Cornell with $200,000 of student loan debt is not an option; it should be viewed as a rejection.
Johns Hopkins University is among the best schools in the world and, although an intense experience academically for most, few perish in the process.
P.S. After re-reading your original post: I think that, as an undecided major, Villanova University Honors with a full tuition scholarship may be the most suitable option for you. (As an alternate for a full tuition scholarship, is Villanova assuring you of any substantial merit award ?)
P.P.S. Do not go to Villanova as a full pay student since you will need to take out an unconscionable amount in student loans.
Just read that you also have a full tuition scholarship at ASU. Please limit your options to those offering more than a 50% tuition scholarship.
If Cornell would cost $200K in debt, as per the OP’s assumption, then JHU will cost approximately $150K less (that is the value of the 2/3 tuition merit scholarship).
It is worth it to incur $50K of debt to attend JHU over ASU and perhaps even over Villanova.
You can’t afford Cornell. Even if you could take out that amount of debt, graduating with $200,000 or so in student loans would handcuff your life decisions for 20+ years after graduation. The large payments you would have to make to cover the payments of your undergraduate loans would interfere with every adult decision you make – it would mean you probably couldn’t take that amazing job at a start-up for less pay, get that new car, take a nice vacation, get the home you want etc.
JHU is a more reasonable option although I’m not sure that is even affordable. How much debt would JHU require on your part? And FWIW I don’t see JHU as being any more cutthroat than Cornell. My D has a friend who was very happy at JHU.
And when do you hear back from Villanova? That could be a good option if you get the full tuition scholarship.
Right now ASU might be the only affordable choice.
There are a handful of financial firms that will only hire from certain Ivies, other than those extraordinarily few (but high paying) firms, it’s not going to matter if you go to Cornell, JH, or Villanova. If you wanted that career, perhaps it would be worth the debt, but even then I don’t think so, and I’m not even sure how much hiring they’d do from Cornell as they prefer HYP. This isn’t what you’re interested in, so for you, this doesn’t matter. $200k is an insane amount of debt for undergrad.
My D’s friend is at JH right now. They have serious grade deflation, and the pre-med track is extraordinarily stressful. If you’re not on the premed track, though, the stress isn’t anywhere near as bad. She’s a different stem major and really enjoys her classes.
If you were to say that you definitely want to be a doctor, I’d say take the full ride at ASU. For med school GPA matters more than where you go, and you need to save every penny for med school.
OP, I’d recommend that you sit down with your parents and calculate the COA of each school at which you’ve been accepted. Yes, it will take some time, but since it’s going to be your debt, do yourself a favor and make sure you understand exactly what the debt will be.
Regarding “cutthroat environment”, that may be more of a factor in pre-med courses than the college (JHU may have that reputation because it has lots of pre-meds).
Looking at the financials…
Cornell list price = ~$78k per year ~= $312k => $200k debt (meaning that your parents can pay $112k)
JHU (2/3 off tuition) = ~$34-38k per year ~= $144k => $32k debt (a little more than the $27k limit before you need cosigned loans)
Villanova (without scholarship) = ~$72k per year ~= $288k => $176k debt
Villanova (full tuition scholarship) = ~$16k per year ~= $64k => no debt and $58k parent money left over
Arizona State (full tuition scholarship) = ~$21k per year ~= $84k => no debt and $28k parent money left over
If you have parent money left over from choosing a cheaper option, will they contribute it to your medical or other professional school costs (e.g. ~$400k for medical school) if you get in to such and go (or even the application costs; medical school application costs can be many thousands of dollars)?
Given the above, Cornell is pretty much out of the question. JHU would require stretching (some or all of: small cosigned or parent loan, living very frugally, choosing the cheapest off-campus housing, hoping that JHU costs do not go up too much over the next four years). You may or may not be comfortable with that.
If you do not want to go to JHU, then wait to see if Villanova gives you the full tuition scholarship. If that does not come by Arizona State’s deadline, matriculate to Arizona State. If it does come, then you can have a choice between Villanova and Arizona State (though you may lose the deposit at Arizona State if it comes after Arizona State’s deadline).
You might want to send a letter of continuing interest to Villanova admissions letting them know that the school is your top choice but would only be affordable if you get the full tuition scholarship.
The people that don’t know that JHU and Cornell are equivalent educational institutions also don’t know that Cornell is an Ivy League School. If you ask that person to name the 8 Ivy League schools they will respond with: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, and 3 random school names. You are just as likely to get Penn State as UPenn.
The payment on a 200k, 10 year loan, at 5% is $2,121/month.