<prompt> Human: Hello,I am a German student who really wants to see what its like to live and study in an ivy league in NYC. To be honest, there are also family reasons involved, but anyways, I want to ask for your advice on my situation.One semester at Columbia will probably cost me about 30,000 including all sorts of costs and I might or might not get some kind of a scholarship which I dont expect to exceed much more than 5000.Now, before I started college in Germany, I actually managed to get into a good company in the US where I worked for 1,5 years and managed to save about 35,000. Now, I am really not sure if it is a good move to put almost all of my savings into a semester at a school, which obviously is renowned, but still - it would be just for a semester and wouldnt be an actual degree from Columbia.On the other hand, I am really doing well in the German college so far and I could probably graduate with an overall A- and maybe it would be better to try to apply for a graduate program later on and potentially get a better scholarship and most importantly - actually graduate from a really good school. And in the meantime I could invest most of my money into the stock market and just leave it there.What is your opinion on that?EDIT:Thanks for the plenty of answers.I think I really should have pointed out that the semester would be an exchange semester, i.e. it would give me 12 credits toward my undergrad degree I am currently pursuing in Germany.  <response>: Theres no value in one semester there. When people look at your resume they want to see what school you graduated from. If you have been accepted to Columbia then why not contact their financial aid office and see if they can help you at all? Maybe there are scholarships you arent aware of, or maybe you could work some while you are there. If you cant finish your degree there though I dont see any value in going for just a semester. 