Bama is full of high achieving scholarship students. At Bama a lot of ChemE’s go on to medical school, and the $44K+ savings over OSU will pay for almost a year of tuition. The engineering program is very impressive and the facilities are world class. His friends who go to Bama have had a great experience. Bama is very undergrad focused and the Campus is gorgeous. People are a lot friendlier and don’t get so crazy as OSU. Socially, the M/F ratio at Bama is 45/55 while OSU is 52/48. And don’t get me started about the BBQ.
The undergrad focus at Bama is both good and bad. The good is that they do an excellent job teaching and most engineering classes are taught by professors. The bad is that there are not as many research opportunities. That may be an issue for your med school applications.
My son is currently a ChemE (likely) major at Michigan and we came down to the same choice (MI vs Bama). But Michigan is a lot higher ranked and travel costs are minimal for us. So if you are 100% certain you will go to med school, Alabama is a better choice (they also have an excellent med school) but if you are less certain, OSU makes more sense. You will need every penny to pay for your medical education.
TooOld4school has some good points- especially the remark about Alabama being focused on undergraduate education. I think this focus makes it easier for undergrads to do well.
Having paid attention to who has top spots at the company where my engineering husband works, it appears absolutely necessary to have a graduate degree. Many of the higher-ups have more than one MS or Phd. Minimum requirement would be a MBA.
So, in my opinion, it is not just about higher cost or more debt- it is about being able to afford to continue your education past the BS level if you want to move up. It seems going to Alabama would leave you more funds to allow you to pursue post-grad work. You might want to inquire at OSU about how many undergrads go on to graduate school there and how many of them receive funding for their education. I think Dow Corning sponsored the research my husband did at OSU for his MS. He currently does research- but I think he is the only one at his company doing research that only has an MS.
My neighbor has BS mechanical and MBA. He has great people skills and is also very intelligent in engineering field. He was promoted to plant manager (oversees about 700 employees) after about 12 years experience. He makes a lot of $, but works very long hours and has a lot of headaches where personnel type stuff is concerned.
However, if you decide on grad school for engineering, I think OSU would be a great choice. OSU is all about research and treats grad students very well. They have a very friendly, team-like environment. Although, again- it can be challenging. Of the 8 students who had my husband’s adviser for his MS, only 5 were awarded that degree. I think one dropped out because he did not maintain the required GPA in grad level courses and two were not successful at defending their thesis. Of course, if you were interested in MBA, Alabama would be a good choice. Or, maybe just do that anywhere while working in your field.
The OP is a finalist for CBH. If he is accepted into CBH, he is guaranteed UG research. It is incorrect that the engineering dept will not have research opportunities. As a matter of fact, student(s) from the engineering dept have won a Goldwater every yr for multiple yrs. Below are just 3 yrs worth.
If you scroll through this list you will see some of the research being done by CBH students. You’ll see numerous engineering research projects listed. https://live.cbhp.ua.edu/schedule.php
My DS has similar stats as OP and was in a similar situation deciding between the many ME programs that he was accepted to. We visited tOSU and it was the presumptive choice initially. DS ultimately decided to attend UA majoring in ME with Pres Scholarship and Engineering Scholarship over tOSU and other top ME program such as Cal Poly-SLO. He decided against tOSU due to the fact that acceptance to tOSU is competitive and not guaranteed. Visit UA at T Town and open your mind to the wonderful opportunities! Schedule your visit thrugh Honors College.
DS is enjoying the Bama experience, Theta Tau brotherhood (co-ed engineering fraternity) and is working at the Mercedes Benz Co op.
If you’re a high end student from any accredited engineering school, you will probably have multiple offers from companies that will pay for your masters. If you intend to go into industry, don’t let “need” for a masters impact your financial decision.
@Chardo nope, not going to med school! @TooOld4School@momofsmartdancer I get your points about grad school, but I pretty much don’t plan on going to grad school unless an employer wants to pay for me to do so. Or, of course, if it is inhibiting me later on.
I think it’ll depend on soft factors, personal to you. Which campus do you like best? Where do you feel 'at home '? TOSU will have better academics outside of Honors, UA will have better weather. Both will offer a strong honors college, great football, a good college town. It’ll probably be easier to use the Midwest alumni network from tOSU and UA’s for the South, so where do you wish to live after college?
