My daughter was admitted to Cornell and USC BArch programs. She has a full tuition and fees scholarship at USC. We do not have financial aid information from Cornell yet but we don’t think the amount of the financial aid package will compare to USC. My daughter doesn’t want to take out any loans. We know both have really good programs. But will it make a difference for job opportunities once she graduates if she decide to go to USC over Cornell?
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The job opportunities will be different at every school. That doesn’t mean they’ll be better and it certainly doesn’t mean they’ll be worth the difference in price, especially if you factor in the long term opportunity cost of the money. For every I.M. Pei and Frank Gehry, there are thousands of architects that go back to communities that could care less where they trained.
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@Rhonda1, Both schools will provide multiple opportunities to interact with working architects (e.g. visiting instructors and critics) and to secure summer internships which will lead to job opportunities after graduation. USC may skew a bit toward west coast and Cornell toward the east, especially New York, however both have solid reputations throughout the country and internationally.
Obviously you’ll want to see how Cornell’s aid package compares, but some other points to consider are study abroad opportunities, thesis requirements and overall campus environment. Southern California and Upstate New York are VERY different, so your daughter should also think about how she’d feel about the university just in case architecture doesn’t work out.
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Thank you guys for your reply. Decision day is approaching and we still have not received financial aid information from Cornell. The location is a big part of the process in making the decision. My daughter would much rather be in in LA instead of Ithaca but might sacrifice the nicer weather if getting a BArch from Cornell will make a huge difference after college (network)