Is it worth it??

[travisleit01]

An expensive university - that is? I am going to a school that is over $30,000 a year, and thus far am not happy. There is a local state school I could go to and live at home (which I am fine with, my mom's cool), and pay about $2,000/semester. Is it worth the student loans, scrambling to make tuition payments, and the stress that follows it, for a piece of paper with a school that people go "OOOO..." when they see it? I just don't know what to do.

[sasquatch]

1. If you like your family I guess it's ok

I can't stand mine so I was hoping to go far away to get the hell away from them.

[travisleit01]

2. Well...

It's (soon to be) just my mom and younger brother, and my mom works a lot and my bro is cool. So yeah, it's not that bad...

[sistersofmercy]

3. You wouldn't happen to be in St Louis deciding between WU and

UM? If so, it depends on your major but overall WU is a great institution.

[travisleit01]

4. No, sorry :)

Denver area

[Syrinx]

5. Well I went to a state school

And I'm having a tough time paying my loans off. I can't imagine getting out of college and being $120,000 in debt!

[travisleit01]

6. Yep!

That's where I am. Do you feel "satisfied" from your state school education?

[JCMach1]

7. NO!, not for undergrad work

:(

[travisleit01]

8. Honestly,

I am ready to get out there in the world and DO SOMETHING. I know there are BS classes I'll have to take anywhere, but we figured that I am paying $100 per DAY for school here, while at a state school it would be less that $2k/sem.

[caledesi]

9. Trave - here what you do

Make a list of the positives and negatives of the school you at and do the same for a state school (not just the pragmatic issues, like $, but your feelings & expectations with each school & living conditions etc). It will help you with your decision.

As far as going to a "well-known" school - let me tell you a story: A friend of my years ago got a scholarship and was going to Columbia University....he was very excited and everyone was VERY impressed. Well, he ended up HATING every day there and after his first year he transferred to a state school (there are GOOD state schools - research this) and never looked back. Said it was scary at the time to actually do it, but it was one of the best decisions he ever made because he was so unhappy. Got his engineering degree from the University of Rhode Island.

[ClintonTyree]

10. Sad to say...............

but in my opinion it DOES make a difference where the sheepskin is from. It does open a few more doors in the long run if you're an average student. If you were to excell at a State School, maybe not. I think I've muddied up the situation enough. It's like every other marketing ploy. Name recognition is the goal.

[SuffragetteSal]

11. hang in there

My son went to a very expensive private college, he is making nearly twice as much as my daughter who went to a state university. Of course, it depends on your area of focus and if you are a woman or a man...women still make less than men. Good luck. I am sure you will make the right decision.

Then again, I just saw yesterday a job description for 'bartender' in the Seattle area that had '4 year degree preferred'.

[WilliamPitt]

12. Regrettably, it makes a difference

I live in Boston, home of

Boston College
Harvard
MIT
Tufts
Boston University

with Holy Cross out there on the preiphery. :)

There is also

Suffolk
Northeastern
University of Massachusetts (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, etc)

The latter are all excellent, excellent schools that cost much less.

The former are extraordiary schools that cost way more.

The name on the diploma matters. Trust me on this. When you think Grad school or law school or whatever, then think otherwise...but the college degree is worth the ride if you can do it.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

13. I go to a small university...

It's cheap, and it's one of the best in the state. We have one of the best Pharmacy programs in the country...our school of education is right up there too...the staff is awesome, the people are fun, but you have to remember I live in freeperville, and save that, it's not too bad. I have two semesters after this one, and then I'm hitting the road. But expensive doesn't mean better.
Duckie

[ikojo]

14. A story....

I have a friend who went to a state school at night while he worked during the day. He had a wife and child.

He made straight As at the state school. He wanted to pursue a PhD but was advised by a professor that life in academia was iffy at best and that with his smarts and considering he came from a working-class background, it would be best to go to law school. That way he would be able to earn a living.

With his degree from a state univ he applied to a local, private law school and got in. In his law school class were children who had attended some of the best boarding schools and private universities in the USA. (Another part I should share is that he dropped out of high school in the early 70s and got his GED while in his 20s.)My friend graduated first in his class.

IMHO, it matters little where you get an undergraduate degree. Especially in a town like St Louis where many professors teach at both UM St Louis and Washington U. I think any education is what you, the student, are willing to put into it. Look at the pResident..he went to Phillips-Andover, Yale and Harvard which are arguably among the most respected institutions in this country. Yet he emerged a complete and utter idiot.

Unless you know you will make a lot of money after graduation I would opt for the state school with lower tuition. Not easy to pay student loans even on a manager's salary.

[trof]

15. If you're talking Harvard, Princeton, Yale

etc., yes, it matters.
My son-in-law got hired by a firm pretty much because of his Yale degree and they wanted that on their website and in their brochures. He's also damned smart and good at what he does, but he says if he'd been from State. U. they wouldn't have even interviewed him.
It ain't fair, but that's the facts, Jack.

[travisleit01]

22. I think that although the school I'm going to is expensive,

It doesn't have the "name" of Harvard, Princeton, etc. I'm going to the University of Denver, which is supposedly a good school, but I took classes at a community college for a few years in HS, and I got more out of THAT than I am here. I'm looking at CU Denver right now, because it's local, close to internship opportunities at the Capitol, newspapers, and talk radio stations in Denver.

