Thursday, May 21, 2015

This Student Who Got into All 8 Ivies Didn't Go For the Most Depressing Reason

Taking on debt of any large size for any reason should be carefully weighed, whether it is a house, car, or student loans in this case. Make sure you've thought about the decisions you choose to make before assuming they are the best because everyone else thinks so. This article is a great example of using some reflection and critical thought before decision making occurs.

The star student of Houston High School in Memphis, Tennessee, scored entry into all eight of America's prestigious Ivy League schools. Nelson was certainly qualified, graduating with a 4.58 weighted GPA, a 2260 out of 2400 SAT score and 15 AP classes. He was also a national merit scholar and president of his high school class, Business Insider reports, along with being a state-recognized alto saxophone player. 
Nelson, however, decided to forgo the big-name schools in favor of the University of Alabama. The reason, he said, came down to cost. 
Loans. Stories like Nelson's are becoming more common as America's most prestigious schools continue to grow financially out of reach for more and more students. Over the last 40 years, college expenses have been rising at a breathtaking pace. Since 1978, college costs have skyrocketed more than 1,100%. Today, the ten most expensive colleges in the United States all cost more than $60,000 a year. Predictably too, student loan debt has been growing in America every year since at least 1992, reaching more than $35,000 per average borrower in 2014. 
 The ballooning costs add further weight to questions about the relative value of attending other prestigious academic institutions. In a host of other metrics measured by the data company PayScale, less well-known colleges like the Oregon Institute of Technology and Brigham Young University performed better than Harvard and Yale in their return on investment to students.

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