<p>I am aware that you shouldnt apply ED if you have any financial concerns, but when we first talked to Lehigh they said tuition would probably be reduced to 28k for fin aid. Upon acceptance, I only recieved 1500 plus 3000 in stafford loans.<br>
After talking to the office of admissions, I was rewarded the Dean’s $10,000 scholarship. My admissions officer gave me the advice to take out 15,000 a year in loans… so onto my question:
Is attending Lehigh worth graduating with 60K in debt?</p>
<p>what is your intended area of study? what field do you plan to enter? are you planning to do grad school afterwards as well?</p>
<p>in general, regardless of the school you are talking about, i advise students not to take on ANY loans until they have explored ALL their options. since you are talking about lehigh ED, i would take the wait and see approach with your other applications and other financial aid packages.</p>
<p>My inteded area would be business adn I would like to go to grad school afterwards</p>
<p>any perspective would be great…</p>
<p>I would do more digging. What is the employment rate for Busn school grads? What grad schools do they get accepted at? What is the general reputation of the business school? (sorry, not following that major). You obviously really like the school or wouldn’t have applied ED. I think the advice above is good. Wait and see, if you are accepted to a school that will allow you to graduate with out any or very little loans then you can redirect to Lehigh for input. They do want you or they wouldn’t have admitted you. I think if you are sure that the investment will pay off long term, only then conisder taking on that amount of dept.</p>
<p>My daughter applied ED II and we are waiting to hear. I did a lot of digging before I signed the paper and here is what I discovered. You can back out of an ED decision (usually painlessly) if the school fails to get close to your demonstrated need. If they boast that on avarage they meet 95-97% of demonstrated need and then don’t do that for you, then it’s fair to say, “Sorry, no.” The ED agreement from Common App that I signed said it is binding unless there is a financial reason. </p>
<p>My guess is your EFC is higher than you or your family originally thought. There may be a ton of home equity Lehigh thinks your parents should tap into or money invested that you weren’t aware of. If your parents have it, the schools expect them to spend it. What you and your family can afford to pay (according to the University) and are willing to pay might be two very different things.</p>
<p>Has Lehigh officially nulled the binding ED agreement? It’s not based on what your parents are willing to pay but rather what they are expected to pay. If they haven’t officially let you back out of the signed ED agreement, your only option may be to take out the loans and attend the first year. If you find that it isn’t worth it during your freshman year, then consider transferring to a less expensive college.</p>
<p>This depends upon your qualifications & on your other options. To which other schools have you applied? If none, then you should honor your ED committment. A $10,000 merit scholarship is significant & suggests that your family did not qualify for financial aid. Lehigh may not have accepted you if you just applied RD. An ED acceptance is a binding contract. Private LACs are expensive; in essence, they are a luxury item. To me, $60,000 is a great deal for a Lehigh business degree–especially if the loans are subsidized. If they are not subsidized loans, then your family can afford the tuition in the eyes of Lehigh’s financial aid/admissions office. plus, paying a significant portion of your schooling costs may encourage you to value your educational opportunities more than a free ride.</p>
<p>CandM</p>
<p>The Lehigh web site states that “the student is expected to withdraw all applications to other schools if accepted to Lehigh.”</p>
<p>This condition would make a “wait and see what happens with other FA offers” a violation of the agreement.</p>
<p>Coldwind-- since Lehigh didn’t give me the merit until I called Admissions with the prospect of not being able to attend, I applied to quite a few other schools…</p>
<p>College of William and Mary
Brandeis University
Boston College
Washington and Lee
U of Richmond
Tulane
U Vermont
Bucknell
Wake Forest
Syracuse
SUNY Geneseo
U Rochester
St. Mary’s of Maryland
UMD College Park
(Clemson)</p>
<p>I know it is kind of a ridiculous list. I realize some of these school are probably way out of my reach academically and financially. But in all honesty, I have always been very conservative with my money and 60k just seems like a lot of money to be in debt for an undergraduate degree.</p>
<p>my wait and see if you get something better definitely means first declining Lehigh’s ED offer for financial reasons!!! i see your list has some lower cost public schools. i personally would have a hard time justifying 60 grand in loans plus possible future loans for an mba (or the like). and who knows what the economy and job market will be like in four years. but again, i always advise against loans.</p>
<p>dc: The $10,000 merit scholarship award is generous if you did not qualify for additional or any financial aid.</p>
<p>CandM I definitely take note of your advice. My Lehigh Admissions counselor has a friend who graduated from Lehigh with 100K in debt. In an effort to pay it off he is living at home, which is something I would have a hard time doing.</p>
<p>ColdWind, I am fully aware of the generosity, from what I hear Lehigh doesn’t oft hand out merit money. But as CandM said graduating with 60k in debt as well as the intention to go to grad school tends to be a little scary.</p>