Accepting an offer before FASFA reward letter? Choosing a lower ranked school with funding vs a higher ranked school without?

[Slothsleeper]

One of the schools I'm highly considering is the Rutgers Clinical PsyD program, which only provides partial funding for the first year and no funding after. PsyD programs, like medical school, do not generally provide funding. As far as programs go Rutgers is a fairly affordable PsyD program for in-state students in comparison to other PsyD programs and is commonly considered one of, if not the, best in the country. It has been my top choice school for a long time, however the deadline to accept is on the 15th and I still haven't received a fasfa award letter letting me know that I am receiving loans or how much the actual tuition will be. They have last year's tuition posted on the website. I've talked to the school financial aid office and they have no idea why the financial award is taking so long, but it probably won't arrive by the time I need to give an official decision and that's freaking me out.

Should I just accept? I have my award letters from other programs already.

Alternately I have been surprisingly offered a full 4 year scholarship to another program, which does not rank nearly as highly and is not a program I would have considered attending otherwise, in a city that I despise. I did not like the program during the interview, and the school is in a highly conservative Midwest city with shaky racial politics, and I am a minority so I worry a bit about that. The program has a decent match rate but not nearly as good as Rutgers. Should I choose a lower ranked and less competitive school for free, or go to Rutgers which is commonly considered the top PsyD program in the country and take out loans? 

Like medical school my biggest concern is the internship match after graduation. Quality of life is another. Someone help me me out here.

Thank you!

Edited April 12, 2016 by Slothsleeper

[eternallyephemeral]

Is there any reason that the FASFA reward letter wouldn't come in? If you know that you will get accepted, I would go with that school.

If the tuition is reasonable and you think you would be able to pay it off, and if you like the program/city/placement rate/school ranking/governmental politics/local diversity better than the other school, I think for your own happiness you should go to the school you want. However, I would only say that if you could keep the debt reasonable and you know you will be able to pay it off (I don't know what kind of tuition rates there are for PsyDs, but hopefully its less than medical school loans or something).

Although I usually wouldn't advise someone to go to a doctoral program without funding, when you really dont want to go to the one thats funding you, and you only went because of the money, you will probably be miserable afterwards and not motivated to finish. Just my thoughts.