Hi all,
I am coming straight out of undergrad, and I don't think I can spend much (if any) money on a degree. The schools I'm considering are:
Harvard
MIT
Berkeley
Penn
I'm thinking of adding on USC because it seems like they give full tuition scholarships often. Does anyone know of schools that tend to offer a lot of merit or need-based aid?
Thanks!
So you want top-notch schools, several in the Ivy League, to just hand out money because you say you need it?
"This is great, honey. What's the crunchy stuff?"
"M&Ms. I ran out of paprika."
Family Guy
Broken Record Time -
We have said this countless times -
Do not go broke over a name.
My 2 cents - State schools are just as good as those on your list.
Oddball
Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves?
Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here?
Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?
From Kelly's Heroes (1970)
Are you sure you're not hurt ?
No. Just some parts wake up faster than others.
Broke parts take a little longer, though.
From Electric Horseman (1979)
Harvard + MIT are both quite generous - e.g., most students get at least 1/2 tuition grants from Harvard, which puts it pretty close to state schools I'd imagine. Not sure about Berkley. UPenn doesn't have much money to dole out.
I'm one of the few dissenters who reads and sometimes comments on this site - I think these top notch schools can be worth it for students, depending on what it is you plan on doing in the future.
I think what he's saying is if you want to be a municipal planner don't go to a name-brand school. If you want to be a land-use attorney then it will benefit you, but otherwise the name on the degree doesn't matter when you interview with the City of Anywhere.
I burned down the church to atone for my transgressions.
If you need to save money, wasting your money on MIT or Harvard isn't going to be the best use of the dollars you have.
I would look at local universities and if you do have to take out loans, at least you will be looking at half or a quarter of the debt you would incur from Ivies or Berkley.
A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. -Douglas Adams
Q. Who will give me a job that pays me $150,000 a year to plan?
A. No one.
Good advice don't take on more debt than you need to. One of the key things you need to consider once getting hired is to save as much money as you can. Those who start saving for retirement in their 20's will be able to be in a much better position at the end of the career due to the magic of compounding and investing early. Every buck you pay off in debt is another $5-$10 you won't have if you saved it and let it grow for 35 years.
You don't want to be in your 40s and still paying off college debts. You will retire a pauper.
We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes - Fr Gabriel Richard 1805
The only way to find out is to apply to the schools you want to go to and see what they offer you. Nearly every school says they give some form(s) of aid, but that's always couched with loans, which is not "aid" unless interest rates are lower than inflation. Although only you can say if a Brand School is worth it or not, I'm squarely in the "don't pay for an education that has dismal job prospects" camp, as well as the "don't be an idiot and pay for an Ivy League education just to get the same job someone from Bitch State has." Read more below.
I would agree that most schools have some type of aid, although you can expect to work for that aid either through an assistantship, work-study, etc. I got $ at a state school though a 20 hour a week assistantship. That only paid for a portion of my school and expenses though.
"Never invest in any idea you can't illustrate with a crayon." ~Peter Lynch
At best you'll get your tuition covered by financial aid. That still leaves you footing the bill for living expenses which are going to be very high at the places you mentioned.
Thanks for the responses. I'm coming out of Harvard undergrad, which actually gave me a ton of aid so I'm graduating with no debt. It would have actually been more expensive for me to go to a state school undergrad, based on financial aid policies.
I'm a CA resident, so that helps with Berkeley. I've seen on the boards that USC and Michigan tend to give a lot of merit aid, too ... anywhere else anyone can think of?
YOu can go to Cal Poly SLO. Make sure you wear a t-shirt to class emblazoned with "Future Macy's Planner" or "Cyburbia". You will make a friend!Originally posted by eastcoaster
We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes - Fr Gabriel Richard 1805
Off-topic:
Oddball
Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves?
Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here?
Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?
From Kelly's Heroes (1970)
Are you sure you're not hurt ?
No. Just some parts wake up faster than others.
Broke parts take a little longer, though.
From Electric Horseman (1979)
Off-topic:
Now that is funny when you know the story/history behind it.
Off-topic:
Now that is funny when you know the story/history behind it.I wondered what happened to him. Now I know!
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. -- John F. Kennedy, January 20, 1961
If you're an exceptional student with thoughtful and well-informed perspectives on relevant issues, many schools "give money," but the country's most prestigious planning programs get a lot of applications from similarly thoughtful and well-informed people. It's also the case that schools give students the opportunity to earn money through external funding sources, and many students will enter programs with the goal of securing such funding through their own research in the coming semesters. Higher-profile schools tend to have more support in place for helping students through the application processes for those resources, so that's worth considering.
Check out the application/acceptance threads from previous years: people usually disclose where they got in and how much money they got. You can find links to the previous threads here: http://www.cyburbia.org/forums/showthread.php?t=47171 My suggestion is that you make a spreadsheet and keep track of the schools/costs/awards/years as you read about them, and see if any interesting patterns emerge.
That is what I did for last year. It seems like a full ride is very, very rare at the point of admission. Significant amounts are more likely. Universities I remember with good funding (maybe half tuition):
Rutgers, Southern California, MIT, Clemson, North Carolina, Delaware
Good luck!
Quote