A friend of mine is actually doing this. She's going for Public Health and, despite her amazing stats and experience record, she hasn't been offered much aid at any of the schools she was accepted to. She only got the $50k loan package because her mentor knows someone. The program also told her that she can't work during the time she's there. Still, I believe her mentor told her to just go to Columbia for the prestige and the fact that she'll likely make $100k as soon as she graduates. This obviously isn't the case with counseling/education related professions though, so I would not accept if I was in your position.