of college debt you could accumulate if you were to attend Frostburg or Kutztown or the other places that they have suggested during your conversation.</p>
<p>So it would be the better decision to go to the cheaper school with the bad reputation? I wouldn’t be so far in debt.</p>
<p>No, I think you need to actually read what HappyMom has written. </p>
<p>You need to find out if the future employment advantages of going to K’town are tangible. If all of the principals, teachers, etc. that you interview agree that you will be more employable if you graduate from K’town, then you should give it serious consideration. </p>
<p>If the two are a total wash, then go to the one that’s cheaper if you’ll be happy there.</p>
<p>How bad is the reputation for El. Ed. Majors? Do they not get jobs at all? Are they the last candidates to be interviewed? Do they have difficulty finding student teaching sites?</p>
<p>How much debt? All you can take on without a co-signer is the Stafford Loan maximum (5,500 freshman, 6,500 sophomore, 7,500 junior, and 7,500 senior year). The difference in cost between Frostburg and Kutztown is more than that. Who is going to sign on for that debt with you, and how are you going to pay all of it off on a teacher’s salary?</p>
<p>Well my parents aren’t going to be co signing on anything because of our finances. And its just Frostburg is a “party school” and farther away. KU is a good college for education but as is FSU. </p>
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<p>If your parents can’t cover the difference, then you are going to have to go to Frostburg and make it work for you unless you’ve got some other more affordable option.</p>
<p>Just because everyone else is partying doesn’t mean you have to.</p>
<p>That said, this is still January. Have you filed all of the Financial Aid paperwork yet? If you have, are these figures that you’ve posted your actual costs after any Financial Aid you’ve been awarded?</p>
<p>If these aren’t your final costs after Financial Aid, wait until you do get your aid packages back from each place. Kutztown may work out to be less expensive for you.</p>
<p>^ About 40% of Frostburg students apparently get grants (Federal/State/institutional), so I would echo what happymom says. You’re not likely to get much need-based aid from an out-of-state public like Kutztown, though.</p>
<p>[Frostburg</a> State University](<a href=“http://www.universities.com/edu/Frostburg_State_University.html]Frostburg”>http://www.universities.com/edu/Frostburg_State_University.html)</p>
<p>And a degree is a degree right? Teaching in all phases is expected to increase as well.</p>
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