<p>We are about the same level financially and ruled out any expensive options, D did not even apply (she is only one, S has done long time ago). This should have been settled before applying with specific plan what to do in case of rejection/acceptance. If it is not possible to fund Chicago, then it is not an option. We all live within our limits. If there are doubts, then I must conclude that there is a way to fund a dream school, then go for it.</p>
<p>I am dwelling on a better question: A somewhat expensive prestigious public (Berkeley, UMich, UVa) or a cheaper but less prestigious private (Tufts, Rochester, Brandeis)
URochester & Brandeis are the same low price. I have to pay 7.6k more for UMich and 3.4k more for UVa.
I am aiming for med school btw, or engineering</p>
<p>sounds good- with two kids in college- it should be doable cause I am sure they are a meet 100% need school- plus there is probably merit aid through private foundations aimed at Uchicago students- like there is at other schools.</p>
<p>( i was replying to OP)</p>
<p>I’m don’t know anything about Rochester but I would not call Tufts or Brandeis less prestigious than the three publics listed. As for getting into medical school, I doubt there is much difference in acceptance rates among those schools.</p>
<p>Rochester is also not less “prestigious.” I hate that concept because it’s largely meaningless. You pick where you want to go, which school has your program and which school you can afford. </p>
<p>Med school and engineering are both hard and somewhat contradictory - unless one is doing biomed (and thus wants to add the rest of premed to a difficult curriculum).</p>
<p>Engineering is just something to fall back on if I didn’t get into med school, and yea, I will be doing biomedical.
They’re “less prestigious” only when they are compared to the prestigious privates (Ivies, Duke, Northwestern…)</p>
<p>OP quote: *“the amount FAFSA says it should be (15k)”
*</p>
<p>somemom quote: *
Are you saying your EFC is $15k on your FAFSA SAR?</p>
<p>If so, that is the amount your family should be paying per FAFSA rules.*</p>
<p>What??? There is no “FAFSA rule” that say all parents have to pay for is their EFC? Where did you get that from??? FAFSA is a federal number that colleges use to determine what federal aid the student qualifies for. Colleges that only use FAFSA aren’t obligated to only charge that amount. The gov’t can’t mandate that.</p>
<p>Demonhunter…</p>
<p>If med school is a possibility, then you need to go wherever is cheaper and won’t give you debt. You’ll need to save your money and borrowing power for med school.</p>
<p>A somewhat expensive prestigious public (Berkeley, UMich, UVa) or a cheaper but less prestigious private (Tufts, Rochester, Brandeis)</p>
<p>You’re NOT comparing Tufts, URoch, & Brandeis to ivies, you’re comparing them to UCB, UMich, UVa. The former group is NOT less prestigious to the latter group.</p>
<p>I think the OP should take the state school and then apply to U. of Chicago for grad school.
The finances work out better. No one should be financially stressed to pay for college education.</p>
<p>I would agree that Brandeis and Tufts are no less prestigoius than the prestigious public or private schools you’re referring to. CC is not a barometer of prestige. The issue is fit.</p>
<p>If your goal is excellent undergrad science-research opportunites within a small liberal arts school environment, Brandeis cannot be beat. Plus, if you’re pre-med, Brandeis has the early admissions program with Tufts Medical School in Boston.</p>
<p>Brandeis is truly an amazing school. It’s a special combination of small liberal arts college and world-class research university-with the smallest student body I believe (around 800 in a class) of any top tier national research university matched with high-powered professors who actually teach in small classes. So, the research opportunities are tremendous. The Brandeis sciences faculty is excellent and committed to undergraduate education as well as cutting edge research and graduate education–the new science facilites are first rate. </p>
<p>Brandeis’s intellectual environment is comparable in many ways to its University Athletic Association sister school, U Chicago (perhaps no coincidence that the President of U Chicago is a Brandeis alum). Yet its students are down-to-earth, friendly and non-competitive with one another. With respect to success rates in admissions to the best graduate schools, including med school , it would be hard to beat Brandeis. Plus it’s located just outside of Boston, the world’s greatest college town, but on its own suburban campus.</p>
<p>It is the nurturing quality of that faculty and their mentoring that attracted and benefitted Rod MacKinnon, an undergraduate and a classmate of mine at Brandeis in the late 70’s. He returned after medical school to pursue post-doc studies there. In 2003 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Clearly, a nurturing, undergraduate-oriented atmosphere can may make the difference in a student’s future. </p>
<p>On a related note, Edward Witten, the Fields Medal winning Physicist (sometimes called “Einstein’s successor”) was an undergrad at Brandeis as well (a History major I believe) and went on to take his graduate training in physics at Princeton. Perhaps another example of how a small, nuturing undergraduate program can lead to great success in science.</p>
<p>If you haven’t seen it, you should watch the interview on the Brandeis website with Greg Petsko, Professor of Biochem, who left MIT to come to Brandeis. He discusses his reasons as to why he found Brandeis to be, in his words, “a better place” to teach and for his students to learn. Here’s a link to the “video tour” page which you may need to paste into your browser: [url=<a href=“http://www.brandeis.edu/admissions/videotour/]Tour[/url”>http://www.brandeis.edu/admissions/videotour/]Tour[/url</a>]. Then, you may need to click through to the 'Meet Brandeisians" faculty interviews to find Petsko. </p>
<p>The kind of person who would feel comfortable at Brandeis is an intellecutal and/or creative sort who is friendly and comfortable with himself or herself and not competitive or pretentious. Intellectual but down-to-earth and friendly I think is an apt description of the student body. Unlike some preppy place or frat-oriented environments where social interraction is based on the “exclusivity” of the frat system, Brandeis has a welcoming, relatively-nonjudgmental environment–yet there are some off-campus frats for those who like what they have to offer. There is no pressure to party, but parties are there if you want them. Often social interaction centers around the numerous clubs and other terrific extracuriculars like theater and music. </p>
<p>As for Berkeley, Michigan and UVA, are excellent but are large state schools and cannot compare to the LAC-type environment available at Brandeis. Good luck with your decision.</p>
<p>^It’s worth adding, to balance the obvious Brandeis bias, that Tufts and Rochester are basically the same LAC/small-university combination environment. Neither are true LACs; neither will offer you the resources of a BIG university. Instead, you’ll find a combination of university research resources and more personal attention than at, say, Berkeley (and commensurately less personal attention than at a small liberal arts college, but none of those are in consideration).</p>
<p>Rochester and Tufts are both substantial research institutions but are small universities. They are both about 5k undergrad, 4k grad, which is the same size as Yale. They both get more research dollars than Brandeis but all 3 are very good schools. </p>
<p>One of my daughters just turned down Michigan - where I’m from and where much of my family went (including me for law school) - to go to Rochester. </p>
<p>Each school has its attractions. My daughter was very attracted to the Rochester Curriculum, which is this in a nutshell: </p>
<p>No requirements, only a major and 2 clusters, which are groups of related classes in anything you want. The idea is that at a research university the teachers are doing research and teaching and the school wants them to put time and effort into teaching. Rochester’s solution is that eliminating requirements means kids take only what they are interested in and teachers can then teach what they want or at least know their classes are filled with kids who want to be there. In other words, there is an inefficiency, a cost, in requirements and eliminating that improves the educational experience for both students and teachers. </p>
<p>The schools have their attractions, their strengths, etc. That should be the concern, not something idiotic like prestige. Might as well pick based on the mascot.</p>
<p>I have four kids in college and it is very important that both you and your brother file for aid every year. With two kids attending there is a big difference. The only one of my kids that we did not see sizable aid with was my daughter who will be attending an in state college.</p>