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Over on the main brags page a discussion was started and I thought it would be good to move it away from the brags page.
Originally Posted by DrH
Originally Posted by brilliantcp
Two brags in one for May 1st (college choice deadline in the US)
DD was accepted to several universities including one out of state "DREAM SCHOOL" (think west coast ivy equivalent) and is choosing the solid, mid-tier, east coast state school that offered her a full out of state tuition merit scholarship. Super proud of her for earning a merit scholarship, even prouder of her for being mature enough to see that taking on over $200K in student loan debt would have a long term impact on her future choices.
So glad to have this forum where I can just say that she got a merit scholarship and got into DREAMY U without doing my "humble brag" routine.
Only hope she knows what she plans on doing in the future and is aware that even though her choice seems the most sensible that in some instances it actually isn't... but that all depends on what she plans on doing in the future. I recall a classmate in graduate school was interviewing for positions with a big management consulting firm and was told flat out that while her grades were great and her experience was good, that her undergrad was from Rutgers and that was the reason that they wouldn't be offering her a job... And that was even though she was coming out of a top 3 MBA program.
So remember that in some fields they are actually so shallow that they will look at where you went to school.
WARNING: Major Rant Ahead.
Well, yes. DD does think she knows what she wants to do and yes, she knows that not going to DREAMY U has impacts on future plans and yes, she knows that some people ( a lot of them maybe) in the field she wants to go into will judge her based on where she goes to school. However, this is undergrad.
I repeat: this is undergrad.
If DD were to attend undergrad at DREAMY U she would have to borrow 200K . I have a news flash: really they won't loan that much to young adults with no credit history who are under age. Really, her parents would have to borrow it and really, we won't. We won't take on that debt and we won't recommend that she do it either. Why?
First, there is no guarantee that we would qualify for loans the second year, or the third, or the fourth. Our debt to income ratio would get worse each year and we would never know whether we could qualify for all four years. This could mean that we would owe tons of money and she still would not have a degree from DREAMY U. Let's just not talk about how this would impact us--her parent's ability to borrow money to buy a house or a spot in a retirement community-- shall we?
Second: The payments on that debt would be over $2000 per month for ten years. Go look it up:
Third: All of her decisions about graduate school would have to allow for this. If she goes to professional school (medical or law), she could need to borrow another 200-300K. Just the principle debt, without interest, would then be 400-500K.
Fourth: This debt would impact her child bearing years. Women and their partners already have to juggle the competing needs of graduate school and early career with deciding when and if they want to have children. If DD is paying 2000-4000/month for her student loans, how will she pay for all the other living expenses for herself and any dependents?
DD may experience some bias in getting accepted into graduate programs, but we have to hope it would be rare to see HIRING bias based on non-ivy, non-Stanford, non-Berkeley undergraduate degree after she has her terminal degrees.
MBAs and other financial fields do seem to have significant biases in this regard. I'm sorry your friend experienced this and I hope they were able to find another position with a more open minded employer. Most people cannot attend the top 10-20 undergraduate schools and most fields do seem to be able to deal with this reality. Additionally, undergraduates from mid to upper level schools do get in to graduate programs and get good jobs.
Now note the almost complete lack of overlap between the lists.
My point is that what the best school would be is really field dependent.
Undergraduate debt is not a myth and it really can haunt people, DD's decision will allow her to graduate debt free from undergraduate and have a lot more freedom than many of her peers.
Still proud of DD. Still thinking she made a good, adult, well reasoned, decision.
