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Is money ever a reason to turn down H/S? I have been accepted to Stanford, held at Harvard

Is full tuition at NYU, Chi, or Columbia >>>H/S

facts about me:

I am considered "needy": single parent household w/ income between 40-60k, other dependents in the household, plus undergrad loans. Does this give me a good chance at (considerable) money from S?

I wouldn't be surprised if you received considerable need-based aid from HYS. That should narrow the gap in cost between HYS and CCN considerably. You should also think about where and what kind of law you want to practice, and whether your chosen career would qualify for LRAP.

Yale >> Not Yale

moneybagsphd wrote:Yale >> Not Yale

lol maybe i shouldve just put H/S. Did not apply to yale, no shot

moneybagsphd wrote:Yale >> Not Yale

Yale is the only school that should be coming into the discussion when talking about turning down 200K+ from Chicago/Columbia. And even then there's a strong case to be made that if you just want biglaw (particularly NYC biglaw) that CC is still the better choice.

But if you get aid you won't be turning down that much...

Full tuition scholarships at Chicago and NYU often have earlier deadlines, so you might have to decide before receiving financial aid offers from Harvard and Stanford.

soj wrote:Full tuition scholarships at Chicago and NYU often have earlier deadlines, so you might have to decide before receiving financial aid offers from Harvard and Stanford.

which is my big concern

Does anyone know when you usually hear back about aid from Harvard and Stanford?

Dani.B wrote:

soj wrote:Full tuition scholarships at Chicago and NYU often have earlier deadlines, so you might have to decide before receiving financial aid offers from Harvard and Stanford.

which is my big concern

Does anyone know when you usually hear back about aid from Harvard and Stanford?

You can probably push on this if you explain your situation to them. I wouldn't make any decisions before calling Stanford's Financial Aid people to see if they can give you an amount before X/XX/2012.

Doorkeeper wrote:

Dani.B wrote:

soj wrote:Full tuition scholarships at Chicago and NYU often have earlier deadlines, so you might have to decide before receiving financial aid offers from Harvard and Stanford.

which is my big concern

Does anyone know when you usually hear back about aid from Harvard and Stanford?

You can probably push on this if you explain your situation to them. I wouldn't make any decisions before calling Stanford's Financial Aid people to see if they can give you an amount before X/XX/2012.

Will do! thanks!

Dani.B wrote:Is money ever a reason to turn down H/S? I have been accepted to Stanford, held at Harvard

Is full tuition at NYU, Chi, or Columbia >>>H/S

facts about me:

I am considered "needy": single parent household w/ income between 40-60k, other dependents in the household, plus undergrad loans. Does this give me a good chance at (considerable) money from S?

Would you prefer to go the very best schools and come out $200,000 in debt, or would you rather go to the best schools and come out without debt?

If you have dependents, then it's stupid to choose H/S at stcker over Columbia, Chicago or NYU for free.
If you don't have dependents, it's probably equally stupid, but at least no one else is affected by your bad decisions.

That being said, if you get money out of either of those schools, it'll narrow the gap.
But think of it this way: if you couldn't borrow the money for S/H but had to save up and pay cash, would you?

I'm in a vaguely similar situation, and based on everyone I've talked to there isn't really a correct answer here. It depends on what you want to do, how important clerkship chances are to you, where you want to practice, your comfort level with debt, etc.

That said, you might end up with pretty generous aid packages from H/S, which would change the calculus pretty dramatically.

I would take full tuition at any one of Chicago, Columbia or NYU over sticker at Harvard or Stanford any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

If you go to a firm afterward, those loans are gonna be over $2,000 a month, every month, for ten years. Think about what that means. Really think about it.

If you get need-based aid the calculus changes.

dixiecupdrinking wrote:I would take full tuition at any one of Chicago, Columbia or NYU over sticker at Harvard or Stanford any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

If you go to a firm afterward, those loans are gonna be over $2,000 a month, every month, for ten years. Think about what that means. Really think about it.

If you get need-based aid the calculus changes.

I would take it 19 times on Sundays.

..

dixiecupdrinking wrote:I would take full tuition at any one of Chicago, Columbia or NYU over sticker at Harvard or Stanford any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

+1

Calculus changes if you get significant need-aid from HS.

If you only want to do biglaw, then you can still make an argument for CCN full tuition. Because, let's be real, 167.5k starting salary with minimal debt (COL) is pretty magnificent.

PMan99 wrote:

moneybagsphd wrote:Yale >> Not Yale

Yale is the only school that should be coming into the discussion when talking about turning down 200K+ from Chicago/Columbia. And even then there's a strong case to be made that if you just want biglaw (particularly NYC biglaw) that CC is still the better choice.

But if you get aid you won't be turning down that much...

There's not a meaningful difference between Yale and Stanford.

Flash wrote:

PMan99 wrote:

moneybagsphd wrote:Yale >> Not Yale

Yale is the only school that should be coming into the discussion when talking about turning down 200K+ from Chicago/Columbia. And even then there's a strong case to be made that if you just want biglaw (particularly NYC biglaw) that CC is still the better choice.

But if you get aid you won't be turning down that much...

There's not a meaningful difference between Yale and Stanford.

LOL