<p>I could get a full ride at Wayne State University in Michigan. However, it's not the best university for engineering. Does it really matter? Or should I pick a better school (U of M - Ann Arbor specifically) and just pay?</p>
<p>That has more to do with you than the schools. What are your ambitions? What do you want to see yourself doing in 5 years (or even out 10 years)? Near term, what do you want out of your college experience?</p>
<p>@da6onet I’m planning on getting a BS in ChE and an MS in BME</p>
<p>Good questions from da6onet.</p>
<p>Options vary among undergraduate Ch-E departments. At some schools the strength of the Ch-E department seems to be things like renewable energy, inorganic chemistry, chemical thermodynamics etc., while other schools concentrate on Biochemistry, drug delivery, biomaterials, etc. Ch-E is a broad discipline. Research the possibilities. </p>
<p>The caliber of undergraduate school for engineers does matter, although perhaps less than for some other fields. An engineering degree from Michigan would open a lot more doors than a degree from Wayne State.</p>
<p>How much would you have to pay for UMich?</p>
<p>I’d do Wayne State for 2 years and transfer personally. </p>
<p>Many employers who recruit at Michigan don’t at Wayne State. You lose a lot of access if you graduate from there. It’s not that you won’t get a job from Wayne State, but you won’t have as many options for jobs. There is a reason why not everyone at Michigan doesn’t just go to Wayne State and save some money instead. </p>
<p>Alternatively, if you’re very sure you’re going to do a masters straight out you could just graduate from Wayne State (making sure you do well there) and do your masters at Michigan, but as time goes on you might decide you want to do some work inbetween. </p>
<p>@Vladenschlutte Isn’t transferring just a hassle more than anything? And when you apply to grad school, doesit matter where you got your BS from?</p>
<p>One of the biggest problems of transferring from a less selective U to a more selective U, is that you may not be adequately prepared for the increased academic rigor of the classes at the more selective U. Engineering has a lot of long strings of prerequisites, and you learn things in later classes that build upon things learned in earlier classes. The difficulty level of math or physics or engineering classes at Wayne State is likely lower than that at Michigan, so a transfer student would likely be less well prepared for higher level classes than students who had taken similar classes at Michigan. Sometimes, the classes also don’t directly align.</p>
<p>It might well make the most financial sense for you to start at Wayne State and transfer to Michigan, but don’t assume that it is an easy path. I think you would be unlikely to graduate in 4 years on that path. I suggest that you contact someone at Wayne State (perhaps the admissions office could help, or the department chair), and ask if in the recent past students have transferred to Michigan, and how those students have fared. </p>
<p>What is the cost differential for you between the two schools? And how significant is that cost differential to your family? </p>
<p>Have you actually been accepted to these schools, or are you just speculating on what might happen next year? If you have the stats to get into Michigan, you should also consider other schools where you could get good aid but which are higher ranked than Wayne State, such as Alabama. </p>
<p>^ or people just assume that the lower rated school cannot properly prepare students. That is what keeps the higher rated schools full of undergrads paying tuition. It is not like Wayne State is a HS, or even a cc. It is a much more highly respected school than many people think.</p>
<p>If you are definitely getting a graduate degree, stick with the cheaper option. If you think you may want to stop at a BS, then transfer to the ‘prestige’ school. Your degree will not note that you took classes at another college first.</p>
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<p>The problem with this is that anyone who thinks they know for sure that they will end up in graduate school before even starting their undergraduate studies is kidding themselves. Graduate school is not for everyone, and most undergraduates don’t really know for sure if it is something they actually want until junior year or later.</p>
<p>An undergraduate is better off looking at the kinds of companies recruiting graduates of a given school and making sure that the places their graduates end up are places that this prospective student would be happy to end up in case they decide not to go to graduate school.</p>
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<p>It probably doesn’t matter enough to justify transferring or paying 4 years of Michigan tuition if you’re sure you’re gonna do a Masters right after undergrad, but it does matter if you think there’s a chance that you don’t go on to get that Masters right out of undergrad, but either wait or never get it.</p>
