Paying for Ivy League?

juillet
Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:00:56 +0000

You’ll have more than $50,000 in debt. Even if your EFC is $35,000 a year, that will leave you with $60,000 to make up in your EFC - if it’s $38,000 a year, then that leaves you with $72,000. And that’s not including the loan component of your aid package. I believe most Ivies still have a loan component, which often requires you to take out the max in Stafford loans over your four years. That’s another $27,000 right there. Your debt could very well be over $90,000 after you graduate.

As to whether it’s “worth it,” that depends entirely on you, what you plan to do after graduation, and what is of value to you. All in all, if you are a driven, motivated, ambitious, and high-achieving student, where you go to school won’t really matter much in the long run. However, I graduated from college a year and a half ago (a mid-range college) and have seen the power that a name brand can have, too. It’s not that it doesn’t matter - I don’t think it matters as much as people think it does, but it does count for something. Like I said, I went to a mid-range college and I go to an Ivy League graduate school.

If you want to go to graduate or professional school your undergrad doesn’t really matter. If you want the freedom to pick any kind of job you want after graduation, and don’t want to worry about a $1,000 per month loan payment in your first 10 years after graduation (if you graduate with $90K, that’s how much it will be - even with $50K it’s almost $600/month), then it may be more worth it to go debt-free. If you want to work on Wall Street or some other kind of industry where the name recognition of your undergrad degree counts (there aren’t many - just the tippy top), then you might want to go for the debt. If you want feel a chill every time you remind yourself about where you go to school, and enjoy all the resources a bigger name school has to offer, then you might choose the debt.

I must say, I love my Ivy League graduate school and it would’ve been a dream to go here for undergrad. Not that I mind the way it worked out - I graduated with minimal debt because I was in the same dilemma as you, and I chose the scholarship from the mid-level school - it’s like #66 or so on the U.S. News ranking. Not bad at all, and I will definitely be able to pay off my debt in 5 years or less even if I get a mediocre-paying job.

The application season has barely begun. Apply first and apply widely - to your state school, to the dream Ivies, and to some schools in between where you may be able to get substantial merit aid. Look for colleges at which you are in the top 10-20% of their applicants and that give good merit scholarships. This is a decision that can more easily be made in April when you have all the facts in front of you, including aid packages.