I'm in a weird position.

juillet
Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:15:48 +0000

First of all, unless a miracle happens, for me Chicago would be out of the running. School is expensive and you have a lot of fantastic options that are willing to give you money, so I wouldn’t even worry about it. A lot of people are saying you should go ahead and shell out the $20,000/year to go to Chicago, but let me tell you…it’s totally different when you’re on the other side and you have $80,000 in loans to repay and you haven’t even started graduate school yet (should you plan to go), much less a house and a car note. You can be just as successful coming out of OSU or OWU as Chicago with $80,000 less debt – $80,000 is a LOT of money!

I mean, if that’s what you want to do, by all means do it and be happy. School is an investment in yourself and your future earning potential. But even if all of those were Stafford loans financed at 6.8% (which they won’t be – part of that will be at a higher rate) you’ll have to pay over $900 a month for the ten years (a typical repayment period is 10 years) after you graduate in order to pay it off, and you’ll pay over $30,000 in interest. Even if you get an incrementally larger salary for going to Chicago (of which there is no evidence, really) you’ll make up for the amount in what you pay back in student loans.

Even if you get a 30 year extended repayment, you’ll be paying around $520 every month and your interest will be nearly $30,000 MORE than the loan you took out in the first place. Remember, these prices are before you even factor in the rent, car note, monthly expenses, etc., of a 22-year-old adult. Or graduate school, if you choose to go.

Like I said, if that’s really what you want to do…by all means, do it! School is an investment and cost shouldn’t deter you. But you shouldn’t take on the extra debt simply because Chicago is a bigger-name school; you should consider the pros and cons of going with the knowledge in mind that you’re either going to be paying huge amounts every month (as much as my rent in Manhattan, btw) or you’ll be paying still-big amounts for a large portion of your life.

That all said, why wouldn’t you compete for the Maximus scholarship at OSU? You don’t have to tell Ohio Wesleyan whether or not you’re coming until April. You might as well compete for the scholarship and have the opportunity to compare full options in the spring.

Personally, I had the personal attention from professors during my undergrad and the huge libraries and resources for graduate school. My professors gave me the nurture and help that I needed to figure out what I wanted to do and helped me get into internships and graduate school. My school wasn’t big name, but I was ambitious and talented and I had help, so I got into top graduate schools in my field. If you’re ambitious and talented enough to get into Chicago, likely you’re ambitious and talented enough to do well at OSU or OWU and get a good job.