Pretty soon I’ll be applying to (undergrad) colleges and I’m faced with a dillemma (assuming I was to be accepted to one of those places.) All the top colleges that I’d like to go to (Columbia, Yale, University of Chicago, Swarthmore) charge about 37,000 dollars per year, which rises at about 5% per year. While my parents have saved a lot of money, it wont be nearly enough to cover four years at that rate. Financial aid? I don’t know. My families income may be too high to get much, but not high enough to pay for it. What qualifies as “demonstrated need”? Loans? Possibly, but I’d come out of school with huge debt and no money for grad school (which is pretty necessary for physics, which I intend to major in.) Scholarships? Not at Columbia or Yale (they don’t go on merit) Probably not at UChi or Swarthmore either. Armed forces? Nope, not something I want to do. Whorin’?
So, how does a middle class kid pay for a top college?
Note: I put this in IMHO because theres probably no factual answer (I’m looking for tips, advice, etc.), but if this is in the wrong place, sorry.
Hmm. Student loans. Get used to it-- it’s a lifestyle choice. Then, for grad school, I think very few kids in the sciences who can cut it enough to get into good grad schools actually pay for it. In the sciences here, at least, pretty much each student that is accepted is fully funded along with it.
If you accept the option of going to a less elite undergrad school (I mean, how much of a difference is there between U Chicago and UCSD/ UCB at the undergrad level? (rhetorical question-- I don’t know for certain. . .) you might also get some hefty aid at that level.
Try to exhaust all your resources before jumping on the loans (which is, unfortunately, where you’ll likely end up).
Two things got me through college. First, my father was a college professor at a small Catholic college in Philadelphia. Apparently, there’s a tutition exchange program among certain colleges in Pennsylvania, so it wasn’t just that I could go to my dad’s college for free–I could go to ANY of them. Fantastic break, as it got me entirely around the loan dilemma.
As an added bonus, it turned out the union at the supermarket I’d been working at provided a $1,000 per year educational scholarship. I was able to get that money reimbursed, then put it towards things like books, food, and my summer courses. If you need to work through college, you might want to shop around with employers (if you can) and see if anybody has a program like that.
Qwerty, I feel for ya, bro. I know the situation. Loans are an option, but many times…you need co-signers. My parents, e.g., aren’t willing to latch onto debt for my education. So I’m stuck working my ass off to pay for school. Fortunately, I attend a public university AND live at home. Sure, poke around for scholarships, but I’ve found that free rides are spread pretty thin, even for excellent students (and, of course, merit aid is nonexistent at Columbia (and the other schools you mentioned)).
Don’t mind the stories people have offered about “I was so lucky because my father was a professor and I attended college for free as a result . . . maybe the same thing will happen to you.” Yeah, big chance. UIUC fin aid office informed me that middle-class kids get the shaft. They really didn’t have to admit it to me, though, for I already knew that.
Is this the case in any other departments. While I like physics right now, statistically there’s a strong chance I might change my major in the future? Does this hold true if I were to be going for a PhD also?
Thanks for the great info everyone, keep it coming.
Have you considered getting a merit scholarship from a slightly less prestigious school? Even some relatively good schools give significant amounts of money to lure top students, which you seem to be. I got a four year, full tuition + $4000 scholarship to the University of California at Irvine. I’m now off to law school, where a partial scholarship will keep me from racking up mountains of loan debt.
(Don’t go to a small, liberal arts school like swarthmore if you want to study sciences. It’s a great school, but it makes it much harder to actually do research as an undergrad if you’re not going to a school with well established and well funded research programs like the larger universities have.)
If you’re planning graduate school in science or engineering (I know you might switch out of physics, but if you’re confident you’ll stay in a more scientific-oriented field) I would be very surprised if you had to pay for it. That’s true much more so for PhDs then MS. MS in most science fields are often viewed as consolation prizes for people who couldn’t cut a PhD. (No offense to anyone who decided to get a MS in a science field, there are perfectly valid reasons for doing this. And it’s what my best friend did and it was definitely the right choice for her).
If you’re pretty sure about the grad school, you might want to look into a less expensive school for undergrad. I went to a state school, it was less than 10K a year (tuition and room and board). It was in the top 20 programs in the country for the majors I was considering (chemistry and chemical engineering). I went through the Honors program and got quite the education. And ended up with a full scholarship. I also got into every grad school I applied to, and had no problems finding a job. And–I have no student loans to worry about. A lot of state schools are pretty decent (and even if the one in your state isn’t, out of state costs at a different school will still be less than half the costs of a private school), and you sometimes have greater flexibility for changing majors than you would at a smaller school.