So, I realize that a Yale grad is looked at more favorably that a State U. grad, but do you think it makes much difference between the University of Denver, and CU-Denver?

[BigMcLargehuge]

16. if you are taking student loans go to a state school

trust me. I graduated from an undergrad program at a private college, which in 1992 was about 15k a year. I transferred in as a junior after completing community college (net cost, two years school... about 3 grand including books and gas and coffee).

Going to a private college bankrupted me before I even received my degree. It's now 11 years later and I am still paying huge dollars to the predatory loan company that bought my loan because for the first five post-grad years I couldn't find a job that paid more than 12k a year.

Don't do what I did. It screws up life for decades.

[qb]

17. Are you getting a grant from the private school?

Watch out. They'll most likely cut you off completely your Junior year. I wish I'd gone to the public university. I'm still paying off my loans 16 years later.

[NashVegas]

18. What Do You Want out of Life/Career?

If you want glory and a 500k salary, stay in the expensive school, it will open more doors to you than the state, when you go job hunting.

If you can be content making far less and having professional recognition come more from your work and not where you got your degree, take the affordable route.

[Japhy_Ryder]

19. What's your ultimate goal

If you want a bachelors degree only, get it from the best school that you can. I got mine at a state school knowing that I wanted a graduate degree. Then I got the grad degree from a top 10 school, and no one really even notices the BA or where it's from. All they care about is where the MA was from.

[amazona]

20. it isn't the piece of paper, it's the contacts

It depends on what you want to do. If you want a middle class job such as teacher or librarian, go to the cheaper school.

If you want to be a CEO or something of that nature one day, your diploma from any except the very top tier of schools is worthless. For example, in days gone by, to be a writer, you just wrote stuff until you got published. Today, because of consolidation, the person who just writes stuff, no matter how good, is extremely unlikely to be published unless she has a huge number of contacts. If your dad isn't Saul Bellow or whatever, then this means you will need to attend certain schools such as Bennington or Iowa -- a master's fine arts from your local U will not get you where you want to be.

A relative also discovered that her attendance at a "name" university made it much easier for her to pose as well-to-do and to hang out with well-to-do people and eventually connect with a well-to-do husband. You're going to meet and fall in love with someone you meet in your real life, not something you encounter once in a bar and never see again. So that can be a consideration as well.

Debt is a matter of trust in the future. If you believe in your future and the nation's future, taking on debt to get an education is a good thing, because it gives you more opportunities. If you do not believe in the future, you should not be taking on debt. I am distrustful by nature, but I try not to let fear make decisions for me. Taking on $120,000 in debt to attend a top school is not the same as taking on $120,000 in debt to wear Prada. But even the Prada might have been a good decision if you positions you to get the better career, the better partner, etc. :-)

Only you can make this decision. So take your time.

[Ramsey]

21. It can be

I guess it depends on your ultimate goals. I went to an Ivy League university and have found doors wide opened to me ever since. Not that I couldn't possibly get to the same place with a state university degree (I did go to a state university for graduate school), but it gives you instant and unquestionable credibility.

You also probably have a higher caliber of professor at certain universities, although there is not a direct correlation between tuition and faculty quality. But in general, more expensive schools use those funds to offer higher salaries and attract more accomplished faculty. My professors and the ability to interact with them closely were one of the best things about my colege experience. That and meeting other really great people from all over the world.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

23. After getting my BA from

a small Lutheran college that no one outside the Lutheran church ever heard of, I won a Federal fellowship to take an intensive language course at one Ivy League university and got my graduate degree at another. I subsequently taught at a bunch of private colleges and one large state university, as well as taking classes at two other state universities.

You can get a good education anywhere. The advantages that the small colleges offer include individual attention and close relationships with your fellow students and the faculty. You can be the proverbial big fish in a small pond. Most people live on campus, so the college becomes a community. Yet small colleges, especially those in rural areas, can start to feel TOO small after a couple of years.

Large state universities can have an impersonal atmosphere and a bit of an assembly-line feel to them. You may be a junior before you get to take a class with a real professor instead of a graduate teaching assistant. Because most of the thousands and thousands of students are commuters, it's harder to make friends, or even to run into the same people twice. However, large universities often serve as the center of vibrant communities, full of all sorts of fascinating organizations and businesses. If your academic interests are beyond the usual range--if you want to major in astrophysics or Korean or ethnomusicology--you may have no choice but to go to a large state university.

There is little difference between a large state university and a large, private, non-Ivy university in terms of your future prospects. In the end, it's the quality of the person, not the quality of the school, that matters. The one exception is that Ivy League students have access to the Ivy League old boy network, so if you absolutely must be plugged into the Notheastern power elite in politics, business, or (surprisingly enough) journalism, you should go Ivy.

Otherwise, if you are not an intensely academic type, your current school does not fell like a good fit, and you are socially self-sufficient, a large state school can be an enriching experience. I'm glad I went to a small private school, which was what I needed emotionally at the time, but after that, I was happy to be at larger universities and found small colleges to be claustrophobic.