Tuesday is May 1st, and in the US it is the deadline for most colleges/universities to accept their offer of admission. Lucky me, I got accepted various place and had a wide variety of schools to choose from. By now I have narrowed the list down to American University and my local community college. My problem is that I cannot decide on which to attend. Both have their merits and drawbacks, of which I have yet to find any way for either school to one up the other and make my decision easier. American University is a great school in Washington D.C. (US capital) that allows many opportunities for it's students, but its estimated cost of attendance is roughly $53,500 per yer. Being the student I am, American awarded me an about $34,000 grant. That still leaves, however, about $20,000 that I would have to cover, which mean my taking on a vast amount of loans. My local community college will most likely be free because I can get into their Honors Program. But it is not the caliber of American University, and only offers two-year degrees. After two years I could reapply to American, or any other university, and incur only have the debt I would if attending all four years. I really do not know what to do, so some advice would be appreciated.
Hmm personally I would just go straight to American University, however since it sounds like your short on cash it sounds like the best option is to go to the community college for two years and then to the American university.
I agree with Viking. Two years at your community college and then 2 more years at American sounds better, just because you would be in less debt in the end. Then again, I am only a highschool freshmen, so my opinion does not really matter much in this situation lol.
Straight to American. Community colleges are pretty much known for being ass. Unless your community college happens to be like Colorado University or something.
The community college I am referring to is fifth in the nation. That's what makes this decision so hard. If it were a shitty school then I wouldn't consider going their.
It depends on alot. Does the 30k include your fafsa awards? Also there's a lot of scholarships out there that you can probably tap into. I know I get almost 25k in fafsa which would make up your difference. If you can't financially swing it 2 years at a cc isn't the end of the world. You miss out a lot on the college experience and networking opportunities, which is probably the best part about American.
American University, you gave the experience of Independence and I find University more prestige than community college
I'm in the same boat as a Coex (we both applied to American). We got more or less the same financial aid: about $30,000 in grants and about $8000 in loans from FAFSA and all that. That would leave about another $20,000 in loans to take on (which would be on us personally, because my mom can't take on any of it). By the end of 4 years we would accrue over $90,000 in debt. It makes community college look really good.
I think this decision depends on what you feel like pursuing in college. In most cases starting off in community college then transferring after 2 years is fine; but if you're planning to do anything technical, you'll be better off going to American straight away. It's better to start off with as large of an academic advantage as you can get for technical degrees.
I would go to a cc for a year or 2 then. American is a good school but it's not a school I'd put myself into 100k of debt for.
Yeah, there's my dilemma. The thing is, looking up the statistics for how may AU students who get jobs in their major from internships provided by the school was pretty high, and there is no guarantee that if I reapply in two years I will get such a good package. Thanks for the input by the way.
I got a 2 yer scholarship to UCLA, what I am going to do is go to my cc for my first 2 years then transfer for my degree.
Personally, I would go to community college first. I was offered the same, or at least similar, offer to free cc as you, but I didn't take it because the college I'm going to (Stockton) is pretty cheap with my scholarships.
