Is Harvard worth 80k in debt?

slugparent
Sat, 14 Apr 2018 03:39:14 +0000

In my opinion, based just on this post: you should go to Georgia Tech, because you don’t really care enough about the Harvard experience for that to be worth $100,000 plus interest.

If you were saying, “I taught myself calculus when I was two, and I’m desperate to spend four years with a few other people like that,” I’d say, go sell a kidney and go to Harvard.

If you were saying that it was your life-long dream to write for the Harvard Lampoon, or you love Cambridge and hate the area around Georgia Tech, I’d say you should pick Harvard.

If you were saying that you love reading about philosophy, and you were dying to study it with other students who take philosophy seriously, I’d say go to Harvard.

But it sounds as if you’re a normal bright kid with mainstream interests who just wants to go to a good school and go to professional school someday, not a prodigy with niche interests who’s desperate to be among your rare kind for a few years.

If my understanding is correct, and you’re a normal bright person who wants good classes and a good life, it sounds as if Georgia Tech would meet your real needs at a much lower cost. If you went to Harvard, you’d be going there because of its reputation for outsiders, not because something special about Harvard would fill a gnawing gap in your soul.

Given how cheap Georgia Tech would be for you, one simple way to scratch your Harvard itch would be to take summer classes at Harvard this summer or next summer. That way, you’d get the fun of spending some time at Harvard without accumulating $100,00 in debt.