How much money would it take? Forum

[dabbadon8]

There are often discussions in threads that say "I wouldn't go there at sticker" I am curious how much scholly money it would take to make it worth it for you to go to a school where you wouldn't go at sticker? For instance if you wouldn't pay sticker at georgetown how much money would make it worth it to you? At MVP? CCN? etc?

[LurkerNoMore]

There are often discussions in threads that say "I wouldn't go there at sticker" I am curious how much scholly money it would take to make it worth it for you to go to a school where you wouldn't go at sticker? For instance if you wouldn't pay sticker at georgetown how much money would make it worth it to you? At MVP? CCN? etc?

You're looking at this somewhat backwards -- the more relevant number for most people is how much debt you would be willing to take on. Scholarship money usually only counts toward tuition, not living expenses.

My personal calculus was that I did not want to take out more debt (cumulatively) than I could *reasonably* expect to earn my first full year out of law school. This meant that I didn't look at what I might be able to make coming out of a school if I was at the top of my class, but look more at what could I handle if I was at median-ish. Then I made sure I had a plan b if I would up at the bottom.

[NorCalBruin]

I agree with the poster above. It's more important to think about debt than money given.

However, for me, I made a general "rule of thumb" which I use. I don't take it seriously, but I use it as a starting point:

1.) Take the ranking of the best ranked school you can reasonably get into.

2.) When deciding whether or not to consider a school X, subtract the ranking in step one from the ranking of school X, and multiple that number by $2000. (ex: School X #15 - Michigan #9 = 6 x $2000 = 12,000)

3.) If the scholarship PER YEAR derived in step 2 is as larger or larger than the number in step two, seriously consider said school. NOTE: cap the number in step two to "full tuition" or "full tuition + small stipend". In other words, don't expect Cooley to pay you $300,000 to attend their school.

For me, with 169/3.8 the best school I can get into ranking wise is Michigan. Arguably Berkeley or Penn. But whatever, let's say Michigan at #9. Now, I wouldn't use this rule of thumb for direct peer schools like Virginia, Duke, or Penn.

But otherwise, a few examples for my numbers...

A.) Georgetown. #14 - #9 = 5 x $2000 = $10,000 per year = $30,000 total scholarship.

B.) Notre Dame. #22 - #9 = 13 x $2000 = $26,000 per year = $78,000 total scholarship.

C.) Washington & Lee #34 - #9 = 25 x $2000 = Full Tuition

This formula assumes someone is largely unconcerned with region.

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I DON'T Recommend anyone actually use this seriously. It's just a fun starting point for me, personally.

[dabbadon8]

What I am getting at is when does the cost of attended cross into the acceptable range for you? People say I wouldn't attend ______ at sticker for 200k. Well when does that change? 180k? 140k? 100k? How much of a discount would you need to attend?

[Pink]

For me...

I don't want to be more than 100k in debt (total, including my UG debt...which is around 30k) when I graduate for anything less than a T14. Odds are, I'm not getting into a T14 so it will all be based on cost of attendance vs. scholarships. I received a 20k scholly from Minnesota, but at 60k per year COA, it would still leave me 150k in debt when I was done (including UG debt), so it's a no go for me.

[NorCalBruin]

I did answer your question, for me anyway. But, my calculus is based on the discount you're getting, not on the total cost of attendance.

You're really not going to get a good answer. Each school's tuition, job prospects, quality of life, cost of living, etc. are different. Even though I tried to answer your question, there's really no good answer that fits all schools IMO. It would be silly not to look at each school and each situation individually.

[dabbadon8]

I did answer your question, for me anyway. But, my calculus is based on the discount you're getting, not on the total cost of attendance.

You're really not going to get a good answer. Each school's tuition, job prospects, quality of life, cost of living, etc. are different. Even though I tried to answer your question, there's really no good answer that fits all schools IMO. It would be silly not to look at each school and each situation individually.

Yeah I am just curious what people think. There isn't going to be a single right answer.