How much debt is Berkeley worth to you?

mockingjay451
Sun, 27 Mar 2011 17:33:07 +0000

I was accepted into Berkeley as an Electrical Engineer, with my financial aid panning out thus: $20k in gift aid, $10k in subsidized loans, $20k in personal loans. On the other hand, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has given me $40k per year in gift aid with $8k per year in subsidized loans.

Is Berkeley worth this amount of debt? From my thread in the UIUC forum (http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-illinois-urbana-champaign/1110070-did-i-make-right-choice.html):



Lately, I have been talking quite a bit about “experiences.” Life isn’t worth it unless you experience what it has to offer and take opportunities when they come to you. Berkeley would certainly qualify as one of these “experiences,” but, yep.

UIUC would be the most cost-effective option without a doubt, but I live in Wisconsin and going down to Illinois seems like it would be more of a continuation of my Midwestern lifestyle than an entirely new experience. I know that only I can decide how much that experience means to me, but I do have a few questions that should be a bit more concrete.

A few years after college, how respected is Berkeley compared to UIUC? How much easier would it be to get into graduate school coming from Berkeley rather than UIUC? Are the Silicon Valley connections made in Berkeley worth more than the connections made at UIUC? And lastly, if I did attend Berkeley and incur $104k in loans by the end of my four years, how difficult would it be/how long would it take to pay off these loans, assuming a ~$75k job? I wouldn’t want to live like a despot just to attend Berkeley =(

Also, how I thought about it and how people are talking about it when I think about the loans is, “Dude, it’s mother******* Berkeley. Worry about the money later, you got into one of the best schools in the nation.” Going along with the question before this, is this mentality even close to rational?



To everyone else in a similar situation, how much is Berkeley worth to you?