<p>I know this has probably been asked countless times before, but I'm still going to ask it (It's a forum, don't get mad at me, this is where people go to ask questions). Are Top-Tier colleges really worth it? </p>
<p>I want to be an engineer, so I'm looking for a strong engineering program. I live in Indiana so I have the opportunity for Rose-Hulman and more importantly, the low-tuition Purdue. Would it be wise to choose Rose-Hulman or Purdue over MIT?</p>
<p>I'm a freshman in High school, so I am asking this question looking forward four years. Would be striving to get into MIT or Berkeley really be worth the extra work? For something like MIT you need clubs, approx. 3.9 GPA, very high SAT, almost perfect ACT, lots of volunteer hours and the list goes on and on. For Purdue, you need atleast a 3.3 GPA and 2100 SAT. Would striving for MIT really be worth all the stress of high school and then of the engineering program itself. I mean, Purdue isn't bad, its ranking #11 On US Rankings. If you think of the thousands of schools there are that is excellent.</p>
<p>In addition to being excellent, Purdue is CHEAP. It is $23K instate where as MIT is $53k instate. Even though I most likely will not be taking much in loans as my parents are prepared to pay, I don't want to put that financial burden upon my parents. </p>
<p>What are your thoughts?</p>
<p>*Note, just because Purdue is easier to get into does not mean I would start slacking off. I'm still going to work hard, just not as hard and I won't have to go crazy stressing out.</p>
<p>If money is an issue, and you cannot get sufficient financial aid for an OOS school like MIT, then Purdue is an excellent option.</p>
<p>If money is not an issue, Purdue is still and excellent option. It basically just comes down to you wanting to go to a school that has the reputation MIT does or not.</p>
<p>“For something like MIT you need clubs, approx. 3.9 GPA, very high SAT, almost perfect ACT, lots of volunteer hours and the list goes on and on.”</p>
<p>Do you really? I’m mostly referring to the clubs and volunteer hours. Doing a million clubs isn’t going to help you. Pretty much every college website says it’s better to really devote yourself to a couple of activities.
And your extracurriculars shouldn’t <em>only</em> be for college. They should be enjoyable enough that you don’t mind doing them and find meaning in them outside of college applications.</p>
<p>I’d recommend visiting both and applying to both and seeing which one would end up being cheaper and a better fit for you. You never actually pay the sticker price.</p>
<p>Maybe not a ton of club and volunteer hours, but you get the gist of what I was saying. Now about the money issue, it’s not a huge issue but it’s of course certainly there. But even if MIT was more expensive, is it worth the cost? Does #1 or #3 really make a night and day difference vs #11 in terms of salary or ease of finding a job? </p>
<p>Also, my freshman year is not where I want it to be. My GPA is a little lower than where I wanted (3.5) and I don’t have many extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>We can’t speak on whether a college is worth it or not. That’s too broad a statement and differs on the individual. You don’t need a million clubs to get into MIT. Or a 3.9 GPA. Does it help? Absolutely. But you need to evaluate it yourself.</p>
<p>Truth be told, many engineering programs are stressful. Purdue engineering will be stressful. It’s a characteristic of the field.</p>
<p>In my opinion, you can still be very successful either way. If you aim for Purdue, you can have more relaxation time. If you aim for MIT, you have much less relaxation time. But, this varies from person to person.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech, for example, is as good an engineering program as you can find in this country, yet admission is quite easy. Staying in & graduating are not easy, however. Purdue is an outstanding engineering school with modest admission standards when compared to CalTech & MIT. My point is that getting into an outstanding engineering program does not need to be stressful, but you’ll experience stress while in the program.</p>
<p>I understand Engineering programs are stressful (is the job of an engineer though?) My main point was, 4 years of stress in college vs 8 years of stress throughout. </p>
<p>Also, for people in engineering programs right now, how is the stress? Do you think you’ll be fine? have you ever considered changing majors? did you want to be an engineer (passion vs money)? Do you get to experience college life or are you working all the time?</p>
<p>That depends on what type of engineer, what type of company you are working for (or self-employed), etc. </p>
<p>My grandfather is a metallurgical engineer; he’s 76 and still works (part-time) and it’s always been a somewhat stressful job (a lot of jobs are) but now that he is self-employed, definitely less so than when he was working for a company (he worked for a major airline). So it really just depends.</p>
<p>My son graduated last year from Case Western in Ohio. He is now in a PhD program at Ohio State.Case offered him 17K merit aid to start, and he received 22.5 aid his junior and senior year.He has a lucrative internship at GE while he was there.We were totally thrilled at Case as his parents. I am a CA native and I was disgusted with Berkeley and all the homeless around campus. It has only gotten worse through the years. UC Berkeley is a great school in a disgusting area,IMO.</p>
<p>You also may want to consider the income gap from e who went to MIT vs. Purdue/Ga Tech (if there is one) not to mention that that’s a lot of money for just your undergrad degree (& how long it’ll take to pay off student loans)</p>
<p>I know I say this a lot, and you may hate me for it, but it’s not worth the stress this early, especially since you have to consider if after the 3 years of struggling for MIT, if you’ll even get in.</p>
<p>(Hey fellow 16’er!)
Computer Engineering is hardware design and generally (According to my dad) harder than computer science (He has a degree in both). </p>
<p>Also, there are really nice engineering schools for sub-3.75 GPA kids.</p>
<p>You already know some, but here are my suggestions:
Case Western Reserve University (So much merit money…)
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
UC Santa Barbara (UC=University of California at)
UC Irvine
UCLA
Texas
Georgia Tech</p>
<p>I think you might like some of the ones on the list really well.</p>
<p>Apollo, are the UCs you mentioned selective or fairly easy to be accepted into. I would love to go to a UC school if I could. Thanks for the list, I’ll look into those! Atlantic, I think I actually agreed with you, maybe you misunderstood me. I was saying that I don’t think it was worth it and wanted your opinions.</p>
<p>Yeah, I was sort of directing my post at MIT.</p>
<p>I think as long as you do your best, even if you don’t get accepted into MIT you can still get into some higher ones. (again Georgia Tech comes to mind)</p>
<p>It really depends on what you want in a school.
For me yes, because at my income bracket I will receive enough financial aid that I won’t have to take out any loans. For many others yes for the same reason. That being said, you can go to a different school and excel just as much, it seems that you will have plenty of options.</p>
<p>You will be challenged with just about any ABET accredited engineering program. Just visit the schools you are interested in and make a decision based on all the factors: cost, fit, location, and whether you feel comfortable there.</p>
<p>Also consider some of the other [Association</a> of Independent Technological Universities: AITU](<a href=“http://theaitu.org%5DAssociation”>http://theaitu.org) schools. Some may give you a very nice financial aid package.</p>
<p>For engineering, all schools will have pretty much the same material, the only difference is the quality of lab equipment and location of nearby companies, which will benefit you if you want an internship or job after graduating.</p>