Help Me decide a college!! --Vanderbilt, Rhodes, UMiami??

Congratulations on your acceptances. This is a difficult choice.

For Federal Direct Student Loans undergrads can only take out $27K in total over the 4 years ($5.5K the first year, then $6.5/$7.5/$7.5). Some schools do offer institutional loans above that. After that, your parents would need to take out the loans, or co-sign private loans for you…those payments would be on them.

Run some financial scenarios here: https://mappingyourfuture.org/paying/standardcalculator.cfm

$40K in loans at 5% would be $424/month in payments for 10 years. Probably not life altering, but not insignificant. Then add in your expected master’s degree debt (how much do you estimate?), and things might look less rosy.

Play around with salary numbers required to service that debt here: https://mappingyourfuture.org/paying/debtwizard/

I am not sure $70K is a reasonable starting salary for a school psychologist with a master’s degree. Check placement results for each of the schools, and email the career centers if necessary to gain more clarity. That $70K might only be an achievable starting salary in a high cost of living area (e.g., NYC, San Fran), whereas $50K or $60K in a more moderate COL area might actually be preferable.

Consider going to Rhodes or Miami for undergrad, then Vandy (or similar) for grad school. Also consider working during the school year and summers to lessen the debt burden.

Fundamentally, only you and your parents can determine how much debt is tolerable, but the lower the better, especially heading into a period of economic uncertainty in this country.