How Much Debt Should I Take For College
I'm currently a high school senior and I have pretty much two paths I could go down.
- I go to 4 year directly and be like 200k in debt. Schools include (UCLA, UCB, Claremont Mckenna, IU)
- I go to CC and potentially a better school like Columbia or Northwestern maybe idk and end up in like 150k in debt maybe a little less.
Considering these two options, I would ofc save some money going to cc first and transferring, but is that maybe around 50k that I will save be worth missing the time at whatever college I go to. IDK it might be better if I get into a target school or it could be a school like IU again and I just wasted a year now. I'm not sure. Also, all the costs are pretty much sticker price value not considering any merit or need based aid if I get any. Thanks for reading. (Also not exactly too sure what career I want to pursue, but most likely sales and trade/asset management or investment banking)
Based on the most helpful WSO content, here are some key considerations for your situation:
Debt Load and Career Goals:
Community College Path:
Time vs. Cost:
Sticker Price vs. Actual Cost:
Alternative Perspectives:
Recommendation:
If you're confident you can transfer to a top-tier school like Columbia or Northwestern, the community college route could be a financially smarter choice. However, if there's significant uncertainty about where you'll transfer, attending a four-year university directly might be the safer bet, especially if you can secure financial aid to reduce your debt load. Ultimately, the decision depends on your risk tolerance, career aspirations, and the financial aid packages you receive.
Sources: Debt for Elite School, or none for non target State School, $600,000 in student debt - Will The Bubble Pop?, Undergrad School OPTIONS (please help)
bump
Do not compare $200k and $150k as totals — compare them as monthly payments, because that is what you will actually live with. At around 6.5% over ten years, $200k is roughly $2,270 a month, or about $273k repaid in total. $150k is roughly $1,705 a month, or about $205k in total. So the community college route saves about $565 a month for ten years, and about $68k overall. That is the real price of going direct.
Against a first-year analyst's take-home pay in New York, $2,270 a month is roughly a third of what lands in your account, while $1,705 is roughly a quarter. Both are survivable if you actually land the job, but neither leaves much room for rent, let alone saving — and the higher one keeps you under pressure for a full decade.
The catch with the cheaper path is the transfer. The $50k saving only exists if you actually land at a target or semi-target school afterwards, so before you choose the community college route, find out the real transfer facts: which schools your community college feeds into, what GPA they expect, and the deadlines. If you cannot name a concrete path to a school with real recruiting, the saving may cost you the career that would have repaid the debt.
And before you accept any of these numbers, run each school's net price calculator. You said these are sticker prices with no aid yet — merit and need-based aid can change the comparison by tens of thousands, and it can flip which option is actually cheaper.
I compared these routes with the student loan calculator at CalcSmith — it shows the monthly payment and total interest for any loan balance, so you can put the two paths side by side and see the monthly difference for yourself. Worth a visit to CalcSmith to run your own numbers before you decide.
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