HUGE Post, but I really need help/advice

umcp11
Fri, 17 Aug 2007 09:49:03 +0000

cellardweller, you assume OP would even recieve significant financial aid. Many people attend Ivies taking out ~100K in debt. With 100K in debt you would not be able to afford MIT grad whether you were admitted or not. I would say this is true even for lower debt numbers, because you will have to take out even more loans for graduate school. The “experience” is not worth possible financial ruin. In addition, I would not bank on getting a 150K salary straight out of undergrad, whether it has anectodotally been the position of some people or not. Although my father did recieve such an offer as an aerospace engineer commuter graduate from UMCP, so that number has some merit. If you want to take that chance for almost purely the “experience” (since students bright enough to be admitted to such schools have virtually an equally good chance of getting into a prestigious grad school and recieving high paying job offers from any decent university), I suppose that is a personal - albeit risky, and imho unwise - decision.

And of course, if you are rich enough or recieve enough financial aid for it to be affordable, then it is worth it. But a lot of parents’ versions of “affordable” on CC sometimes disturbs me.