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I wonder how common this story is, my brother was accepted to Penn but our family didn’t have the money. We both ended up at large state schools getting honors

by awat 6y ago

I wonder how common this story is, my brother was accepted to Penn but our family didn’t have the money. We both ended up at large state schools getting honors degrees. The whole decision making process for us was money based not merit based.

_qulr 6y ago
My high school friend was accepted to MIT, couldn't afford it, and also went to a state university. So that's 3!
- fakedang 6y ago
  Got accepted at Berkeley, didn't get a scholarship that I needed, ended up studying in India instead. To be fair, you can always go to MIT or any top notch university for a graduate/second undergrad degree, but you can only go to IIT/NIT once.
- jjoonathan 6y ago
  Usually big-name schools have high price tags but extremely generous financial aid. MIT: > Six out of every 10 students receive MIT need-based aid. the average price paid by an undergraduate receiving financial aid in 2019–2020 was $21,917—that’s approximately what it costs to attend a state school. And for students with family incomes under $90,000 a year, we ensure that scholarship funding will allow them to attend MIT tuition-free. Harvard puts the following numbers front and center: 20 % of Harvard families pay nothing 55 % receive Harvard scholarship aid 12 K average parent contribution 100 % of students can graduate debt-free Other schools in this tier have similar policies.
  - _qulr 6y ago
    This was many years ago. Maybe it's better now, but far too late for us! Also, wow, state school is a lot more expensive than in my day.
  - musicale 6y ago
    > 100 % of students can graduate debt-free Can graduate debt-free, or do actually graduate debt-free? This also seems to ignore parental debt. Many parents cannot afford to pay $12K a year (or more) and have to take out home equity or other loans in order to pay the parental contribution that the university financial aid office decides upon. Does this include graduate and professional students? And what about "big-name" schools that don't have Harvard's $41B endowment? Some monetarily "poorer" ivies (Dartmouth and Brown) have endowments that are tiny by comparison (though $6B or $5B isn't exactly chump change. Also they had terrific returns of 8% and 12% for 2020.)

by awat 6y ago

_qulr 6y ago

My high school friend was accepted to MIT, couldn't afford it, and also went to a state university. So that's 3!

fakedang 6y ago
Got accepted at Berkeley, didn't get a scholarship that I needed, ended up studying in India instead. To be fair, you can always go to MIT or any top notch university for a graduate/second undergrad degree, but you can only go to IIT/NIT once.
jjoonathan 6y ago
Usually big-name schools have high price tags but extremely generous financial aid. MIT: > Six out of every 10 students receive MIT need-based aid. the average price paid by an undergraduate receiving financial aid in 2019–2020 was $21,917—that’s approximately what it costs to attend a state school. And for students with family incomes under $90,000 a year, we ensure that scholarship funding will allow them to attend MIT tuition-free. Harvard puts the following numbers front and center: 20 % of Harvard families pay nothing 55 % receive Harvard scholarship aid 12 K average parent contribution 100 % of students can graduate debt-free Other schools in this tier have similar policies.
- _qulr 6y ago
  This was many years ago. Maybe it's better now, but far too late for us! Also, wow, state school is a lot more expensive than in my day.
- musicale 6y ago
  > 100 % of students can graduate debt-free Can graduate debt-free, or do actually graduate debt-free? This also seems to ignore parental debt. Many parents cannot afford to pay $12K a year (or more) and have to take out home equity or other loans in order to pay the parental contribution that the university financial aid office decides upon. Does this include graduate and professional students? And what about "big-name" schools that don't have Harvard's $41B endowment? Some monetarily "poorer" ivies (Dartmouth and Brown) have endowments that are tiny by comparison (though $6B or $5B isn't exactly chump change. Also they had terrific returns of 8% and 12% for 2020.)