<p>Just to clarify, it wouldn’t be $80k in debt. That’s the total cost, but only $20-40 of that would end up having to be loans. Most likely split somewhat evenly between me and my parents. And there were (are) schools between Yale and Delaware in terms of quality and STICKER PRICE. (Maryland, Case Western, and UNC, for example) But Yale’s financial aid offer was better than all of those schools, even after scholarships. So its really just between UDel and Yale and (maybe) Brown at this point.</p>
<p>Yale or Brown – I agree with Hunt. If all else is equal by way of fit and feel, then Yale; if Brown seems a better fit, then go there and don’t look back. The amount of money in question seems insufficient to favor Delaware, here (which is, nevertheless, a terrific school). You may come across other scholarships for attending Yale, as well (and perhaps a bit less likely, for Brown). Your resulting summer jobs might also pay well.</p>
<p>You only go to college once. Where would you regret not going? It’s really up to you. You could always work while you’re in school to help keep the costs down. If you absolutely love brown then you should go, in my opinion.
If it were me, I think I’d go to Delaware. A full ride is fantastic especially if you’re going to grad school. The prestige of a school doesn’t mean much in my opinion. I think that just because the school is an Ivy doesn’t mean that the education is better than any other university. You could still get a great education and learn a lot at Delaware.</p>
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<p>Not entirely true. Highly selective schools will sometimes sweeten their finaid offer if you can show that a peer school, say another Ivy, is offering more based on the same EFC. But I doubt they would consider Delaware to be a rival or peer school. </p>
<p>After you get the other offers this Friday you might be in a position to, if not outright haggle, at least raise issue with Yale and see if they’ll move in your favor. But by no means should you ever “make stuff up.”</p>
<p>I like Tarheel’s question- Where would you regret not going?</p>
<p>Total cost of $80K for Yale is a huge discount. And it sounds like you’d come out of it with max $20K in personal debt–less than many cars. What a deal!</p>
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<p>I just noticed this question. If you check with Delaware, they will be able to tell you where their students were admitted for grad school. My guess is that they have had students admitted at both Yale and Brown. I know students from Maryland and Pitt have been accepted to those schools for graduate work, so it would seem that Delaware would have the same track record.</p>
<p>I live in the general region of the University of Delaware, and it’s highly respected institution. I also know a friend of a friend with a degree from Harvard. The degree is a graduate degree. I don’t know where he did his undergraduate work, but he is an advocate of waiting until you pursue an advanced degree to attend the brand name colleges. When people ask him where he graduated from, he says Harvard. It’s just something to think about.</p>
<p>Have you decided yet? Please let us know when you do.</p>
<p>While Delaware is a fine school, I think for many graduate and professional programs, where you attended undergrad is a factor, and going to Yale or Brown is going to be a positive, assuming you do well–which you probably will.</p>
<p>I think looking at the salary level for your proposed career at age 18 is not the way to make the decision. Many, many undergraduates end up changing their majors at some point along the way.</p>
<p>Yale. </p>
<p>My brother received his undergrad degree from Yale. You would not believe the doors it will open for you for a very long time to come. UDel, not so much. You’ll have that 80,000 repaid many times over, and you will have an amazing experience. You need to visit, of course.</p>
<p>I plan to visit both Brown and Yale later this month and will not make a decision before then. But aside from academics, does anyone have a sense of what the difference in overall experience between the three schools would be? (I know this is probably really hard for just about everybody to answer.) I’m talking living conditions, peers, general atmosphere. Is this is an area where Yale and Brown might have an edge that is worth paying for? I’ll get a sense for myself when I visit (I’ve already visited Delaware for a few nights), but can anyone with more extensive experience with these schools offer anything?</p>
<p>One other question: Delaware’s major quantitative biology major is quite new. I believe only one (very small) class has graduated from it thus far. Is this something to be wary of? Or a good opportunity to get involved in program that is still receiving a lot of attention from the university’s administration? Or should is it more or less irrelevant?</p>
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<p>Hmmm, that implies that your parents do not have that much money and may have trouble paying off the loans.</p>
