<p>It looks like my final schools to chose from are SUNY Binghamton, Clarkson, and Stevens Institute of Technology. Cornell gave me nothing in aid, is it worth 60k a year for the engineering school? I'd end up around 150k in debt.</p>
<p>RPI and WPI are 37k a year for me, not worth it IMO. Buffalo and Stony Brook aren't appealing to me really, location...etc. (Cost would be about 15k a year with scholarships though)</p>
<p>Binghamton is obviously bigger than Clarkson, so there is a more active social scene. I've heard good things about them. Clarkson has a CS lab that you can do your own research in from day one, completely for student use, use it however you want. Stevens has Cybersecurity, which I think I might be interested in.</p>
<p>All I can say is it’s not a bad problem to have. I think most students would thrive and enjoy any one of those choices. It seems to me you’re in a great place academically and for potential career opps. You probably should be considering quality of life issues at this point.</p>
<p>Does the student population size mean anything to you? You did mention the social scene.</p>
<p>Maybe location would be a deciding factor? Clarkson is remote. Stevens is the very opposite of remote. Binghamton is not remote, but people wouldn’t say it’s a happening location either. But then again, Binghamton is so big itself, it’s location may be irrelevant.</p>
<p>What about club sports or other activities that might interest you? Who has what you want?</p>
<p>I’d really like to continue playing trombone, but I don’t really have to have a group to do that. I’m fine with practicing on my own. I think I would find things to get involved in no matter where I go.</p>
<p>Location doesn’t bother me much. Yeah, Clarkson’s in the middle of the Adirondacks, but I don’t think I would get bored there. For Binghamton, the campus offers quite a bit to do.</p>
<p>Weather in a non-issue. It doesn’t matter to me if it rains/snows/hails. As long as there are no tornadoes.</p>
<p>As for the size of the schools, I think Stevens is a little too small, where as Clarkson is okay (Stevens is nearly the size of my high school, with Clarkson being a nearly a thousand more). Binghamton is obviously bigger and I’ve heard that there is always something going on. I felt I could fit in both places when I visited.</p>
<p>150-160k is not much when you consider the cost over a lifetime. I realize it’s a lot of money to come out of college with, but with no real plan for grad school, I think I’ll look to jump right in to work after college. Cornell has great career placement in CS, mean starting salary is around 75k-80k. Does this seem like it would ruin my future and leave me with debt until I’m 40 or 50?</p>
<p>I want to receive the best education that’ll get me wherever I want to go.</p>
Please heed my advice: 150k is a staggeringly massive amount to borrow for a formal education. Claiming that it’s “not much” implies that you have no idea what life actually costs or entails.</p>
<p>Consider all of the following:
-Student loan interest rates are very high and INTEREST IS COMPOUNDED DAILY. Over a ten year term, you can expect to pay back around 135-140% of the principal…or MORE. Stretch it to 20 years and you’ll be eating 80% of the principal on top of itself.
-Unlike a mortgage, you are not building equity with your payments. You will have no property or assets to liquidate. You will have a worthless piece of paper that cannot be sold, transferred, or returned as collateral. You might as well burn the money for all the good that it will do you.
-Unlike mortgages, auto loans, or virtually all other types of debt, student loan debt CANNOT BE DISCHARGED IN BANKRUPTCY.
-Your starting salary expectations are absurd.</p>
<p>Now look at the numbers:
If you borrow $150k over a ten year term with standard 6.8% interest, you’re going to pay back around $200-$210k. In order to meet that obligation, your monthly payment will be around $1700 to the tune of ~$20k per year. Now let’s assume you actually get $75k/year out of the box (for a BS? Ha!). Since you’ll have taxes and other unavoidable financial obligations, your net income will fall somewhere between $50-60k (depending upon where you live). Now take out that $20k. That leaves you with just $30-35,000 per year for food, housing, transportation, and whatever else.</p>
<p>I want you to think about how difficult it will be to save, invest or build equity on $30,000 per year. Remember that BASE living expenses (housing, food, gas/transportation) for a single person in a relatively affordable part of the country will be around $15,000 per year if you live a lot like a student (roommates, etc). In a place like NYC, it could be two or three times that. I suppose you could stretch the repayment terms out to 20 years, but then you’ll end up paying back nearly $300k, you’ll be carrying debt into your 40s and your loan payments will still be over $1000 per month.</p>
<p>And finally: all of this makes the generous and optimistic assumption that your income and life in general are not disrupted by serious economic setbacks (e.g. losing your job, suffering a substantial pay cut, having a sick child or spouse, suffering career threatening or ending injuries). The only way that debt disappears is if you die or pay it off (plus interest!), so all it might take is one stretch of really bad luck to completely ruin you.</p>
<p>The more in-demand the major…the less of a name the school needs to be.</p>
<p>In other words…YOU ARE TAKING COMPUTER SCIENCE. Binghamton is great for undergrad. Remember, you can always “upgrade the school” for your M.S./M.Eng.</p>
<p>Just make sure you take the “hot CS courses” when you become a junior of senior. Courses like: Computer Networks, Information Assurance, Databases and Computer Graphics.</p>
<p>Ya man, as of what ive read from you, i personally think you should go to binghamton. You say thats theres always something to do and its big. So id say binghamton.</p>
<p>I’m definitely leaning towards the computer security end of things right now. It seems like Stevens is hands down the best school, but it’s also going to cost me more.</p>
<p>Personally I don’t think I can go wrong with either Clarkson or Binghamton.</p>
<p>As for Stony Brook, I think it’s a little big for my tastes. I would like to stay out of Long Island…I’m going to see them at Binghamton and just seeing them is bad enough. (I’m from “upstate” NY, where Long Islanders are rare) I’ve heard a lot of people are kind of miserable there. Any reasons why?</p>
I think most students would thrive and enjoy any one of those choices. It seems to me you’re in a great place academically and for potential career opps. You probably should be considering quality of life issues at this point.</p>