<p>Hey CC!</p>
<p>So I'm in a bit of a predicament and I was wondering if I could get some input. My problem is mostly that of money. Not all college decisions have come in yet and financial aid hasn't been announced yet, but say I had to choose between Carnegie and W&M. Ignoring financial aid for a minute, Carnegie comes out to about $62k and W&M about $25k (in-state). USNews puts Carnegie at around #23 and W&M around #33.</p>
<p>I'm planning to major in computer science and I understand that Carnegie is [much?] better than W&M in that area. However, does the academic advantage justify the cost? My parents cannot pay the $62k a year (only my father works and he makes 78k/yr so $25k is a bit more reasonable) and I avoid loans like the plague (so many horror stories).</p>
<p>I'm leaning towards W&M myself because I do not want to put my parents under undue stress (I have 4 younger siblings that still need to get through college) and I don't want to spend excessive amounts on an undergraduate degree, especially if I am going to turn around and pay more for graduate school.</p>
<p>What do you all think though?</p>
<p>For those that say Carnegie, is there anything that can take my mind off the money? Has anyone been in this situation that has managed to cover the expenses suitably (work, internship, etc.)? For W&M supporters, what can I tell my parents that would convince them that the money is better than the education?</p>
<p>If you dad makes $78k a year you should be offered pretty substantial financial aid. It actually wound up cheaper for me to attend CMU versus my brother at Pitt (in-state) due to the financial aid from CMU.</p>
<p>As for completely avoiding loans, I wouldn’t do that. [url=<a href="http://www.cmu.edu/career/salaries-and-destinations/2012-survey/pdfs-one-pagers/2012_SCS.pdf]Here’s[/url">http://www.cmu.edu/career/salaries-and-destinations/2012-survey/pdfs-one-pagers/2012_SCS.pdf]Here’s[/url</a>] the post-graduation statistics for CMU CS grads. Having subsidized loans from the government really isn’t that much of a weight when you’re making $60k a year. If you do decide to do the PhD route you won’t have to pay for it, either. You’ll get a stipend that will cover living expenses and tuition will be covered.</p>
<p>Congratulations on being offered admission to two excellent universities. CMU is recognized as having an outstanding CS program. W&M is recognized as an outstanding liberal arts and business school. W&M is not that well known for its CS program - that doesn’t mean that the program is mediocre. However, the graduate outcomes for a CS major may be quite different. I took a brief look at the graduate survey for W&M and the breadth of employers and salary ranges were quite different from CMU. So there appears to be a strong advantage to CMU over W&M for CS. However, if you don’t stick with CS there is no advantage to going to CMU - - the opposite IMO. </p>
<p>If you know for sure that you will stick with CS then you have to balance the pros and cons of your different options. CMU without financial aid is too expensive IMO. Did you apply to any other in-state schools? The CS programs at UVA and VT are larger than W&M’s and will give you exposure to more potential employers. Without financial aid I’d pick UVA/VT over CMU or W&M for CS. If you get significant financial aid then of course I’d go with CMU (but aid mostly in grants not loans).</p>
<p>Just going to throw out there that I know a very successful CS major who did his undergrad at W&M and masters at Columbia. You’ll have to make the judgement call on how much debt you want to take on, my wife ('05 CMU grad) will be done paying off her loans in another 8 years.</p>
<p>William & Mary is a top public university just like Carnegie Mellon is a top private University. They are peer schools in most of the fields. Definitely choose the cheaper one. Did you not get accepted to University of Virginia ?</p>
<p>@RacinReaver: Thank you! I <em>should</em> get good financial aid, I think, but UIUC gave me hardly anything at all. I know its on a school by school basis but from what I’ve heard Carnegie isn’t too good with financial aid either. Those statistics are very appealing, though. Would you happen to know where I can find a similar chart for W&M? My searches turned up nothing.</p>
<p>@ChrisTKD: I applied to CNU, VT, and UVA as my other in-states but, unfortunately, I only got into CNU (but I hardly see CNU as an option). I’m fairly certain that I’ll be sticking with CS, unless I have a massive change of heart, so CMU is looking to be my better bet. From what I can gather, along with RacinReaver’s link, it might not be too much of a burden to take out and pay back loans.</p>
<p>@da6onet: Yup, those are the kind of stories that have me apprehensive, haha. Being bound to a loan for 16 years isn’t how I think I’d want to be living. Well, I’m not really sure… Is she doing all right, in terms of living comfortably and paying it back? It’s not so much those stories that I hear, but the ones about not being able to pay it back and the debt triples in size, etc. that I fear. Based on what you’ve seen from your friend and wife, which way would you recommend?</p>
<p>@XtremePower: That’s kind of my way of thinking. Same as I told Chris: I got into CNU as my other instate, so I’m left with W&M as my only cheap(ish) school.</p>
<p>I don’t have the stats handy, but you can check this thread curated by ucbalumnus. It has a ton of post-graduate surveys: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys.html</a></p>
<p>CMU can be stingy with their aid, but it all depends on how much they want you. I was able to get them to match the aid offer from RPI, otherwise I’d probably have gone there. I wound up with around $20k in loans. A few thousand was unsubsidized, so I took the money I earned during the nine months between undergrad and grad (I finished a semester early) and used it to pay off that loan. The rest has been deferred (meaning I pay no interest, and the loans don’t accrue any interest) since 2007.</p>
<p>I think the other thing that’s important which is being ignored here is how you feel you’d fit in at the school. I don’t know if I’d say CMU is a pressure cooker, but there’s a ton of work, and you really have to love what you’re doing in order to succeed.</p>
<p>The admissions decisions at universities never cease to stupify me. If you were accepted to CMU and W&M you should have been a competitive applicant at both VT and UVA. I can understand getting waitlisted or rejected at UVA because the gpa thresholds are ridiculously high and they have a bunch of artsy fartsy essays. But, VT is usually less competitive than CMU. Oh well. Definitely W&M over Christopher Newport. If you can swing the loans then go CMU. You would be expected to work hard at either university.</p>
<p>If loans really give you heartburn then I’ll throw out another option. Go to W&M for one year and attempt to transfer to UVA as a sophomore. UVA offers a BS in CompSci in the Engineering school and a BA in CompSci from the College of Arts and Sciences. It would probably be easiest to stay on track for graduation if you went with the BA.</p>