<p>If the loans end up being closer to $40k, that can be rather difficult to pay off on a biology graduate’s pay, especially since you are not interested in leveraging the Yale name into investment banking or management consulting. If you go to Yale, it would be better to approach computational biology from the computer science side (major in computer science and take courses in biology) rather than the biology side, in order to give your better backup options that will allow you to pay off the debt (including your parents’ debt).</p>
<p>It might be worth keeping in mind that a significant percentage of students change their minds about majors, careers, and pursuits while in college, including those anticipating a pathway in the hard sciences or medical school. Each individual needs to figure that out for himself, and a strong leaning in a given direction might counsel in favor of, say, a Delaware versus an Ivy where the relative costs are vastly different. Where the bill for a Yale or Brown is, instead, relatively modest, and given the world of opportunities and enlightenment that resides within those institutions, the calculus changes a bit.</p>
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I think those differences are quite significant, and (to me) are worth paying for, within reason. You will see this pretty clearly when you visit. In particular, Yale’s residential college system is about as good as it gets in terms of living conditions (in my opinion).</p>
<p>Well, Brown’s out (not enough financial aid). So now it’s a dilemma: Yale for 20k vs. Delaware for free</p>
<p>Congratulations, Clueless, what great choices! My older D graduated from Yale a few years ago. My younger D was offered the UDel distinguished scholar full ride last year, so we have done a lot of thinking about these schools. </p>
<p>I suggest that you do some serious thinking about the following: Do you think that you would do better if you were the big fish in the small pond, or would you do better in an environment where everyone was as intelligent and accomplished as you? </p>
<p>My older D loved Yale. She met interesting people and was involved in a wonderful acapella group. She traveled throughout the US and Europe with the group. The residential college system was lovely. But it was rather humbling for her when she quickly realized that she was no longer one of the smartest, most accomplished people in her grade (as she was, and I’m sure you are, in her high school). Some people thrive on the intellectual stimulation and don’t let themselves get intimidated by their amazing classmates, and they rise to the occasion. But others have a hard time knowing that there is always someone else who appears to know more. I suggest that you think about how you will handle that. </p>
<p>Also, in my experience, grad and professional schools are most interested in your gpa, the undergrad school appears to be secondary. In Yale, just about everyone there was at the very top of their high school class and there is no reason that you won’t do similarly well in college. But not everyone is able to do as well at Yale as they did in high school - half the students will graduate in the bottom half of the class. </p>
<p>Younger D is the type of person who does much better when she is the big fish in the small pond. We knew that an Ivy League school would not be for her. She ultimately decided not to go to UDel as she wanted to be closer to home and wanted a smaller school (she is in the Fordham honors program on a full tuition NMSF scholarship), but the U Del Distinguished Scholars program sounded great. It sounds like the Distinguished Scholars have a special advisor, get lots of mentoring, live in the honors dorm, get to go on winter break Honors study abroad trips and have opportunities to build close ties to professors.</p>
<p>I suggest that you seriously think about the money, research the departments (as suggested above), go to Bulldog Days and the accepted students day at UDel, and give some serious thought to which environment is most likely to work best for you. </p>
<p>I can’t advise you to go to one over the other, as I think that they are both great in different ways. You can’t go wrong with either one. I just wanted to bring up some points that I haven’t seen mentioned in prior posts.</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision!</p>
<p>Thanks hen4763. I really do think that will be a key part of the decision for me; I just wish I knew which I preferred! Its so hard to know without having experienced both environments</p>
<p>80k for a biology major is quite a bit. If you were thinking finance or something along those lines, I would say its a no-brainer. It really depends on whether or not your family can afford it. It’s hard to pass up Yale.</p>
<p>Hen is making some excellent points. You do need to consider them. I’m not sure what we would advise our daughter to do if she were in this position, because she wanted to go to Yale in the worst way. But on the other hand, being a big fish in a small pond has its perks, too.</p>
<p>Hunt said: “$80K in debt may or may not be daunting.”</p>
<p>For the top 10% maybe . . . (I know, I know, that means it’s possible for it NOT to be daunting)</p>
<p>lemme see . . . 80k paid back over 10 years at 6% interest is . . . $888 a month </p>
<p>that “tends to overwhelm or intimidate”</p>
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