Anyone else getting cold feet?

Congratulations on admit - must be a relief.

I got a full ride but I still had to borrow about 40K to spend on living expenses/travel/projects/etc.

Having come out of the BSchool, had a hard time finding a good job. I had a job that paid bills but it took probably a year to get into the one that I wanted. You can take my example as your worst case scenario It worked out for me and looking back - I don't think i would have changed a whole lot. Having a loan was not an issue but it is a psychological challenge. I basically just closed my eyes on it.

The loans kick in about 6 months after graduation. Which by the way, MBA students have the lowest default rates in the industry (less than Law School or Med School or college or...), so this should be something to give you an indication that to fail on the BSchool student loan, you really have to be special

Finally, I have not paid off my school loans still (been 5 or 6 or so years). I still have $20K hanging around because it is at 2-3% APR and my payment is $200/month. Assuming you borrow $100K, you will be at at 1,000 per month or slightly higher due to probably a higher interest rate. That's a meaningful amount, but only $12K per year if you look at it this way. (Though on the flip side, the worst part of the student loans, which many dont realize is that the interest accrues while you are at school, at least private loans do, so if you borrow 100K, you are really graduating with $110K of debt).

My final words of wisdom having a wife and a kid and another one on the way - there is not going to be a break until I am 60 or dead, so if I did not have the MBA experience, I would not have had much outside of my job and I did not like my job that much for it to be my life. I will stop rambling for now.