Dream school or no debt

[scrub-jay]

We have also decided to take the financial discussion a step further and do a sort of "what can you afford" tour. Really show her what things cost and how much she will have left at the end of her paycheck after she pays debts etc. It is an exciting and scary time.

I think that sounds like a great idea and it'll give her tools to manage herself financially. Oh, and warn her about the first week of college when credit card companies set up booths (next to student activities booths) during orientation to "snag" new students and get them to open up new credit cards! (They are relentless)

[Pollyanna]

I think that sounds like a great idea and it'll give her tools to manage herself financially. Oh, and warn her about the first week of college when credit card companies set up booths (next to student activities booths) during orientation to "snag" new students and get them to open up new credit cards! (They are relentless)

This is soooo true.

[SuzySunshine]

I think that sounds like a great idea and it'll give her tools to manage herself financially. Oh, and warn her about the first week of college when credit card companies set up booths (next to student activities booths) during orientation to "snag" new students and get them to open up new credit cards! (They are relentless)

This has actually changed with the new CC laws - I believe if they're under 21 they have to have a co-signer.

[scrub-jay]

This has actually changed with the new CC laws - I believe if they're under 21 they have to have a co-signer.

Its about time! That is great news!

[alison]

Oooooh, exciting times! I have nothing to add.

[Rapunzel]

My answer to this is kind of complex:

I would weigh the amount of potential student loan debt against the potential income from the future career.

For instance - I don't think the debt would be worth it from a very expensive private college if your child was going into, say, teaching or "art".

If your child has his/her sights set on something a bit more well-paying (such as medicine) I would say that shelling out the larger bucks might be worth it.

There is also the networking effect you get from the really top-tier schools (I'm talking Ivy League here). The people from these schools tend to "look out" for each other much more post graduation. Just an observation I made over on the East coast.

[SuzySunshine]

You know the more I think about this the more I agree with whoever said to go with the school that FITS her. I graduated from a small school with 50 kids in my high school class, we had the basic classes, no AP's, nothing really to prepare us for college yet I chose to go to the big state university because I was going to "show them" that I could do it. I almost flunked out after the first semester, not because I was dumb but because I had NO idea what I was doing and the classes were huge, etc. etc.

After I had gone home for Christmas my freshman year housing called and there was an opening for me in the scholarship hall system (based on my high school grades, etc.). The Schol Hall system had mens halls and womens halls of 50 people, it was cheaper because you did your own cooking and cleaning and it was MUCH smaller then the dorms. It was more like a family and my grades improved and my involvement improved, it was like night and day.

DH lived in one of the men's halls and he had been accepted to some much bigger name, private schools, like Notre Dame. Even though he went to a VERY large high school he chose KU (which was also instate for him) over the other schools because of the schol hall system and the highly rated engineering school. But the schol halls were his ultimate decider. We think going to the state school might have hurt him when it came to applying to med schools but he got a great education and loved his living arrangements which I think made a huge difference for both of us.

Cast the net, see what she gets and look at it with an open mind - good luck!

[civilspouse]

I think you have made a great decision. There is nothing wrong with finding out what your options really are. I feel like I limited myself when applying. I only applied two the two state schools because I knew that was what I could afford. Dh on the other hand applied to big name schools and ended up going out of state (his parents were paying and he had no clue about money then). He was miserable, hated it, and then next year he ended up transferring to the state school I was at that was only 45 min away from where we went to high school. We came out of school with hardly any debt and I think that was extremely helpful to us when we got married to get ourselves on a good financial footing.

Dh was worried that going to the smaller state school without a reputation he might have a harder time getting into med school. But since it was a smaller school he was able to work in a lab and he actually ended up getting first author on a publication. He got into a great school, maybe not his first pick, but who knows if he had paid more to go to a big named school if that would have made a difference.

Have fun. I remember what an exciting time this was.