Student debt worth it?

Hello all. I’m graduating from a CC in California in 2 weeks, 3.8 GPA. (Santa Monica College) Got accepted to UC San Diego Bus Econ and Waitlisted at UCLA. Just got the news that I also got into USC. BUT for the spring semester. So I will be starting only in January 2025. I can afford UCSD, but if I was to go to USC, I will definitely have to take out a loan.

For context, my goal is IB. I don’t have an internship for this summer or any prior finance related experience. Working in retail sales right now. I’m also not diverse? Although I’m a first gen immigrant, I’m still white haha.

Now question: Are the USC brand name, Location(LA vs Finance dead San Diego), and alum network worth me waiting to start later, have a harder time applying to internships for next summer(or not?), graduating off-cycle, and talking on debt? Am I not seeing any other upsides/downsides?

What are your thoughts?

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