Willamette v. UNC Chapel Hill

cferro00
Sun, 31 Mar 2013 22:22:05 +0000

So to preface this, I live in North Carolina, roughly 100 miles from UNC Chapel Hill and 2,800 from Willamette. The vast majority of my family has attended Chapel Hill and loved it, but I’m still sort of uncertain about going there. I sort of have my heart set on Willamette.

Everything I’ve heard about Willamette just makes me want to go there. It’s small and the campus is really pretty and everyone seems really academic-minded…it’s not like a big sports school like chapel hill, class sizes are small and just everything about it is so perfect.

I know that UNC is a great school, but it’s so close and there are like 20,000 people who go there and I’m not big on the whole athletics emphasis/huge amount of school spirit either. I don’t know, basically I just don’t feel as much of a connection to UNC.

However, if I chose to attend Willamette I would graduate with a significantly greater amount of debt, plus traveling home would cost a fortune…I’ve attached both financial aid offers at the bottom… any insights? I don’t know if it would be possible to ask for more aid from Willamette, but if anyone has an idea for some way to get additional aid, I would be very grateful. I would also be very appreciative of a third-party’s opinion as far as which school I should choose. Thanks.

Willamette Financial Aid Offer:

Academic Leadership Award 21,000.00
Federal Pell Grant 5,645.00
Federal SEOG (Grant) 4,000.00
Federal Direct Subsidized Loan 3,500.00
Willamette University Grant 1,600.00
Federal Perkins Loan 1,000.00
Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan 2,000.00
All Awards $41,245.00

The total estimated cost of attendance for 2013-14, which includes tuition and fees, room and board, is $52,684.00.
If you accept your entire financial aid offer and live on campus, the remainder of total costs, for which you are responsible, is approximately $13,939.00.

($13,939 per year plus $6,500/year in loans)

UNC Chapel Hill Financial Aid Offer:

Estimated Pell Grant
5,645.00
Est Direct Subsidized Ln
3,500.00
Est Fed Work-Study
2,700.00
Est. Institutional Grant
11,571.00

Academic Year Totals: 23,416.00

(Responsible for nothing other than the $3,500 loan/year and the work-study program)