MONEY TALKS

When deciding where to attend school, I was originally attracted to an out of state school, preferably somewhere where it would be sunny year round. While I applied to many schools in California initially, I soon learned upon retrieval of acceptance letters that this “out of state dream” was unattainable. With a price tag of over $30,000 a year for the CHEAPEST university in California I was shocked that anyone can even afford to go somewhere like this. Though the price included on-campus housing and a meal plan, the price over exceeded the price I would have ever thought to pay for college. I then received my acceptance letter from Oregon State University where the price was much lower, just about a full ride opportunity after scholarships and FASFA assistance. This made my decision very easy, either go to a school in California and be over $100,000 in debt or go to Oregon State University and have no debt.. In the long run, I would have attended school anywhere to avoid this $100,000 debt that was associated with a California institution. Though I am sure I would have had a good time in California, I am very happy with my decision to attend Oregon State. I have made many lifelong friends and will have numerous opportunities in the future to move to a sunny place such as SoCAl when it won’t break the bank for me to live there. Also, I have no stress of leaving college with any sort of regret about money or debt that a lot of people associate with going to college.