trail wrote:
This may have already been discussed on this thread, I haven't checked the whole thing... I've recently been accepted to a few schools, and I'm weighing options. Now that I'm calculating financial aid packages, I can't help but notice that with the changes in the GI Bill implemented in August, the total package we vets get at public schools is just outrageously better than at a private one.
If the GI Bill is offering to pay full tuition at a public school but it's capped at ~$18500 TA annually for a private school.... well, apart from HSW, it just doesn't seem to make sense to go to a private institution when you can go to Haas, Darden, UCLA or Ross with virtually the same opportunities as any other program. Am I crazy?
I have good offers from top 10 programs, but I'm probably going to turn them down to attend one of the public university programs. Combine a public university program like UCLA, throw in a merit scholarship, and you can actually pocket cash while at school, as opposed to going into six-figure debt at Kellogg, Chicago or Tuck.
I'm eager to hear everyone's thoughts on this. I'm married with a kid on the way, so going to school and getting out debt free is pretty huge to me. If I could go back in time, I would have targeted all the top 15 public schools.
You didn't mention Yellow Ribbon--most private schools offer YR these days, which will match the VA's contribution of $17.5K if you're at the 100% level on the GI Bill. Throw in YR with the VA's money and you're not going to graduate with anywhere near six-figure debt.
You also may want to confirm that the GI Bill pays full tuition for public schools--I could never get a really good answer on that subject. I know that the GI Bill is supposed to pay tuition at the maximum credit hour rate for a public school in a particular state, but that applies much more directly to undergrads than to grad students. I always got the feeling that $17.5K was the cap for grad schools whether they were public or private. Maybe someone on here at a public school MBA program can confirm how much they're actually getting from the VA.
My advice (same advice I got from a few vets at Stanford last year) is to go to the best school you can get in to and don't worry too much about the money side of things. By "best school" I don't mean to go strictly by rankings--I mean to consider school location, where and what you want to do after graduation, your "fit" at each one, alumni network, course offerings, etc. In the grand scheme of things, $20-30K of student loans is not a lot of money when you're talking about your potential earnings over the next 30-40 years. I turned down merit scholarships at two public schools in favor of another school, and aside from the short-term hit on my bank account I still feel like I made the right call.