Passing up the opportunity to go to a great and well regarded university may make sense if you are knowingly preparing for a “low” paying career. I assume that’s not the cae. With a bit of care and frugality you’ll be able to pay off your loan in a few years. My advise is don’t overthink the situation. Grab this once in a lifetime opportunity and go to Vanderbilt. You’ll regret doing otherwise.
Well put fogcity!
I don’t think $40K is that bad given your choices.
You’ll be able to say “We’re not in Kansas anymore!”
Vanderbilt is a fine educational institution. But I truly do not understand why so many of the otherwise smart grownups whose opinions I have come to respect over the years here are recommending that this student and family scrimp and borrow extra money for a Vanderbilt degree. This student will have to find co-signers (or the parents will have to take out PLUS loans). The budget even before those loans will be stretched to the maximum. That means only the cheapest spring break trips, the cheapest semester abroad, skipping the pizza/movie/theater/etc. that the friends whose budgets aren’t overstretched are enjoying. After graduation, those loans will decide where the first job is, and how the recent graduate lives.
Back in the last century, I graduated from college with the equivalent of the full load of federal loans. Fortunately for my parents, they didn’t need to borrow, but there wasn’t a lot of spare change for fun stuff. While in college I was fortunate to have a bunch of broke-on-scholarship friends who were as poor (or even poorer) than I was and we lived as well as we could within our means, but we spent every college break mooching off each other’s nearby relatives, and getting a Coke from the machine in the dorm was a rare treat. We rarely got off campus because of the cost involved. After graduation there were opportunities that we could not take advantage of because we needed jobs right away, and those loans were like nooses around our necks.
I have to concur with happymom here. The OP has expressed his situation quite clearly, and how the realities of attending Vanderbilt today will provide much more acute stresses upon him than what was once only an inchoate dream. I too am a bit chafed that, just because Vanderbilt is a highly ranked institution with some fine offerings, some here seem to be dismissing the difficult reality of the additional expense this Vanderbilt path could pose. While other students on the forum may be paying exorbitant amounts to attend top schools, $20 or $40k extra doesn’t automatically transform into a bargain for this particular case.
I also graduated college last century, and while I did have the opportunity to attend some prestigious privates with a hefty premium attached (and could have done with more stress or loans), I deliberately chose a relatively inexpensive public honors program, and was able to graduate without any debt. I could also then pursue opportunities after college that engaged me. The range of students and respective family incomes in college was something I appreciated; therefore I felt fairly comfortable and supported, even though I knew some of my friends from home were having a different college experience.
You say that you’ve always dreamed of going to Vanderbilt. Then you give a list of reasons why you’re having second thoughts: too expensive, too difficult, too far from home.
It sounds as though your dreams have changed.
And that’s OK. Just as you no longer want to be the astronaut-ballplayer-baker you were sure of when you were 6, you’re allowed to redefine your idea of the perfect college for this older version of you.
Consider the other schools on your list.
I agree with @happymomof1 and @anhydrite. I think CC posters frequently council students not to take on more than the federal student loans ($27k total) unless they’re gunning for Wall St. If you’re not funding that extra $20k, you need to be really careful about encouraging families to take on that kind of debt. That amount may not mean much to you, and you may consider the prestige of Vandy to be worth the struggle, but you’re not the one paying or doing the struggling.
For an additional 20k, Vanderbilt is much better than KU. That 20k difference could easily be made up from summer jobs, work study, living off campus, and possibly even paid internships. If your relatively sure that business is going to be your field of major, then go with Vandy.
The 20k difference will go a very very long way trust me. I would go to VANDERBILT and never look back.
I may misunderstand the situation but this is what I gathered:
Vanderbilt costs 21K. The family, stretching, can pay 11k. 10K are left. They don’t need to be all loans - $5,500 in federal loans, working part time till the end of school and full time over the summer (unless OP’s needed on the farm or there are no jobs around) which could net between $2,500 to 4,000, a work study job during the year, and the difference’s covered.
