Untitled topic

Another potentially smart choice is getting into an absolutely top tier school, even if you can't pay for it, and dropping out with unpaid bills (rather than loans); the bills get forgiven or can be discharged in bankruptcy, and dropped out to do join or found a startup is a really reasonable reason to leave. You get the signaling effects of a top tier school with virtually none of the financial cost, and depending on how long you stick around, potentially little of the time cost. (I did this at MIT; I couldn't get any financial aid because my parents wouldn't participate, so I ended up taking classes semester after semester and then getting retroactively de registered for the semester once they realized the bill hadn't been paid.) I believe Steve Jobs did this at Reed, and I know of other people. It is probably safest in a rich private institution vs a state school.