UD Honors vs. Bucknell?

K9Leader
Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:50:44 +0000

Is Bucknell more than 7X better than Delaware? Will you be 7X happier at Bucknell than you would be at Delaware? This is not a difference of $10K a year or even $20K a year – it is $39,000 a year, $156,000 over your four years.

Try to divorce yourself from the biases that we all have and that you have built up over the years – that a highly-selective private school will magically open the door for you to success and riches. You will still have to earn your success and it is much easier to pursue if you are not loaded with debt. We all have egos which allow us to fall prey to such biases. What would your decision be if when you graduated and were applying to med school or looking for a job you weren’t allowed to tell them what college your degree was from but had to demonstrate what you had learned?

Also, don’t get caught up in “gotta have this” fever. That is that when buying a product – a car, a house, a toaster oven, whatever – you have a list of features that you absolutely, positively must have. You’ll pay two or three (or seven?) times what the other models cost to have the one with exactly the feature you must have. I’ve fallen into that trap, and, you know what? About a third of the time, yeah, that feature is useful and I’m glad I got it. Then, a third of the time it’s okay, but it turns out I didn’t really need it or I just never use it and I didn’t really need to have paid extra for it. Guess what, about a third of the time, it makes the product worse and I wish I had one that wasn’t junked up with that useles gizmo . . . AND I PAID EXTRA FOR THE STUPID THING!

Many years ago I faced the decision of the very respected in-state public institution (considered one of the “public Ivies”) or an Ivy. My parents said the same thing as yours - they would sacrifice if that was what I really wanted. (Okay, William & Mary and U Penn . . .) I chose the in-state public and graduated with no debt and my parents with no debt and a few years later, they were able to help me with graduate school. They told me that, at the time they had no idea how they would have paid for the Ivy, and were very relieved when I made the choice I did.

Also, as someone who lives only a few miles from the U of D, I can understand the feeling of wanting to go a little further away. But the reality is that you live in Delaware and there isn’t a viable in-state further away option. Don’t let that one negative be the sole deciding factor in spending over $150,000 that you don’t have. If you don’t want to hang out with all of your high school classmates, then don’t. It’s a large campus and you don’t have to stick with the old gang. If you don’t want to run home every weekend, then don’t. You will find plenty to do on campus and nearby. Would it help if your parents told you that if you go to UD, they will consider it just as though you were going away to school in California and that you can’t come home until Christmas?

Would the decision be different if Bucknell had given you enough aid to make the bottom line cost to you at least within reasonable sight of the 6K UD will cost, say within $10K or $15? Maybe. But Bucknell gave you bupkus. While they want you, they’re not going out on a limb to get you. They aren’t offering you a big scholarship and flying you up to spend a weekend to convince you to choose Bucknell over HYPCSM, like they are to the ones they consider the top 1 or 2%, the ones whose free education at Bucknell your parents will be subsidizing by paying the full ticket price for you.

Would it be different if your parents were wealthy enough that the cost is no concern? Well, you wouldn’t be asking this question if that were the case. And, you are to be complimented for being insightful enough and considerate enough that you are concerned.

Now, this next point – don’t take it the wrong way. But, the 'big income because you will be a doctor so paying back $180,000" thing is a dangerous rationalization. There are a lot of pitfalls along that road. What if you hate it? What if you hate it but are stuck doing it because you have $180,000 in loans to pay back? What if you discover that what you really find rewarding is running a clinic in a small town or village in a remote part of the world (which includes some places in the U.S.)? What if our healthcare system collapses (a very real possibility) and being a doctor is not the surefire path to riches? What if your brother becomes a doctor before you and cures everything so we don’t really need many doctors anymore? (He would do that, the creep!) What if your destiny lies elsewhere?

Before summing up, a note of disclosure. My son chose that same respected public Ivy (that his mother and I went to, except he’s out of state so we’re paying out-of-state tuition) over in-state UD. The price difference isn’t as great as yours – he didn’t get as much merit aid from UD as you did and the out-of-state tuition is still significantly less than Bucknell. But the bottom line difference is close to $20K per year. UD had all the same negatives for him as it does for you. But, all of the points made above were genuinely considered in the decision, and we are fortunate that we can do it without incurring any debt on ourselves and he will graduate with less than $20K total debt, which we expect we can pay off or help him pay off when he graduates. But, he knows that he will be on his own for graduate school – at this point either journalism or anthopology or maybe anthropological journalism (or is it journalistic anthropology and who’s got the best grad school for that?). (And, yes, that he got accepted and wanted to attend his parents’ alma mater made it easier to concur with the decision.)

My daughter is a HS junior and going through the process now and has the same reservations about UD. However, UD is actually a better fit for her than it was for my son – she is more outgoing and gregarious and will fit in better in a larger school, it is very strong in the two very different program areas she is interested in studying, and it has many, many other programs to offer if her interests change or evolve. So far, we have visited 8 or 9 schools and she has found one she likes (seven hours away) with 8 - 10 more to visit before application time. I’d say that it is even odds on UD or somewhere else, as long as the difference is significantly less than $39,000 per year.

Final disclaimer - I think Bucknell is a fine school - one of my closest friends (wife’s cousin) went there for two degrees. Beautiful campus, a thriving learning community that can inspire greatness. You would get an excellent education for $45,000 per year.

However, UD is an equally fine school. Nice campus – not quite as nice as Bucknell (or William & Mary or Princeton or fill-in-the-blank), but really very nice. Thriving learning community, great research opportunities. You would get an excellent education for $6,000 per year.

Good luck with whatever you decide. Isn’t it great to be in the position that you have this decision to make?

–K9Leader