I’m a rising senior, and have just been accepted to the Macaulay honors program at Baruch college, and to American University. American is my top school, but free college is tough to turn down, and even with my merit award, American is far from cheap. My major at American is currently public relations, but I’m likely going to change it to international relations or business. In addition I applied to several special programs there, and am waiting to hear from them. At Baruch, I would study international business, with the main draw being the lack of tuition, though I know Baruch is one of the best business schools in NY. Any input or advice would be welcome.
Baruch with Macauley Honors to study International Business is the better choice due to free tuition & a more valuable major than that at American University.
Save your tuition dollars for living expenses during undergraduate school & for earning a specialty masters degree if desired.
Free is good, debt is bad.
You may love DC but this is a pretty easy choice go to Baruch Honors, especially if you think grad school is in your future. More international companies in NY, the UN is here and you can do not want debt if you can avoid it. what is the difference in price?
Macaulay Honors the easy choice.
NJdad07090- American at this point would cost me about $45k a year including dorm and other fees, while macaulay at baruch is tuition free, so I would pay about 15K a year for dorm. If I went to American I would probably switch my major to International relations or something similar, as that is one of the programs they are known for, and I know i’d be able to make a lot of connections in D.C.
@jbcasssidy in my view you have a pretty easy choice save 120K by going to school in NYC. You will debt free , I assume if you went to Maculay, and can make greta connections in NYC. I assume you could find use for 120,000 after you graduate right?
Making connections in Wash DC may not be as easy as one hopes for. Important to engage in internships & externships. Lots of competition from other DC area schools as well as from many elite East Coast schools. Lots of ambitious young folks want to be in the center of power.
P.S. I believe that American University offers a Washington DC semester to students from dozens of other colleges & universities.
Well, at Macaulay, you can network in NYC. How is that worse than networking in DC?
And why would you switch majors just because a school is “known for it”? What longer-term goals do you have?
BTW, yes, IR is among AU’s strongest majors, but AU isn’t Georgetown or even GWU in the DC pecking order. At Macaulay, you’d get special programs and support, and with the money saved, you could pay for a master’s degree (or a couple) in DC.
Save your money, take advantage of the numerous opportunities in New York, do a semester in DC and a semester abroad using the opportunities fund or the extra 120K.
My son is completing his junior year at Macaulay-John Jay and was able to get some excellent connections. One in particular was an internship at the (State Department) United States Mission to the United Nations, Economic and Social Council in New York during the General Assembly. He directly participated in negotiations within the UN General Assembly as well as meetings with senior-level U.S. government and foreign government officials. He also invited us (his parents) to meet President Trump and although he is a controversial figure, I was pretty certain this was my only chance to meet a President.
He has studied abroad for two summers (Russia through the American Councils for International Education and the other was to the Baltics through Hunter College). This summer he got a prestigious (stipended) research opportunity that has since been canceled due to Corona.