So I would be in-state UC Berkeley (Letters & Sciences) and graduate with no debt or attend Brown (3500 per year sub Stafford loans and 500 unsub Stafford loans).
I would prefer Brown because I’m very attracted to the open curriculum and their applied math concentration is highly thought of. I would also prefer to be out of state and at a smaller school with a less competitive atmosphere.
However, I am thinking graduate school or maybe even medical school could be in my future.
So would ~16000 dollars in total loans be very detrimental for my future plans? Would this be a regrettable decision in 5 years?
No, if you prefer brown and all it would take in loans over 4 years is 16000 I don’t think it would be detrimental. You could probably pay off most of them by working through the summers.
Also figure in all the travel expenses – could be $10k or more, depending on how often you go home or your family comes to you.
If you can still handle it if it costs, say, $25k more over four years, then yes, choose purely based on fit and ignore the $$.
If not, give the financial edge to Berkeley and then start fairly comparing them.