Girlie AGDee's College Search Thread

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by AGDee

We discussed financial aid packages and looked at the offer from DePaul again. She doesn't think the amount of loans required for either American or DePaul are worth it. For Barnard, she'd be willing to take on that debt, but not for American or DePaul.

Your girlie has a good head on her shoulders! I'm not a praying woman, but I'm sending lots of positive thoughts about Barnard. Worst-case scenario? She's in at Michigan, which is awesome.

I'm coming across a lot of men and women in their early 20s who took out serious debt at high interest rates to attend regional schools that are far inferior to their state schools. I don't understand taking out a ton of loans for a private school that's going to open fewer doors and cost more than the public school a few hours away.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Your girlie has a good head on her shoulders! I'm not a praying woman, but I'm sending lots of positive thoughts about Barnard. Worst-case scenario? She's in at Michigan, which is awesome.

I'm coming across a lot of men and women in their early 20s who took out serious debt at high interest rates to attend regional schools that are far inferior to their state schools. I don't understand taking out a ton of loans for a private school that's going to open fewer doors and cost more than the public school a few hours away.

I know. And in the worst case scenario, she could commute to Michigan if things got dire for us for some reason. It's a 45 minute drive, but she could try to schedule classes a few days a week. That's a nice fall back option to have and I would only encourage that if things were really dire, but it's an option.

[VandalSquirrel]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Pretty much. Obviously it's cheaper for in-state kids, but one of the factors in why I didn't apply to Berkeley as school #5 was that, after all was said and done it would have ended up being more expensive than Brown or Emory.

I think the high amount of applications is more of a coastal thing--kids in DC, NYC, Boston, LA, and SF are in a super-competitive pool and they have to cast a wider net. Like I said, in 1998 I applied to 4 schools. In 2008, I interviewed kids who applied to 14. I was in a smaller school district and had an excellent state school to fall back on. The kids I interviewed? Not so much.

Being a San Francisco kid I didn't apply to a lot of schools, I got into Cal and for family reasons applied to schools in Washington and Oregon, and Colorado College. I was so unhappy at Cal, both times I tired it, and I probably would have done fine at Colorado College since it is smaller like Idaho is. The kids from my high school aren't overall applying to a ton of schools as they know CSU and UC schools are always there for them due to credentials. We consistently represent in the Ivies, but not regularly at Stanford. I'll completely own that I started out in a preschool that people try to get on the list for when the stick they peed on turns blue, as did a lot of my classmates K-12, so that is likely a factor into applying to less schools.

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

The fact that so many kids are applying to so many schools now is probably what burned your daughter as well as Dee's with NU. My ex graduated from NU and well, to put it nicely, didn't have anywhere near the credentials that Dee's daughter has.

That's just insane but count me among the generation where applying to more than 4 schools was considered a lot.

I think College Confidential is part of the problem as people put all of their information out there and spend too much time comparing themselves to others. I thought it was a joke how crazy that site is until people actually asked me about moving to Idaho or Alaska to increase the chance their kid will be admitted because it makes them more unique or something. Picking up everything and moving to either of those places for prep school or college admission is really questionable.