If you’re absolutely set on an Ivy League, you’ll probably have to accept some amount of loans. I qualified for absolutely no financial aid at any of the universities I applied to. You’ll be able to get unsubsidized loans however. Pay as much as you/your family can afford. Look into work/study (usually you work for the university about 10 hours a week or so. They usually give you more flexibility than a non-university employer would so you can work around your class and exam schedule and work less hours a week. Typical jobs might be working at the library, working in the cafeterias, making photocopies, etc). It won’t pay all your expenses, but will cut down on what you owe coming out of school.
Definitely look into private scholarships. Again, these aren’t likely to pay all your costs, but even if it knocks $1000 off your tuition, that’s $1000 you don’t have to pay back. I don’t know as much about that because I had a generous university scholarship so I didn’t try to find private funding. I did get a small stipend from my dad’s company for being a national merit scholar. That $500 a year pretty much paid my books, which was one less thing I had to worry about. Throw together a few small scholarships like that (rotary clubs, high school awards, etc) and it can start to add up.
Most people have loans coming out of college. It sucks, but it’s not insurmountable.
Just so you know, although I would very much prefer a top school, I’m also looking at lower rank cheaper schools. For example the State University of New York at Binghamton, and Boston University, which I could probably get a half-tuition scholarship to.
Might I add that I’m completely horrified that you’re applying to Swarthmore and not Amherst? I mean, come now. You might as well get the best lib. arts education for your buck
I’m in art history (go ahead and laugh, philistines!) and went to a second-rate west-coast small regional liberal arts college as an undergrad and am in my 6th year of grad school and have not yet paid a dime for grad school tuition. The stipends for feeding myself might not be too hot, but school itself has been gratis. It can be done. Do not fret. You will survive.
I still think that “top schools” on a baccalaureate level are over-rated unless you plan on going into politics. Of course I haven’t started looking for jobs yet.
I think he was making a reference to co-op placement programs. In most cases, you study as normal but work in a job related to your field in the summer (and somtimes during a regular fall/winter semester) and get credit (and money) for it. It’s not always work in the summer though; for example, if you’re a 1st year EE student at the college I’m going to next year (UWaterloo), you do a semester of school, then a semester of co-op, then a semester of school again (I don’t know the plan after that, but it’s just an example anyways), since school is offered year-round.
Another thing to consider is that co-op education programs are usually five years long compared to four years in traditional programs. You’ll also have to check with the universities to see if they have such options available specific to your major. I think that my local university (UAlberta) doesn’t offer co-op in physics, nor does it offer co-op in Engineering Physics (or Engineering Science, if you prefer), whereas the college I’m going to has only co-op programs in quite a few of the sciences (e.g., math, engineering, comp. sci, biotech).
What state do you live in? State schools are usually a lot cheaper. State schools can easily be higher ranked academically than most or all of the Ivy Leagues in your subject. UC Davis may not have the cachet of Yale, but for an awful lot of subjects it is ranked higher academically. Of course, if you’re out of state, then you pay top dollar.
However, if you’re looking at top schools, be prepared to borrow at least something. You said your parents have a lot saved for college (well buh bye need based aid!), and merit based aid is VERY competitive. There are always plenty of kids with better grades, etc., than you. I just graduated from a top ranked school, had some demonstrated financial need, excellent grades, and still had to borrow money. BTW, middle class pretty much means “no demonstrated need for aid.” Actually, the people I know who got full scholarships other than athletes were people who went to state schools or schools that were less well known that wanted to attract top students to selective programs on their campuses.
Bottom line, don’t freak out about the loans. After a while, you become numb to student loan debt.
Since you’re majoring in physics, find a national ranking of physics departments and pick the university in the top ten or twenty with the lowest tuition.
Don’t bother with the Ivy League; the education you get there is no better than what you’d get at any other halfway decent school in the U.S. The only thing you’re paying big bucks for is the fancy name.
New York. Like I said, I’m looking at SUNY Binghamton as a backup.
jmpride62What is “AmeriCorps”?
ASD: Are you sure that Swarthmore doesn’t have a good research program? One advantage I’ve been told is that, since theres no grad school there, the undergrads get all the research jobs there.
