How much debt is worth it?

BrownAlumParent
Sat, 21 Apr 2012 12:04:59 +0000

There is truly a Huge difference in “debt” vs money that has been planned for and set aside. As a potential business type student, of course you should realize this. Debt = eventually paying 200+ % with interest etc. Not to mention the burden on credit for future plans (grad school, owning a home etc.) If your parents have set a prudent example for you and this is allocated savings etc, and then with adding loans to that which are manageable, you can afford it, you should go to your “dream school” and go to Brown. The manageability of the debt depends on what you are doing in the future re earnings, whether you might enter a loan forgiveness program, or whether you anticipate further need (grad school etc.) If the parental plan is lots of loans now and they will be over their head, then Brown was an unreasonable option, and sorry you have to forgo that. (One curve ball in the loan equation is that some parents used paying up their mortgage as a way to “bank college funds” mistakenly thinking that would hide the assets from financial aid calculations, getting more aid and then taking a mortgage to pay the school. While remortgages are not as easy a way to get a cheap(er) loan these days, that I might not consider that as much in the equation if that was where they “socked away” the college fund. )