@UVAmom23 GT in state COA is about $28000 per year, compared to needing just to pay around $18000 at Vandy for room and other fees. That’s $10000 a year in difference, so a total of $40000 additional to go to GT—much more than just $4000.
If it were me, I’d let GT know about the other offer and see if they give any more money. If not, I’d choose Vanderbilt in a heartbeat.
@bernie12 I guess I dont understand your math. On the Vanderbilt website, cost of attendance is over $70,000 plus $900 for transcript fee and freshman fee plus an additional $2400 for engineering students. Georgia Tech is roughly $28,000. Both schools include personal expenses whatever that means. At Georgia Tech it is estimated at $3000. At Vanderbilt it’s 2000. I have included it in both schools in figuring out about a $4000 difference. I certainly don’t get $10,000 a year. It would actually be less than 4000 I think if you excluded the $2400 for the engineering fee at Vanderbilt but that includes a laptop which he would have to have at Tech anyway.
@UVAmom23 I don’t understand where your numbers are coming from either. I went and calculated everything out exactly for this new post:
Vanderbilt with full tuition CV scholarship, averaging the various one-time expenses, ends up at $22,771 per year.
Georgia Tech, taking into account the increased COA after freshman year for in-state, ends up being on average $30,402 per year.
This is a difference of $7,631 per year (yes, after doing the exact math it’s less than the $10,000 figure I initially said), or a total of $30,524 over all of undergrad. Still a very large amount. Are the pros of going to GT worth this? If it were me, I’d say no, but this is for the OP to decide.
Vandy also gives $2000 a year for NMF for scholarship winners. So that is another $8k in total 4 years. Vandy scholarship winners also get $5000 for study abroad or what other plans you make. The total difference for those are $13,000. My D average $16k each year…FYI
Here is salaries facts. It seems that Vandy wins on the average salary on CS if I am reading it correctly. GT data is two years older than Vandy’s though.
https://www.cc.gatech.edu/about/facts
https://engineering.vanderbilt.edu/docs/2018_VUSE_Placement_Highlights.pdf
@sincererlove do you know if the NMF award can go beyond full tuition? I have a feeling that they might not let you use it for housing and other fees, which is what the OP has left.
https://www.vanderbilt.edu/scholarships/additional.php
Yes, NMF does go beyond full tuition. Otherwise, it is $5k for kids without merit scholarship. D17 who is Chancellor Scholar got $2500 from NMSC first year and $2000 this year. @albertsax
@SincererLove I’ve read that, and I didn’t read it that way the first time, though I can see now where it is that way!
UPDATE: I got into Upenn VIPER, Duke, Cornell today as well (paying full), and I got into Rice with Trustee Scholarship.
Im not considering Tech anymore, its down to Rice Trustee vs Duke vs UPenn VIPER vs Vandy CV as of now.
@yaleivyleague : Congratulations! So are Rice and VU still significantly cheaper? If so I would basically go to one of them. You seem to be looking at prestige. The reality is that if VU, Rice, and Tech are still cheaper than others, then Tech should likely remain in the running. Having being admitted into Ivy/Ivy Plus to me is not enough to basically write off a leading STEM institute with a big discount IMHO. Consider the cheapest options and quality control. And no, prestige and overall rank is not always directly correlated with quality (especially in STEM). It seems to be an unfortunate reality. Did you get a chance to actually sit in on key courses and interact with faculty when you visited these schools? STEM has heavy attrition, and you’ll wanna be at a place where you can do well (any of these places as they admitted you) and persist because you find the coursework and whatever you’re doing at the school in those initial 2 years exciting. Either way, try not to let the prestige of higher branded and ranked schools blind you when deciding, especially when their may be large gaps in financial offers.
If you can go to Vandy for free and Rice for half price then paying full price at your other options doesn’t make sense. If it was Harvard, MIT or Stanford, it would be a difficult decision but with Duke, Cornell, Penn or GIT full pay, you aren’t compromising by picking Vandy or Rice.