The federal loans may have been packaged, or the 10k may be stafford + perkins, that’s why I asked OP in a previous post about the exact package/if federal loans were packaged already (I don’t think Vanderbilt packages loans, they’re supposed to be all grant/work study, so the 21K should be BEFORE any loans).
Because of the math - not because of rules of thumb.
In the context of a long and productive life, a 40+ year professional career with earnings likely exceeding 3 million dollars, the extra opportunities to meet and study with a diverse group of students from all over the world at a prestigious institution is probably worth the potential hit to one’s postgraduate lifestyle that this amount of debt will cause. It’s really not THAT much money.
A 40K loan at 6.8% amortized over 20 years is $305/month.
Now double the amount, and I might start to agree, but at some point it’s a value judgement.
A premium education is worth some premium.
Vanderbilt has offered $40,466 in a need-based grant. The estimated cost for the 15-16 academic year is $65,118 for tuition, housing, etc. (plus some additional travel expense fees). I can probably come up with $2,500 in work-study leaving a $22,152/year. My family can (hopefully) contribute $10,000/year and I hope to receive some additional scholarship money, so I’d try to get by on borrowing $10,000 per year to attend Vandy. That’s how I’m coming up with graduating in 4 years with $40,000 in debt.
KU has offered $5,000/yr FAS Scholarship for my 34 on the ACT, plus another $4,750/yr KU Opportunity Grant. Estimated cost to attend KU is $23,516 (tuition, housing, etc.) leaving $13,766 to come up with on my own. I should be able to get by taking out $5,000 or less per year to attend KU.
I’m so confused. My college choice is changing by the hour. Mostly going back and forth between KU/Vandy.
cluelessinKS -
It looks like Vandy has decided that your family EFC is in the $24,000 range. Do I understand that correctly? Does your aid package include work study, or is that your own estimate? Vandy would have to assign you work study money, you can’t just ask for it. Did Vandy package the federal loans as part of the aid, or are you able to apply them to the EFC? Please ask Vandy how they treat outside scholarships. At most places those are considered to reduce your need, and will reduce any need-based aid. In other words, any outside scholarships might not do you any good.
You can only borrow the student loans on your own, so you need to ask your parents NOW if they will co-sign loans or borrow PLUS loans for each year you would be at Vandy. This is a good question to address with their potential loan sources. Sometimes parents qualify for loans the first year, but can’t qualify again in future years. You also need to verify NOW that they can and will contribute $10k each year. Find out where that money will come from. Is it already saved up for you, or will your parents need to tighten their budget in order to have it for you? If the breadwinner’s job vanishes, will you be able to complete your education on time?
If there are any other kids in your family, talk with your parents about how your choice of college can affect theirs. For example, if your parents borrow money for you to go to Vandy, will they still be able to borrow money for the other kids when their turns come?
There are some really smart folks who post in the Financial Aid Forum. If you can share the details of your aid packages there, they will be able to help you evaluate the numbers.
I’m from the midwest, and I know that KU and KSU are perfectly fine places to study if it turns out that the money keeps you out of Vandy. If you have what it takes to get admitted to Vandy, you can be successful wherever it is that you end up this fall.
I’d choose Vandy. And, yes, everyone, I get it that $40,000 in student loans is not a small number. And if its not financially possible to pull this off, then it isn’t.
But.
I wonder if there’s something more at play here…that is, the apprehension over the unknown…moving away from the midwest…being surrounded by very bright kids…I think you would do superbly there…but you wouldn’t be the first person to focus on one issue when sometimes the issue is something else…
Vandy doesn’t package loans. If you weren’t offered work-study, considering the size of your grant/scholarship, email financial aid and ask.
SO, it’s $10,000, -$5,500 = $4,500. With $2,500 work study if you got it, you’re left with $2,000 to find. If you work this summer, you should earn that. Voila, Vanderbilt is affordable.
