<p>I understand I’m joining the party late, but I have eliminated University of Wisconsin, Michigan State University, and University of Minnesota in favor of South Carolina. They’re not quite Top 30 schools, but Wisconsin is probably in the top ten public universities in the country. </p>
<p>My daughter is choosing (Fall 2014) USC Honors over UF Honors, UMd Scholars, UNC, Penn State, and Clemson. Her major is engineering and while all those schools are ranked higher, except UNC (for engineering), she loves the USC campus and excited about the honors college too. </p>
<p>Currently choosing between USC honors, cornell, brown, and Columbia. I feel your pain!</p>
<p>D followed money to USC honors over Duke, Davidson, Wake, UVA and a few others - never regretted it.</p>
<p>The top 20’s are private and tend to attract the well funded and the not well funded students as costs are not a concern for these students. If you can easily afford Princeton or if Princeton is free…you are going. Most top 20’s have a bimodal curve of well funded and full need students. The upper middle class tend to receive little aid and don’t have the disposable income to send their child to a top 20 private. The honors programs of state flagships target these students and are full of middle, & upper middle class students now. These mid-upper middle class students have fueled the growth of state university honors programs and hurt the LAC’s. When you look at posts at top 20’s even the well funded students are debating if it’s worth the money to go to an ivy or to take the money (full merit offer) at a state school.</p>
<p>My DS had the choice of BU, UMD College Park, PENN ST, and NC State for NROTC - Engineering…he loved the atmosphere at USC. The NROTC scholarship would have covered all of the mentioned schools. All nice choices for him without a money issue to pressure him. In the end…USC, living in Capstone for the 1st year! </p>
<p>If he did not take the NROTC he also would have had UCONN, Washington College & Sacred Heart University. He actually put UCONN at the very bottom of “ALL” of his choices, he just didn’t care for it. He has spent a great deal of time at UCONN with his older brother so he knows it well. The only one he did not get into was the Naval Academy but that is a complete different process all together. </p>
<p>Although some of these other schools are impressive it comes down to how you apply yourself in the real world. I am a manager, when I hire my decision is not based on the school you attended.</p>
<p>What should become important to a student entering college is does the school feel right to you, do they have what you want. can you see yourself at that campus, and the reality…affordability! Yea, there are a few other thought but the ladder appears to be the main thought. It’s not good to leave college $120,000.00 in debt.</p>
<p>Have you checked into what percentage of those applying to med school get accepted and where are they accepted. Do you want to stay in the south? It is not always about the money. You do mot however, want to come out with mega loans if you are planning on graduate school. You can always talk to your top choice school and discuss a better financial package.</p>
<p>You should never attend a university you can’t afford. A little debt os OK but you can’t give yourself a lifetime of debt to attend your dream university. On the other hand you don’t want to limit your opportunities over 10K. You must consider your future career plan and future income.<br>
It’s true there are some jobs and grad schools that will use a Southestern state flagship diploma to clean coffee spills off their desk so it will not get on applicant files from top 20 universities but more and more jobs and grad schools understand many students select a university primarily due to cost.</p>
<p>It’s not just 10k though … it’s 10k x 4 years so ~ 40k more overall. My daughter got scholarships from most of the other schools which lowered the overall costs from ~ 40k per year to 30k per year but with the USC scholarship, we’re only paying ~ 18k per year (out of state) overall (incl. housing, meal plan, etc.). </p>
<p>Since graduate school is in the plans too, we thought the best approach is to be more conservative with undergraduate so you have room (financially) for graduate school- THEN not skimp on cost and go to one of the higher ranked schools for your major for your masters degree. I hope that graduating from USC Honors College will carry some weight for those grad school admissions too. </p>
<p>Wow bud123 - that is an offensive comment! Unless you are in the Northeast - using a Southeastern State Flagship Honors College diploma to “wipe up coffee” will never happen. I know many graduates of USC Honors that beat out “top 20 university” graduates for great jobs!</p>
<p>It was not meant to be offensive, just thought provoking. I don’t agree with it, but I recognize there are regional preferences and this is true in the Northeast and other regions. Go to Michigan, Ohio, TX, IL, or CA and tell them USC & Clemson are as good as their state schools. I hope you can run fast. The Southeast schools do not get the respect they deserve. </p>