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<p>Doesn’t matter what any student thinks, what matters is where employers recruit. And Michigan gets far more access than Wayne State. </p>
<p>I don’t see how anyone can just assume they will get into graduate school 4 years from now.</p>
<p>@sacchi I am doing a lot of speculating. I haven’t got in to the schools quite yet, but I’m a match for U of M Ann Arbor, and at Wayne St. with my stats, I’m guaranteed an 11,500/year Presidential Scholarship. Also, if I went to Wayne State, I’d be able to live at home, so I’d be going for free almost. I’d probably be paying about 20000/year for U of M Ann Arbor. Cost is a huge issue in this.</p>
<p>I am considering Michigan State University, Michigan Tech, and U of Alabama. At U of Alabama, I’d get full tuition plus $2500/yr. However, their OOS costs are still really high. </p>
<p>OK, so this is still in the future for you. For now, the most important thing is to pick a good selection of schools to apply to. And once you know your acceptances and financial aid offers, you can make an informed decision of which school to attend.</p>
<p>The first question is if you will be looking for need based aid or merit based aid. Ask your parents to run some Net Price Calculators (NPC) online for some of the schools that you are interested in, to determine the Expected Family Contribution (EFC). If your EFC is low, you should concentrate on schools with good need-based financial aid. If your EFC is high and your parents aren’t able to pay it, you will need to concentrate on schools with good merit-based aid. </p>
<p>You should consider applying to all of the schools you list, and consider adding more, based upon financial aid research. You are fortunate to live in Michigan, which has such an excellent flagship U. Even though the costs for Michigan seem high, it is really a bargain for in-state tuition. Michigan attracts a lot of OOS and foreign students who pay much more for OOS tuition. (I’ve got a neighbor from NJ who attends Michigan and pays OOS tuition.) </p>
<p>I think that if you can do well at University of Michigan, then it can matter a lot. There is a tangible benefit to excelling in the face of stiff competition. It forces you to have a higher standard of excellence, and at all levels you may have options that you wouldn’t otherwise have because that excellence in the face of that competition sends a signal that you have something special to offer. </p>
<p>If you aren’t going to do well, I don’t think it matters as much. Basically, if you see yourself rising to the top of your profession, then I think it matters. If you just want a “good job with good wages”, then it probably doesn’t. </p>
<p>Nobody can predict your future what you will do,but let’s say that you would have lifetime earnings in the $5 million dollar range if you excelled at UMich and in the $3 million range if you went to Wayne State. Is the $20,000 per year to attend UMich worth it?</p>
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<p>The problem is that no one can definitively make that statement no matter what two universities you are comparing. Trust me, academics have delved deeply into this subject. One of the most recent was just published in the Gallup-Purdue Index (<a href=“http://products.gallup.com/168857/gallup-purdue-index-inaugural-national-report.aspx”>http://products.gallup.com/168857/gallup-purdue-index-inaugural-national-report.aspx</a>). </p>
<p>There are too many individual variables to simply ascribe one’s success to the institution they attended. There is no science to suggest as much either. </p>
<p>Will there be more built in opportunities (alumni connections, job fairs, etc.) at Michigan than Wayne State? Likely so. It does not mean that you won’t be able to create your own opportunities. People do work for JPL, NASA, Google, Microsoft, you name it, that went to Podunk U.</p>
<p>Don’t go into huge debt. Good luck.</p>
<p>BTW, take that 80K and invest it at 8% (below the annualized return of the S&P since its inception in the early 70s) and you’d have $1.75M in 40 years.</p>
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<p>I agree. I think the issue is that people like simple, straightforward answers that align with common belief, and the common belief is as follows: “Get X grades, Y SAT scores, and have T extracurriculars, and get into N school, then graduate making $P/year.” Lol.</p>
<p>Clearly, those of us who have already been through college and started our careers know that the real world doesn’t work in such a linear, straightforward manner. </p>
<p>You mentioned the University of Alabama… UA - Huntsville would give a full ride, I think, though it’s ranked quite a bit lower.</p>
<p>I don’t think my argument has been refuted by your statistics. Statistics by their very nature use averages. I’m talking about becoming an outlier. </p>
<p>If the OP intends to be average, then I don’t think it matters where he goes to school and your statistics bear that out. </p>
<p>If the OP would otherwise excel at Michigan (i.e, not average), then I think that it’s more likely to be worth it. </p>