Dream School vs. No Debt

<p>$100k is still a lot of money (well more than you'd be subsidized for), especially when if you stick with engineering you're looking at a probable starting salary of $60,00-$70,000. And, if you go to grad school, you're still going to have to pay off your loans while living off of a fairly meager stipend.</p>

<p>It can certainly be done, but I don't know if the difference between Caltech and GT is worth the price of a house in most parts of the country.</p>

<p>(As a side note, one of the guys in my research group did his undergrad at GT and said he had a really great experience.)</p>

<p>My son (junior) is interested in Olin/HMC/CalTech. His best friends have always been the smartest, as have mine. As is true for just about everyone on this board, we are insanely intelligent. However, when I was going to college, I didn't consider the awesome schools (passivity, lack of internet, lack of parental support, etc.). I ended up in the honors dorm of State U. It was nice but not spectacular. In retrospect, I would have been much happier elsewhere. But you aren't considering State U. You are considering Georgia Tech - big difference. There will be plenty of other insanely smart people at GT - all the others who are getting the same free ride scholarship for one, and the ones who just missed it or didn't qualify for some other reason... Yes, it seems terribly depressing to pass up CalTech. But you had it right when you said "And I'll probably be happy, and challenged, and even glad of the decision, it just may take some work to get that way. I'd wager that a month or two in, I'll look back at myself now, mock myself for petulant worries, and love GT."</p>

<p>Gee - after re-reading my post, I think I'll encourage Son to re-consider GT - he wasn't considering it because he really wants a small school - but the $ would be nice especially since I just got canned.</p>

<p>at GT you won't be less happy, my gfriend is in GT and she is pretty happy(she is pretty smalt too)...</p>

<p>lots of people are discussing between caltech and GT, might be the solution is actually MIT... east coast the rooms and foods and supplies are cheaper and MIT do have sort of money(even not very generous) as it is bigger.</p>

<p>if you are planning for engineering, there is almost no difference between MIT or Caltech vs. GT. however, pure or applied sciences like physics, math etc. it is lot better at MIT or Caltech... no joking.</p>

<p>Somewhat similar situation, except with a bit of a different wrinkle to it. I have been accepted to University of Washington (in state), Michigan, and am hopeful for Berkeley. I can attend UW with minimal (<$20k) loans, but would need >100k to attend Michigan or Berkeley. I am interested in math and physics, and applied to engineering at all of these schools, but might end up switching to pure physics later on. UW, despite being a very respectable school, is not as strong in engineering (outside of CSE) as GIT is, so the gap between my cheap option and the expensive one is much greater. Would it be worth it with this increased quality gap? </p>

<p>Also, how much is a reasonable amount to expect to make from a work-study, part time job, and/or summer internship? Is 10k a reasonable amount of money to make during the year and summer, or would that require excessive strain alongside difficult schoolwork? Is the figure too high? Too low? I'm having difficulty integrating this factor into the equation, but am hopeful it can drastically reduce my loans.</p>

<p>I would say no, but you're asking about the difference between Berkeley/Michigan and UW in a Caltech forum. I don't really know much about UW, and I didn't apply to Berkeley or Michigan either. </p>

<p>$10k after expenses and taxes would be difficult, but doable.</p>

<p>What's the financial aid scenario for international students at Caltech? Say for someone who's parents earn about $20K a year?</p>

<p>That's not enough information to be able to tell you anything about how much aid you'll get. Additionally, no one on this board is really going to be able to tell you; if you have questions they'd probably be best run by the financial aid office.</p>

<p>Quick update for anyone interested: I have been offered a full ride+ to GT. It would let me get BS's in Physics and Nuclear Engineering and an MS in Nuclear engineering in 4 years for free, plus research and travel stipends, and other miscellaneous benefits (it might take a fifth year to get the MS, which would only probably be free). Caltech has promised to get me a reevaluation of financial aid by Friday, and MIT financial aid shouldn't be far behind. I don't expect anything from either financial aid package. I am going to Caltech's PFW in two weeks and MIT's two weeks after that. I'll give you my impressions to elicit your wisdom (and try and share my own) when I get back.</p>

