Ivy undergrad education worth debt?

cronie
Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:43:23 +0000

To the original OP:
You said that the debt would be no more than 20-50k, and that your mom would probably take on more debt than she should in order for you to attend your dream school. It seems to me that if you could take on half of the debt yourself and pay her back 20k over time, if the total is say, 40k, that it might make it possible. You will have taken on a reasonable amount of debt, and so would your mom.
My D graduated from Yale. We are still paying on the loan, as we paid full price for her to go. It was worth every penny to us.
If you are thinking of majoring in English and possibly getting a PhD at some point in this field, it’s my belief that there is no better undergraduate school to have come from than Yale. You mentioned double majoring. I’d be cautious about this. While it’s possible to do, you’ll want to get a high gpa, graduate with honors, and receive sterling letters of recommendation. If you spread yourself too thin, it will be harder to achieve these things. Just like in high school, the best letters of rec go to the most dedicated and motivated students, and these letters are what will make or break a grad school application.
The world is becoming more competitive, and credentials, degrees and contacts will become more valuable throughout your lifetime. If you can swing
a degree with honors from Yale that you can carry with you for the rest of your life for 50k, it’s a bargain, imo.