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Not only does money talk, but after spending ~200k on college (alright, maybe 100k on average after financial aid) startups are pretty risky. I mean, not only d

Not only does money talk, but after spending ~200k on college (alright, maybe 100k on average after financial aid) startups are pretty risky. I mean, not only do you have the normal high-risk, low-immediate-return situation, but you have student loans on top of that. Making 6 figures on Wall Street is definitely an attractive offer, and most grads don't treat it as a final destination - it's more of a "make money for a while, enjoy the city, and network" deal before they move into other jobs/consulting.

tzs 15y ago
The average Yale student has $9k in student loan debt at graduation in 2011. They adopted a no loan policy starting in the 2008-2009 academic year to replace loans with grants. Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and University of Pennsylvania have similar policies. Also, at many of these schools, if you come from a family that has income under around $75-100k (the exact limits depend on the school) they will waive tuition and many fees. The net result is that, at least for students from middle class and lower backgrounds, if you can get into an Ivy League school (or Stanford, Caltech, or MIT), there's a good chance your family will pay less and you'll end up with less debt than if you went to top tier state school--especially if it is a top state school out of your state.
- tikhonj 15y ago
  Oh yeah, state schools are absurdly expensive for out-of-state students. I think here they pay more to come to my school than they would at almost any private university. On the other hand, the way the system is set up, it is actually cheaper to go to a state school if your family is richer--financial aid depends on how much you can afford, while in-state tuition is just cheaper for everybody. One of the reasons I ended up going to Berkeley over CMU is that my dad had just cashed out some stock options so I was offered no financial aid at either place. (Maybe we filled the forms out incorrectly, of course, and I would probably have still gone to Berkeley for other reasons, but it's an interesting reversal of expectations--Berkeley was cheaper because, on paper, my family made more...) So the real irony is that going to a nice state school is actually a better deal if you're in the upper-middle class in the Bay Area. It helps if you're also into engineering :)
- got2surf 15y ago
  Just saw this, and wanted to reply for clarity :P I agree with what you're saying - it's not necessarily student loan debt, I misstyped. But the average Yale scholarship package (no loans) is 30k-ish, so the average family pays about 20k a year. I got in to Caltech EA, and it's pretty much the same for me. But basically what I meant is that students from middle-upper middle class (majority of applicants) have families who spent a good amount going to an Ivy/equivalent, so they're even more encouraged and pushed towards a high-paying field. You should see the looks on some of my friends' parents faces when, after 4 years at Yale, their kid wants to become a freelance artist instead of a doctor :P But I do agree, private colleges are almost never "sticker price", and are well worth the money IMO.

tzs 15y ago

The average Yale student has $9k in student loan debt at graduation in 2011. They adopted a no loan policy starting in the 2008-2009 academic year to replace loans with grants. Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and University of Pennsylvania have similar policies. Also, at many of these schools, if you come from a family that has income under around $75-100k (the exact limits depend on the school) they will waive tuition and many fees. The net result is that, at least for students from middle class and lower backgrounds, if you can get into an Ivy League school (or Stanford, Caltech, or MIT), there's a good chance your family will pay less and you'll end up with less debt than if you went to top tier state school--especially if it is a top state school out of your state.

tikhonj 15y ago
Oh yeah, state schools are absurdly expensive for out-of-state students. I think here they pay more to come to my school than they would at almost any private university. On the other hand, the way the system is set up, it is actually cheaper to go to a state school if your family is richer--financial aid depends on how much you can afford, while in-state tuition is just cheaper for everybody. One of the reasons I ended up going to Berkeley over CMU is that my dad had just cashed out some stock options so I was offered no financial aid at either place. (Maybe we filled the forms out incorrectly, of course, and I would probably have still gone to Berkeley for other reasons, but it's an interesting reversal of expectations--Berkeley was cheaper because, on paper, my family made more...) So the real irony is that going to a nice state school is actually a better deal if you're in the upper-middle class in the Bay Area. It helps if you're also into engineering :)
got2surf 15y ago
Just saw this, and wanted to reply for clarity :P I agree with what you're saying - it's not necessarily student loan debt, I misstyped. But the average Yale scholarship package (no loans) is 30k-ish, so the average family pays about 20k a year. I got in to Caltech EA, and it's pretty much the same for me. But basically what I meant is that students from middle-upper middle class (majority of applicants) have families who spent a good amount going to an Ivy/equivalent, so they're even more encouraged and pushed towards a high-paying field. You should see the looks on some of my friends' parents faces when, after 4 years at Yale, their kid wants to become a freelance artist instead of a doctor :P But I do agree, private colleges are almost never "sticker price", and are well worth the money IMO.