<p>My father is an immigrant (from a very poor region in Morocco) and believes very fervently in the idea of the American Dream and the importance of higher education. My father likes to think that if I get into Boston College/Boston University/etc but get little financial aid, I should still attend. He said that he will take out the loans in his name (not sure if this is possible but he thinks so) so that I won’t have to deal with the debt. His whole thing is “I’ve already lived my life, you have yet to even begin, I don’t want to burden you from the very start.”</p>
<p>However, my mother is a first generation Irish-American who came from a household where people tended to rely only on themselves. My mother has held a steady job from the age of 15 and for the better part of her life has never needed to rely on anyone else to support her - she believes firmly in independence and fending for yourself. She gets really, really upset at the idea of her and my father taking out loans to send me to college. She thinks that if college proves to be too expensive, then I should go to the Community College route.</p>
<p>…my Father nearly has a stroke every time he thinks of me attending Community College.To him, my only concern right now should be my grades. Money is not an issue, according to him… </p>
<p>I don’t know what to think. I think it selfish to burden my parents with what would be over 100,000 dollars in debt but at the same time, with the difficulty of transfer admissions, if I go to community college, I’ll have to end up transferring to our public state school (the lower tier one) and that’s going to make Law School admissions near impossible if I hope to go to a t14 law school… and the law school you go to determines the career opportunities and pay available to you… its a domino effect. </p>
<p>Thoughts? Personal experiences?</p>
<p>How good are your test scores and grades like?</p>
<p>Believe it or not, if you have a lower-income, then often top/elite schools will give better financial aid than your public state school or even community college.</p>
<p>2100 SAT w/ 3.75 UW GPA, 5’s on all of my AP Exams (APUSH, AP World, AP Environmental, AP English Language and Composition).</p>
<p>Our household income (for a family of 4) is roughly 100,000 (slightly more this year because my father received a raise/promotion.)</p>
<p>you’re a strong applicant. You may be able to get considerable merit aid, and possibly need based aid.</p>
<p>Suggest you apply widely (check out schools with both good merit and need based aid) rather than sticking to BC/BU alone. Then when you have several acceptances in hand, crunch the numbers. </p>
<p>Your state flagship may be a good choice too. Pre-law at a state flagship with great grades and internships will get you into a very good law school.</p>
<p>If you are planning on law school, it is a good idea to minimize undergraduate debt. Maybe make both parents happy and minimize debt in undergrad, and tell your father he can help with law school.</p>
<p>@2prepMom - BC/BU/NEU are my top choices - I am applying to lower tiered schools as well and when I calculated Net Price for schools like Simmons and Suffolk, I was given a price tag of roughly 3k a year which is literally 1/10th of my calculated net price for BC and BU.</p>
<p>If I were to attend UMass Amherst (our state’s flagship) and maintain excellent grades and internships as you said, would it be possible for me to potentially attend a t-14 Law School? (Yale or Harvard, for instance?) I’m just worried that I’ll be resigned to attending Suffolk Law School or a similarly low ranked Law School which will severely hurt my chances of landing a job since the field is so competitive as is.</p>