<p>My son was accepted into SCS at CMU and it is his first choice. His main interests within CS are robotics and AI. We are very concerned about the cost, however, since he probably will attend grad school (to eventually become a professor). It's looking like he may have a debt of $100k just for the undergraduate degree. The other schools he's considering are UPitt where he has full tuition plus grant money, and Bucknell (somewhat affordable), where he would be a presidential fellow doing research every semester.
Does anyone know how easily it would be for him to transfer to CMU after one or two years at Pitt? I'm thinking that may be a way to make it more affordable.
Any other thoughts or advice concerning our situation would be appreciated.</p>
<p>I normally advise people to take the State honors over large at expense at a private. But SCS is kinda unique. To start with, if he does fairly well at SCS he will not be paying for graduate school if he stays in his field. Also he will be looking at good paying summer jobs from his sophomore year forward, at least. So what I’m saying is that SCS is a pretty sure thing in terms of a future income stream, if you perform.</p>
<p>It is possible to transfer from Pitt, but hard. </p>
<p>Typically top privates will not offer financial aid packages which they think would result in $100K of debt, so there must be a family decision about spending out of family assets and income. One thing that might mitigate the cost slightly is if you have FA offers other top privates which are greater than CMU, show it to them and they will match it. Best of luck to you in making your decision. </p>
<p>I was accepted to Carnegie Mellon SCS and UCSD with the Jacobs Scholarship (full ride).</p>
<p>@kaukauna, what do you mean by ‘he will not be paying for graduate school if he stays in his field’? That graduate school would be free, or just unnecessary? Also, when you say Carnegie will match top privates, do you think this would extend to UC San Diego for the Jacobs Scholarship? Thanks.</p>
<p>UC San Diego is not private, so not sure that “match” would extend to it.</p>
<p>I just posted a thread with that exact question except its for Computer Engineering not CS! We could probably scrounge up the cash but then no $$$ for grad school! I’ve been reading that grad school is more important anyway but I’ve also heard that grad school often gets funded by the school you go to if you’re good enough so I’m very interested to see where this goes too.</p>
<p>Will CMU match RPI? Got 20k from them which could be a game changer.</p>
<p>hyperform - Regarding graduate school, I’m assuming that if your son were to get through CMU SCS with a decent GPA he would be able to go to a number of top graduate schools of computer science. Because of the demand for comp sci PhD’s, he would stand a very good chance of getting it paid for. But to answer your second question, a graduate degree would be unnecessary to make a fine career outside of academia. The CMU SCS’s are the cream of the crop. </p>
<p>Regarding the financial aid, I do not think CMU would consider UC SD a comparable school. I’m talking about aid offers from places like MIT, Johns Hopkins, etc–schools CMU would consider peers.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you. Your son must be one smart cookie to achieved these admissions and scholarships. </p>
<p>hyperform - Another thought. The one thing I am sure of that the decision will be hard. Your situation is the classic dilemma that you see described so often on these CC boards. But keep in mind that these are wonderful dilemmas and I expect your son will do great whatever decision your family makes.</p>