The Ivy League
This post is mostly for those of you that attend Ivy League schools, or are seriously in debt.
If you had the opportunity to attend HYP, would you take on $100k in debt just to say, "I went to HYP" even if you only make 50k/yr for the next 10 years?
This probably isn't the best place to ask this question, since most of you guys out of school are raking in the cheese, but I just wanted to get an idea for how far the prestige of HYP goes for someone who doesn't make a lot of money.
This isn't a coherent question: going to Harvard Yale and Princeton means getting the best financial aid in the entire country. Students from families earning less than $100,000 or so (I forget the exact number, and varies from school to school) generally get a full or nearly full ride. And even above that, the aid remains extremely generous.
You can see for yourself: http://npc.fas.harvard.edu/ http://admissions.yale.edu/financial-aid http://www.princeton.edu/admission/financialaid/how_it_works/who_qualif…
[quote=Markov]This isn't a coherent question: going to Harvard Yale and Princeton means getting the best financial aid in the entire country. Students from families earning less than $100,000 or so (I forget the exact number, and varies from school to school) generally get a full or nearly full ride. And even above that, the aid remains extremely generous.
You can see for yourself: http://npc.fas.harvard.edu/ http://admissions.yale.edu/financial-aid http://www.princeton.edu/admission/financialaid/how_it_works/who_qualif…] You're right. They do give out a shit ton of money because of the size of their endowments, but even if they pay for half of the total cost, you're still on the hook for about 120k.
If your parents make about 150k, they get screwed, and that's when the student really feels like the world is against them. A system that rewards you if you're poor or a minority, but punishes you for being successful. Only in America.
Last time I checked, they cap family contributions at 10% up to $150k a year, with total aid extending into the $200k+ range. HYP would be far better for me (and most lower- or middle-class people) than any state school.
You poor thing. How can the system screw you like this.
Rewards is a completely idiotic description. I come from a household with total income below average and go to a school that is comparable to cost of an Ivy, but was able to go because of this "reward" system. Benefits is a better word, and most of the people that benefit from this system deserve it just as much as any other comparable candidate, especially at an Ivy.
You have also written that your family started a Fortune 500 company. So, you are faced with a number of structural disadvantages, such as being white and being rich. Somehow, you have overcome.
Despite being a wealthy white kid, you seem to have been able to overcome these extremely long odds and secure a position in investment banking. Which is obviously a huge accomplishment, since almost everyone else in investment banking is either poor or a minority or both, given the enormous advantages given to them.
C'mon man.
Yeah they make you think that, but for some of us it's really the worst.
With parents all-in income of about $150k and a ~$175k savings for our educations my parents got absolutely dicked by Penn financial aid and had to pay full price somehow. My brothers were luckily both on scholarship and one went to Harvard who gave him a 90% scholarship, my other brother stayed in state on a full-ride, while Penn turned around and gave me dick. If not for Harvard being generous, we would have been absolutely fucked re: tuition but luckily they weren't as Jewish as Penn was and my parents had some savings left over to take care of it... but I had friends who got way more aid than I did with parents with marginally smaller incomes. Sometimes I even think it's arbitrary how they'll fuck some people and let others slip through and get that 90% scholarship or even a full ride. I knew a kid whose parents made $120k and he got a full ride... so essentially my parents got punished for saving and making slightly more money apparently. I could be biased on this but I've always held a grudge about how bad they got screwed compared to some others, and it's one of the reasons Penn will never see a dime from me. We've given them all we could possibly give, and they sure as hell had nothing to do with getting me a job.
Had the opportunity to attend an ivy. Would have been ~$100K in debt at graduation. Did not take it. Regretting it.
Have to agree with this - from threads on WSO, even IBD analysts may take 3 years to pay back that debt, and they don't make up the bulk of graduates.
That would only be potentially worth it if you go to a non-target. I don't know why everyone on here acts like HYP gives you so much more opportunity than the rest of the ivy league.
Why do you think you'd only earn $50k/year after graduation? Isn't the point of the Ivy League that you get access to opportunities that us state school grads don't?
If you want to be a teacher or public servant, it's probably not worth it to take on the debt. If you want to enter business, it might be...you should make your decision based on what you want to do in the long run. Does that debt get you access to better opportunities in what you want to do?
I will say that the Ivy's give you more options for the long-term, which is really what college is all about, in my lowly opinion.
It's an interesting proposition. The obvious answer is no unless your earnings potential after the 10 years was on par with your former classmates, if that were the case it may very well be tempting. Considering time value of money though, you may be better off going to a slightly worse Ivy or solid regional school and earning 2 or 3 times that amount for the first 10 years. The problem would be that $100K of debt on a $50K salary would likely crush you at some point or you'd have to be living with your parents. Can you imagine meeting a girl at a happy hour one day............ I could see a conversation going like this...... guy:"can I buy you a drink" girl:"i would love one, so what do you do"... "oh I just finished up school and I'm in banking"...."oh great, where did you go to school?".... "I graduated cum laude at Harvard"....he fails to mention that it was 8 years ago......you can see the dollar signs light up in the girls eyes, the two martinis he ordered come over and everything is going smooth..."so what do you do m&a or something"..... a shred of truth and decency enters the mind of our underachiever and he says "I'm a bank teller right now, but I think I have a good chance at nabbing the senior teller role shortly" as he gives her a sly smile. He then asks her if she wants to go back to his place. With Harvard still being fresh in her mind she's willing to look past his current situation and agrees but asks why not later, after all it was only 5:15. He then explains that his parents will be home at 6 and he would needs to have her out by then.... Now realizing what a loser this chump is she excuses herself to the restroom. Our underachiever is no dummy and can definitely take a hint, realizing he's going to strike out with this bimbo he bails immediately, sticking her with the bill.... after all he can't really afford those five dollar martinis!
All ivies give an insane amount of financial aid...my family falls within what currently would be considered "middle class", and I'm graduating with no debt. At the time, it was in fact more expensive to attend my in-state school.
I would NEVER go $100K into debt for school. But if there is a degree that has a net neutral or positive NPV at a 20% discount rate and allows me to spend two years away from the grindstone at grad school, HECK! I'LL TAKE IT!
Princeton offered that for grad school. And I took it.
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