<p>I thought I would ask this here because there appear to be more adults with real life experience on this board than some of the others on CC. I will be attending what is arguably the best public college in my state in the fall, but I have a guaranteed transfer offer to Cornell for my sophomore year. Although I find it exciting that I was extended the offer, I’m not sure if transferring to Cornell given freshman year goes well is necessarily the best decision for my long term plans. I am uncertain about what kind of aid Cornell would give me, but from using their online aid calculator and anecdotal evidence, it does not seem that they would be particularly generous toward me and I would likely be saddled with some loans. The idea of incurring debt scares me, particularly because I have toyed with the idea of graduate school and because I can afford the state school without loans. I have also strongly considered attending grad school in Canada, where there is much less emphasis placed on where a person attends undergrad and more on their numbers alone. The state school I will be attending has enough high quality students that it does send a very high percentage of its students to graduate and medical school, so even if I were to attend graduate school in the U.S. I wouldn’t be at much of a disadvantage. The one large difference between attending the state school and Cornell would be my major. At Cornell I would be studying Industrial and Labor Relations, which is basically a human resources based major, but I would most likely double major in accounting and history at the state school. I will make my ultimate decision based on how freshman year goes, the amount of money Cornell gives me, and how well I see myself fitting in at Cornell versus the state school, but is it safe to say that if Cornell turns out to be a less than ideal fit financially or socially I would still be fine at the state school? I feel like everyone who knows I have the transfer offer is obsessed with the Ivy hype and acts like I will be set for life if I attend Cornell, particularly because the ILR major is supposedly lucrative. I realize a Cornell degree opens many doors, but after receiving the transfer offer I feel a lot of pressure to attend Cornell regardless of whether or not it is best for my long term plans. Does it really matter that much which school I ultimately attend? Would I really benefit from having the Cornell name recognition, particularly if I don’t necessarily intend on working immediately after undergrad or even staying in the U.S. (I’ve considered permanently relocating to Canada)? Would I still benefit from attending Cornell solely because it is Cornell if it is a financial burden or less than ideal fit otherwise? Again, I have yet to make a final decision, but I’d like some opinions from people who hopefully think college decisions should be made with long-term goals in mind more than the ability to show off the name of the college on a bumper sticker. P.S. I apologize for how long this post was :P.</p>
<p>You use the word “burden” to describe your finances in the above post. Cornell is a fabulous school…but if it’s going to be a financial BURDEN…think more than twice about transferring. You say your public university has great programs and is well regarded and there are bright students there. I guess I don’t understand the problem with attending this school without debt for four years and perhaps considering another school for grad school.</p>
<p>Do a little searching and you’ll see that this topic comes up frequently in the Parent section, and the consensus (not to say unanimous conclusion) is that you should attend the best school that you can reasonably afford without excessive debt that is also a good fit for your personality.</p>
<p>In other words, don’t assume that you should take on massive debt to attend a “name” school when another school may be almost as good in general, possibly better for you personally, and leave you in control of your finances when you graduate rather than swimming in debt.</p>
<p>My example, for what it’s worth:</p>
<p>Undergrad: 3rd-tier public university, graduated with no debt
Master’s: top-20 private university, graduated with less then $10,000 debt
Career: going on 20 years, no trouble finding a job, master’s school’s reputation trumps undergrad’s</p>
<p>Don’t sweat it. Go where you’re comfortable, both personally and financially. You won’t regret it.</p>
<p>P.S. The problem with your post is not that it’s long. It’s the lack of line breaks. Use the “enter” key once in a while, thumper! :)</p>
<p>My advice to you is to KEEP YOUR OPTIONS OPEN. Keep your grades as high as possible, do the GT mini app, and think about this again in the spring when you have your transfer acceptance in hand.</p>
<p>It sounds like it may be hard for you to balance the finances vs the academic and collegiate opportunity. It will be easier after a year away at college. So keep those options open. You don’t need to decide until a month after your acceptance arrives.</p>
<p>“Some” loans is not a terrible thing. But it shouldn’t exceed (and preferably would be less than) $22k over four years - that’s what the government thinks is the maximum students should have to afford (and hence offer it through subsidized Staffords). </p>
<p>When I interview candidates for jobs, I spend about 20-30 seconds on where folks got their undergraduate degrees. The rest is - “what can you do for us?” (Though out here, a BYU degree is worth far more - in networking capacity - than a Cornell one - either Cornell University or Cornell College.) </p>
<p>See how it goes…by December, this may be a non-issue.</p>
<p>My son just went through this process. We thought for sure that he would get into at least one ivy, but the best he got was a transfer otion to Cornell. He decided to “hold his nose and do his time” at our third tier state U and then transfer to Cornell. He had other good options…CMU, Rochester, Brandeis, RPI, but he wanted to hold out for Cornell and state U would give him the chance to play his D1 sport and save us almost 40K since there is no FA in the picture. He got a 4.0 and put in his mini app, but in the end, he could not justify the price differential between the two schools. Although it was tough on his ego (and our’s) he felt he would get a decent education right where he was. He has set his mind to graduate in just two more years and hopefully get into a more prestigious grad school. He did mention the other day, however, that he will still have eligibility left and could do grad work at state U and play another year.</p>
<p>Definitely keep your options open and see how things go. The best thing you can do is get excellent grades and take full advantage of what your school offers. Then you will be in a position to make a fully informed decision when the time comes. (You might even choose to transfer somewhere other than Cornell, for that matter.) </p>
<p>Yes, the Cornell name can help you, but your good state college name won’t hurt you. Cornell is a great school, and the particular major you are interested in might make it even more so for you, BUT–and that’s a big but–no school is, IMHO, worth saddling oneself with significantly burdensome debt. (Unless you have a trust that is going to kick in when you are 21 or 22 and make it easy to pay it off. 
) Ten thousand or so of debt is one thing, sixty thousand is another, especially if you are planning on professional school or grad school. (Not ALL good grad programs in every field pay for every year.)</p>