Cheap and less desired vs. costly dream school

Paying for College
1

<p>please help!!
i have recently been accepted into several good higher end schools that my family cannot afford financially. of those i had had my heart set on Boston University but their financial aid package was a very small amount and my family could not withstand the burden of their tuition.
i have also been accepted to some lesser end colleges/universities:
Univerity at Buffalo
University of Central Florida
New college at florida

  • these are the more affordable colleges which offered me better scholarship oppurtunities and financial aid packages. Which of these is the best school? and should i sacrifice being in eternal debt by taking out loans for boston or should i settle for a lesser school and take out loans for medical school? i really need help here :(…
    thanks so much for any imput that can be given :)</p>
2

<p>i would pick the cheaper school…when you are 28 years old, looking for your second or third job, it won’t matter what school you graduated from but the experiences you gained both from school AND from internships and work. By choosing the “lesser end” schools (which will give you great education if you challenge yourself through the years), you will come out with much less debt and much less stress of paying back loans. </p>

<p>if you want to go to grad school, it might actually look better to have a high gpa from the lesser end schools than to have a mediocre gpa because you were working a full time job during college to pay the tuition. Plus, most employers WILL NOT weigh your undergraduate university if you also went to graduate school. My friends’s dad went to a state school for undergrad and worked his butt off and ended up getting into a very prestigious medical school and is pretty much a millionaire right now…he told me that no one has EVER asked him where he got his bachelor’s degree…they only ask about his PhD and research publications.</p>

<p>Is it worth it to take out all the loans and put such a financial burden on your family? If your heart says yes, you will come out of Boston University a changed person and it is your DREAM, then go there…college is a once in a lifetime thing. But if Boston U is merely a “dream” meaning a preference that has stood out in your mind for the past couple years, then I suggest going to the cheaper school.</p>

3

<p>Boston U probably is not worth a huge amount of debt. I’d say $30,000 should be the ceiling for an undergrad degree at Boston.</p>

<p>What state are you from? If you are from Florida, you should really be considering University of Florida.</p>

<p>If your school has a decent public university, I’d encourage you to take that route. Even if it won’t get you into Harvard for grad school, you’ll still be able to get into med school at a halfway decent public school.</p>

4

<p>Futuresurgeon, if your screen name is consistent with your career aspirations, save your money for med school – and choose whichever affordable school seems to have the best pre-med program or rate of placement of students into med school.</p>

5

<p>My niece loves New College and feels she is getting an excellent education with a lot of personal attention from professors.</p>

<p>New College also has a great med school track record, from what I understand–you might want to ask at admissions about that.</p>

<p>I personally would not sink a ton of money into BU when New College is available.</p>

6

<p>ive been oscillating between this decision forever so all your imput is really appriciated :).</p>

7

<p>Isn’t New College free?? My friend was in love with this school last year. I don’t know whether he got in this year or is going, and I could be wrong about the price, but I remember that there is a LOT to like about the school.</p>

8

<p>where the heart draws me…</p>

9

<p>I personally would love to attend New College. I’d even pick New College over Boston University if they were to come out to be the same price. New College I think is statistically in terms of average SAT Score of all the schools you’re considering including Boston University(according to Princeton Review)i</p>

10

<p>But look at it this way, If you are at the top of the food chain at New College, vs being at the middle or lower at BU (remember they give their aid based on merit so it you were at the top of the pool this thread would be a non -issue), I would not worry so much about what Princeton review says (you are comparing apples with oranges anyway a large university vs. a small Liberal arts college of 692 students). IF New college gives you a better package, rise to the top of the class. </p>

<p>Get those opportunities for research, special projects that may not be afforded to you at BU. Remember going to med school is a numbers based process.Bio, Physics, and O-chem are weed out courses not matter where you attend and the content of the subject matter is not going to be radically different. Get a great GPA and high MCAT scores and finishing at the top of your class in the long run are going to do more for you than being at the middle/ bottom at a different school.</p>

<p>One of the best post concerning choosing schools came from a poster-aroundthecorner, a young woman who is a freshman at her school (a small unheard of by CC standards LAC) who went there inspite of people feeling that it was not “good enough”. She wrote:</p>

<p>* turned down quite a few, better known large colleges for a smaller, lesser known college and I LOVELOVE it here. I stuck with my feelings, no matter how everyone else encouraged me to go with something they felt was ‘better.’</p>

<p>Because in the end, you’re attending the college. </p>

<p>And to touch upon how a small college can foster success- think of it as a big fish in a small pond. As a freshman, I’ve had so many opportunities that I really feel that I would not have if I were on a bigger campus. Simply for the fact that there are more people there that I would have to compete with. I have close relationships with ALL my professors, many admins, and am on first name basis with the provost. </p>

<p>**The uni might not get me ‘wows’ with its name (<em>shrug</em>), but I get ‘wows’ for the experiences I’ve had on campus and the work I am able to do. ** that, I believe, is what helped me land a nice summer internship.
*
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=179855&page=1&pp=15[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=179855&page=1&pp=15&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You will find that in this life it is a great gift to be flexible and to be resilient when things do not go your way becasue it puts you in a better position to help you dream new dreams and move forward in achieving them instead of feeling that life is doing nothing but knocking you down on your a** and remaining entrenched in what could have been, continually cursing the darkness instead of lighting a candle. </p>

<p>So look at all of your schools carefully. Determine which of your financial fits will also provide you with wow opportunities.</p>

<p>good luck</p>

11

<p>Futuresurgeon,</p>

<p>the wsj names New College as one ot the top 50 feeder schools # 31 nationally and # the 2 on State Feeder School List (behind Univ of Michigan) BU does not even make the list :)</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf[/url]”>http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college2_092503.pdf[/url]”>http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college2_092503.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

12

<p>agree with above- New College of Fl is rapidly gaining in national reputation. its a great school.</p>

13

<p>My daughter had her heart set on going to BU a few years ago but got a merit based scholarship at another school. We sent her to the other school and although she was initially very dissappointed she has had 3 wonderful years there. It could not have worked out any better. She loves her school, the friends she made there and has had the best internships available. It is possible to find happiness at a school that was not where you initially wanted to go.</p>