<p>That sounds cool! Especially if you're into nuclear engineering--there is no nuclear engineering degree at Caltech.</p>

<p>DMRenrel, i would love to hear your impressions. i am in the same situation, except that i have Stanford (~36 k/year) (instead of Caltech) and MIT (~42 k/year) vs. GT fullride.</p>

<p>Yeah, we should definitely talk, I've pm'ed you my contactness</p>

<p>Absolutely do GT. You will pay for your four years of "happiness" with an adulthood of depression if you are financially cripped by such a massive amount of debt.</p>

<p>I am admitady afraid of that, but I mean, what about med school types? Don't they virtually all end up with this magnitude of loans, and pay them off? And really, what's better paying than an MIT degree in nuclear engineering, or a Caltech degree in physics (especially the former)</p>

<p>a degree in business :P</p>

<p>Just to provide the counter:
Absolutely do Caltech. You will pay for your four years of "stability" with an adulthood of regret if you don't take the opportunities open to you now.</p>

<p>Get yourself emancipated so that your parents can't use you to get tax breaks. Then you'll be an independent student and Caltech (which you'd be absolutely nuts not to attend--it is the Mecca of science/math schools) will probably be more generous. I'm sure it's not as simple as I'm making it sound. Good luck, though--I really hope money doesn't keep you from going to one of the world's best schools.</p>

<p>I would have to do that that a while ago for it to be even vaguely possible. If it sounds too good to be true...
I'm pretty sure that it's out at this point. If I try it now, I haven't lived alone long enough. If I live alone long enough, which may or may not even be worth it on its own, I doubt the offer of admission is still good. Thanks for the thought though.</p>

<p>Anyone out there have parents/friends/w.e who've taken out and managed massive amounts of loans for similar reasons?</p>

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<p>A lot of other things - unless you are thinking of parlaying your education in physics in the financial industry. They call these people "quants": Quantitative</a> analyst - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>

<p>For med school - although the debt is huge, the return on investment more than makes up for it.</p>

<p>Unless you think you are truly special, I doubt you will be intellectually limited in a place like GaTech.</p>

<p>It's not as much a worry of an intellectual limit as of a social one. Forever and for always, I've gotten along well enough with most everyone, so long as I stay in the geek/intelligence closet, but the only people I've really been close with are extraordinary (I think all my best friends are actually smarter than me, but hey). Ivies, etc. It's not even so much a worry that those people aren't at GT as that I'll have to really look for them, that the general social interactions won't be with people that I relate to particularly well. In short, that it'll be four more years of high school, whereas Caltech/MIT (having not visited, the only real difference to me at this point is weather and MIT offering the Nuke Engineering degree, and I've used them pretty interchangeably in the whole thread) would let me grow as a person. Of course, there is the possibility that GT would give me all the things I want out of Caltech and more, but I can't know until it's too late. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the $200,000 question. </p>

<p>And no, I have no interest in the financial industry.</p>

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<p>Given your situation, I would suggest Caltech to you because GaTech seems too risky(the "what if?" complex); you should really figure it out when you visit because no one here can really give you a great answer. However, I am going to argue against you anyway - just for a sense of perspective.</p>

<p>For most people, social growth is just as important as intellectual growth. Most people need a combination of skills to succeed. Even in academia, networking is an important part of the game. The fact that you can only comfortably interact with one type of person isn't a good thing. I would argue that your attitude should be to broaden your horizons instead of limit it; isn't that an important part of your undergraduate career? I wouldn't suggest that you already dismiss yourself that way.</p>

<p>Apparently, my father entered our income (which is over the COA) as my personal income in our FAFSA. I believe that students are expected to basically contribute whatever they make, which means this boo boo would single handedly have disqualified me from getting financial aid. Caltech financial aid office caught the error, and we're correcting it for my Caltech and MIT apps. Apparently there is hope yet...</p>