<p>“What may be going on is that the OP’s parents are simply unwilling to cover the Expected Family Contribution. Or maybe they have high expenses that Penn won’t factor into their determination of need. In either case, it seems to me, the student can’t afford to attend this school.”</p>
<p>That’s it, in a nutshell.</p>
<p>If OP turns down admission offer because of FA, don’t other schools learn what was unacceptable to him?</p>
<p>If OP turns down admission offer because of FA, don’t other schools learn what was unacceptable to him?</p>
<p>How would any other school “learn” what was “unacceptable” to this student???</p>
<p>Penn reporting data to common app.</p>
<p>Penn does not report someone’s FA offer to anyone else. Schools don’t report their FA offers …FA offers are private.</p>
<p>Can you appeal the FA offer you were given? I was accepted ED, did not receive enough money, appealed, and they increased the offer by nearly 10,000$. You can make it more affordable!</p>
<p>
What’s annoying is this kind of vapid nonsense and misinformation.</p>
<p>Penn happens to have what is universally ranked as one of the top 10 Engish departments in the country, if not top 5. It also has almost 400 English majors at any given time. It also has the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing and the Kelly Writers House, two nationally known, highly regarded, and unparalleled resources for writers of all kinds. It also has numerous other resources for English and other liberal arts majors, including numerous top-10 and top-20 liberal arts departments, phenomenal research opportunites, programs in Washington and other places, internships, and recruiting and career counselling.</p>
<p>The statement that “Penn is an annoyingly vocational place for arts & sciences,” reveals utter ignorance of what Penn–and it’s College of Arts and Sciences–currently has to offer. I don’t know what your personal experience at Penn may have been in the 1970s (I just checked your profile :)), but it sounds like you need to reacquaint yourself with our alma mater. ;)</p>
<p>It’s probably the prominence of Wharton that creates this reputation that Penn most definitely has.</p>
<p>Not worth it. Think about graduate school if you’re going.That’s also going to cost a lot.</p>
<p>
No doubt, but the well-informed are aware that Penn’s College of Arts and Sciences is quite comparable to the top LACs, other non-HYP Ivies, and other top universities in terms of academic quality and reputation.</p>
<p>They offered another 1700$ on my appeal so my debt without considering outside scholarships or jobs would be 82k with some as federal and other as a co-signed loan. I am also considering switching my 2nd major to Econ as opposed to IR because it seems more lucrative coming out of the CAS.</p>
<p>$82,000 is still a lot of debt at graduation, and if you are switching major to economics only because of the job prospects and not because you genuinely like the subject, that may not produce a good result (note that economics requires more math and statistics than most social studies subjects).</p>
<p>Bubbles, it would be interesting to know if the majority of those at Penn who graduated in Finance and landed a job at some of the top firms had incredible connections via their “rich” and very “connected” parents. After all, the old axiom “it’s who you know, not what you know” is how most people land jobs (admittedly, an Ivy, Stanford, USC, etc… does provide those great connections as well). Just asking…</p>
<p>UCB, dead on. That being said, $82,000 may not seem like a lot to children of privilege…</p>
<p>Go to a decent school, attain a 4.0, get into a top business school for graduate school and you’re set for life. 90k richer and you’ll probably be much happier. UPenn will grind your brain to bits and if you’re not up for it, you’ll fail out. Take the 4.0 from a state school and apply to UPenn for graduate please.</p>
<p>So, why aren’t your parents paying for any of that?</p>
<p>What about earnings from summer jobs? Would that reduce your debt?</p>
<p>[Estimating</a> the Payoff to Attending a More Selective College: An Application of Selection on Observables and Unobservables](<a href=“http://www.nber.org/papers/w7322]Estimating”>Estimating the Payoff to Attending a More Selective College: An Application of Selection on Observables and Unobservables | NBER)</p>
<p>“We find that students who attended more selective colleges do not earn more than other students who were accepted and rejected by comparable schools but attended less selective colleges.”</p>
<p>Unless you’re, like, poor and/or URM or something.</p>
<p>Those studies are statistical and do not account for smart people “trying” to earn a lot of money. Many bright eyed and bushy tailed students don’t have a clue and are embarrassed to seek out money. I’m the parent of two of them. </p>
<p>There is a lot of good advice here. Statistically, you are probably better off asking Penn for a release and attending somewhere you can go with less debt. I’m just not as sure about it as some people, because I’ve outlined a scenario where it is worth it. The thing is, you are not a statistic, you are YOU. </p>
<p>If you want to explore deeper you must ask yourself what the alternatives are, and what are the range of outcomes that you can expect at those places. You must ask yourself that if you did borrow $82K, and through the advice of the career center pursued investment banking or consulting or some other lucrative direction where UPenn would give you an opportunity that you couldn’t get at a school that just had merit aid, would you be successful. Your upside is huge, but so is your downside. That’s what risk is. </p>
<p>It’s your life, and only you can live it.</p>
<p>*You must ask yourself that if you did borrow $82K, and through the advice of the career center pursued investment banking or consulting or some other lucrative direction where UPenn would give you an opportunity that you couldn’t get at a school that just had merit aid, would you be successful. Your upside is huge, but so is your downside. That’s what risk is. *</p>
<p>But it’s really not reasonable to expect an 18 year old to really discern the risks. It’s too much for someone that age with little money and debt experience. This student is now considering a totally different career just to hope that he can earn more dough to pay the loans off. The single-focused goal here is attending an ivy at any cost, even one’s choice of career.</p>
<p>The dream is one’s future life, not one’s undergrad.</p>