Of course I hope you appealed to get a little more, since I’m guessing you’re “asset rich, cash poor” as many farmers are, and I doubt selling an acre of land would do you any good. If the problem is about $2 to 3,000, I think Vanderbilt can reasonably review their assessment. Maybe it won’t do any good, but you can try.
Congratulations on that 34… you did better than 99% American students, including those with super expensive prep tutors! 
Vandy didn’t package any loans. They did offer the $2,500 work study. My parents are willing to co-sign, take out PLUS loans or whatever it takes if I really want to attend Vanderbilt. I only have one sibling and he is 12 years old, so not sure how that will affect the student aid offers. That you @happymomof1 for the advice on the Financial Aid Forum. I’ll check into it. Thank you @MYOS1634 for the compliment on the ACT score 
And yes @SouthernHope there are some other concerns about Vandy aside from the financial aspects. I am concerned that having been in a high school that doesn’t offer challenging courses, so I worry I may not be prepared for Vanderbilt. Now that it’s time to decide, I am also a little hesitant to be 9 hours from home. I can sum it up like this - I will be so excited to go to Vanderbilt, but yet very nervous! I will not be particularly excited to attend KU, but I will also won’t be nervous.
So, you’re $4,500 off for Vanderbilt.
Is there any way you can work? Even though you couldn’t earn $4,500, you could earn $2,500 to $3,000, and what’s left would be a very small loan.
cptofthehouse and others have written here about the effects of parents taking on a lot of debt for kid#1 on the college options for kids #2, #3, etc. Sometimes kid#2 doesn’t mind at all and is happy with chasing a cheaper school, but sometimes this creates life-time resentments for kid#2. In almost every case, the parents have long-term feelings of guilt about short-changing kid #2. Since I don’t know your family’s details, I have no way of knowing how tight your college bills are going to make your family’s budget, whether paying off parent loans would be a big challenge for your parents, or if sending you to X would mean that your family would think it necessary to make the equivalent of X possible for your sibling six years from now and if that would make other aspects of your parents’ lives overly difficult. But this is something that you should explore with your parents, and possibly with your sibling.
As for whether or not you can handle Vanderbilt: The admissions office staff doesn’t get paid to make admissions mistakes. If they think you can do the work, you can. The adaptation period might be a bigger challenge there than at KU, but know that you are fully capable of handling it. That is the least of your concerns.
The distance may be a much bigger issue. Nine hours by car, am I correct? That is almost certainly farther than your parents would want you to drive solo, so that means two round trips for one of them at every major holiday or break, unless you can get another kind of transportation for at least part of the way. If you are close enough to Kansas City to fly in and out of there, you might be able to cut down on the total travel time, and at least your folks wouldn’t have to do so much driving.
The OP is ruminating about College choices, yet have not made a decision about what he wants to do career-wise. This, IMHO, is putting the cart before the horse. I cringed everytime I have heard a High School Senior say that they are unsure of what their major will be in College. Now we know why the 4-year College graduation rate is so dismal and student loan debt has skyrocketed over the past 20 years.
Predicting 4-year Student Loan Debt without knowing your what your College Major will be in 3 - 4 months, is asking for trouble. You don’t want to make a decision at the start of your Junior Year and realize that 30+ of your completed College Credits are useless and that you will have to spend another 1 - 2 years completing your degree. Your first priority now should be to settle on a major and let that drive your college choice. Oh, make sure that choice is something that will lead to gainful employment and/or a rewarding career. You do not want to be a jobless Vanderbilt graduate living at home with your parents, who are now saddled with $40K (or more) of student loan debt. If you think I’m joking, research how many graduates of Top 10 Universities that are unemployed or waiting tables at your local restaurant! Kids these days are too focused on selecting the “right” College without giving much thought to the ultimate career choice and are now taking 5 or more years to graduate from College with huge student loan debt and no prospect of a “good” paying job on the horizon.