<p>There are some jobs that you should attend one of about 10-15 universities to have a opportunity to be considered. Ivy grad school take 1/3 of their students from the ivy’s and 75% from top 50 universities. It’s good business to promote themselves. The other 3,700 colleges make up the other 25%. At MUSC (SC med school) about 80% of it’s student come from 5 schools (USC, Clemson, CofC, Furman, and Wofford)… How much does MUSC know or care about TX Tech or the University of Vermont? Does MUSC use a diploma from the University of Nebraska to wipe up coffee stains? Will a VA grad school or job take a USC or Clemson student ahead of one from UVA, VA Tech, W&M, W&L, UR, Georgetown, UNC, JHU, Duke, WF, Davidson…what about CA with all it’s great private and public U’s? You get my point. If you know where you plan to go for grad school or live after college do some research and try to place yourself in the best situation.</p>
<p>Totally agree Bud.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I’m currently attending a school abroad and the American students are mostly from top 30’s, others from the best schools in their own countries. (Think Ivy League, Cambridge, UC’s) I find that I comfortably am at the same level as everyone else, and if anything, I found my education at USC to be better than here.</p>
<p>I’d also like to point out that the southeast, in general, is looked down upon by the rest of the US. There’s a lot of prejudice. From talking with others, my impression is: If you’re from the south, then you’ll probably go to school in the south. Getting into an ivy league is <em>that much harder</em> if you’re from the south. Kids who choose to go to USC who are from up north (New Jersey, New York, Mass, etc) get asked by their teachers and peers “Why on earth would you want to go there when you could go to <em>insert “much better” northern school here</em>?”</p>
<p>Then, within the south, we look to hire from local colleges. I know a lot of people where I’m from who would be extremely impressed with a degree from Wofford, Furman, USC, or Clemson, but wouldn’t much care about someone with a degree from Cornell, Dartmouth, or Berkeley.</p>
<p>Talking to my friend who is a student at Cornell, but from Texas, she said she had the exact same impression. People in Texas really didn’t know much about Cornell (even know that it was an ivy league school) and within Texas, the school meant a lot less than it means in other places or at a more national level.</p>
<p>Bud, Bud Bud…</p>
<p>Good follow up with “It was not meant to be offensive, just thought provoking.” That said there are some deeper ways to look at colleges other than the name and %%%%.</p>
<p>I have some experience in this department… As a manager that hires where you have a degree does not matter one little bit, could care less, not moved by the “NAME” of a school or even the wonderful people that may have walked the halls. </p>
<p>The bottom line. Can you answer my questions in a way that proves to me you are a mover and shaker? I will give only two example of a question that I ask.</p>
<ol>
<li>What is the diff. between fair and equal?</li>
<li>What have you been readng as of late?</li>
</ol>
<p>I can tell you that when your on the other side of the table these two very basic questions have made some of the bigger named school college grads fall righ on their face. </p>
<p>I have been to several colleges, big and small name… I have been to USC and oh in my very clever ways I have intervied kids and adults because my child will be attending. I can assure you that if the interview went bad my son would not be attending.</p>
<p>The kids and adults that I have meet were all impressive. To add the programs are very good. Anytime I get a strong sence of wisdom, I will take it any day over knowledge. There was a lot of wisdom!! </p>
<p>Be very aware of statistic when judging school and here is why. There are lies, damm lies and there are statistic. USC is a fine school if you fit and graduate you are equal to any kid from any college in this nation. Again the bottom line…are you a mover and shaker?</p>
<p>Good times, loving life, living the dream…</p>
<p>I’ve always told my kids that with few exceptions, where you got your degree matters very little after your first job. After that employers are looking for: are you wise, not just smart? a hard worker? disciplined? good team player? an initiator? manage up and down well? communicate easily and clearly? </p>
<p>All those things you can’t tell from where you got your degree, but only from your experience in your real working life. So where you went to school might impress initially, but I bet every single one of us posting here knows lots of highly successful people who went to large state research universities, small and relatively unknown lacs, etc.</p>
@fleagle10 I am wondering if you were accepted to UPenn’s Huntsmann Program but still turned that down.
@websensation No, I looked at Huntsman briefly but would have chosen just one major had I gone to Penn. My mom went to Wharton for her MBA and advised me to focus on finance rather than international business because investment banks really want analysts who have taken more than one finance course. My understanding is that the Huntsman Program is so broad that you get more of a liberal arts business education. I ended up going to USC in part so I could triple major, which almost no other school would let me do.
@hinger10 Almost nobody gets into buy-side straight out of college regardless of where they went. I’ve heard a few stories about enterprising college seniors pitching investments in an attempt to go straight to buy-side and being laughed out of the room by some very entertained associates.
@fleagle10 I’m actually in Huntsman and going straight to the buy side, along with various other members of my class
@marcusk14 Good for you! That’s definitely a less frequently traveled path. The hours are obviously better on buy-side, though I think there’s a sense of shared sense of camaraderie among those who started on sell-side.