@d012939 Are your parents helping you pay the $44,000 or the $88,000? You say how much each will cost but not how you will pay. If they aren’t going to pay for it, are they willing to cosign? Also, have you run amoritzation calculators to understand what you payments are going to look like? (You can try this one: http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/college-planning/loan-calculator.aspx )
As others have essentially said above, can your parents pay for OSU without too much difficulty/borrowing? Every dollar that goes into your college choice is a dollar that they don’t have for something else like their retirement or an education for your sibs if that applies.
If the $44K difference would materialize out of thin air, tOSU would be the obvious choice imho. My hunch is that you are a midwestern (urban-seeking) student, wanting to stay in that zone, and tOSU has a very good engineering reputation. Normally I advocate for southern schools because I am biased toward them. But your post just rings out tOSU to me (I went to school in the midwest so I understand).
That being said, $44K is a large amount of money to many people, and if you have to go very far into debt for it - it’s not worth it imho.
You could definitely be a bigger ‘fish’ at Alabama, but certainly not too far so. There are many talented students in engineering, CBH, etc. I would give Alabama a very close look when you go for CBH weekend (congrats on that btw). When my son was close to going there, one of his roommate prospects was from Illinois. There are many OOS students at 'Bama, and it seems like Illinois is one of the states represented well.
Wishing you luck. Keep an open mind and start framing what a $44K payment looks like after graduation (though your parents would have to co-sign it sounds like).
Since you’ll be graduating in engineering from a college with an excellent reputation in that field (OSU), your job prospects are good and so I wouldn’t necessarily let the $45K debt be the deciding factor as it shouldn’t be too difficult to pay off. It sounds like you’d prefer to go to OSU, and it is purported to be the better school for engineering, has the opportunities you want, alumni network, etc.
@TempeMom@Mom2aphysicsgeek basically, my parents are paying $x per year no matter where I go, and I have to pay the rest. I am in a very fortunate situation where once I run out of money my parents are willing to temporarily cover as much of the additional costs that they can until I can pay them back so that I can avoid the interest rates and such of student loans.
^ Have you run the debt calculators for $45K of debt I think it will be about $425-$450 a month - every month for 10 years. That is not nothing… While working you would have taxes taken out of that generous young engineer salary, work expenses, rent/mortgage, car expenses, living expenses, insurance expenses, etc… To service a $450 month loan payment – for 10 years – may be difficult to pay off. Not so sure that above advice is very good.
I understand that fit is important and $45K is not the staggering debt numbers that others have but I would suggest sitting down with some working adults and logically look at their budgets - could they afford an extra $450 a month over an extended time of a decade?
If there are college savings set aside or working parents willing to pay for the gap between UA and tOSU or an inheritance sitting out there then $45K might not be a deal breaker - but to think that paying off that amount while trying to launch an adult life seems short sighted. If the money is really not an issue - as in someone will help you to pay for a better fit, then it seems like tOSU is better suited for what you are looking for. If you are thinking about starting your career in the financial hole, you may start to resent little things at tOSU that are giving you pause right now. JMHO
Alright this is gonna sound stupid and its too hard to explain on here but here’s the simplified, general version. I know if I go to either school, I’m gonna be successful. However, going to OSU gives me the chance to “test run” my dream job (this is what’s too hard to explain) with a unique club they have, and this club would increase my chances of landing my extremely-rare, almost-unrealistic dream job. I probably wont be able to get this job, but at least I could somewhat artificially live out this dream bc of OSU’s club.
So the question is, is it worth it to pay $45k extra for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to artifically live out my dream and increase my chances of doing it for real? Or do I save some money, go to Bama, still be successful, but have an even lower chance of achieving my dream?
I know this is super vague, but just philisophically what are your opinions?
By the way, @Mom2aphysicsgeek@TempeMom@novicemom23kids I ran the numbers, and I’m looking at a monthly payment in the $300s for 10 years as an estimate. That’s just based on my limited knowledge of finances and using that bankrate calculator
OSU is a bit more expensive but in the long run it’s definitely worth it over Bama. 22k a year to attend a great school? Sounds awesome. Bama is decent but not up to par of OSU engineering