Paying for Ivy League?

Froebel32
Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:34:34 +0000

I’m in sort of a sticky situation. My parents made the decision early on that the most they would pay per year for my college education was 20k. Obviously, that is only a fraction of the cost that an Ivy League education costs. We did a preread and our EFC was right around 35-38k.

Now, my parents are trying to get me to go to our state school, which is average at best, by offering to buy me a car and pay for off-campus housing as an upperclassman.

I guess I have two questions:

Is it worth it to graduate in debt (around 50k) from an Ivy over graduating debt free from an average school?

And does anyone know of any scholarships that someone with good stats can qualify for? I have a lot of leadership, academic, and athletic accomplishments that I feel should qualify me for some sort of scholarship. I realize it is vague to say ‘good stats’ so if you need more info, feel free to ask.

I’ve heard some buzz about Ivy league offering alumni scholarships that are merit scolarships but aren’t directly from the school, so they are still legit… any truth to that?