I am having a pretty difficult time choosing between the two schools currently. My parents would be paying for Georgia Tech if I went there. The thing is, I am pretty sure I want to pursue a graduate degree in some way. I know that if I were to go to Rutgers, I would definitively dual major, probably in Econ or Finance and then go for an MBA. With GT, I am not so sure what I would be doing. I might try to go into the work force before graduate studies if that’s easier.
This is tough for me because GT is such a great school. If my son had gotten in there I would have been torn and sorely tempted to go full pay (so in a weird way I’m glad he didn’t).
On the other hand, theoretically I think “full pay” is nuts for most schools. It is an incredible amount of money for an undergraduate degree - especially with a full ride from another decent school.
My rational side would say to go with Rutgers, especially if graduate school is on the horizon. Maybe you can talk with your parents and make some sort of informal agreement that you will receive extra “perks” for Rutgers - perhaps a car, or help with grad school. Not saying that you are entitled to any of this, but it’s mature of you to recognize the big price difference. I would appreciate that in my son.
I worked at GT, and specifically we worked very closely with ECE at our department. Rutgers is a better choice - given you can go for free. I would say get a good GPA, and then you can apply to GT for an MS ECE, and get full funding. GT has recently introduced a dual MS or PhD with a MBA, which you can do in four years. I have utmost respect for Rutgers Engineering, and if you want to come down here, you can very likely come for free for grad studies (provided you have a good gpa, and good research).
I am from New Jersey and familiar with Rutgers programs and campus. I agree a full ride is prestigious too, so you will be in a select group at Rutgers. If you want to go to grad school, for sure take the full ride. Jobs options will be determined more by the graduate program you select. (And I am a mom planning to pay for GT, it is great I think but not versus a full ride). My son has no full ride offers , and U of Colorado partial ride is not Rutgers. Good luck.
As parent of a GT student I would start by saying that a full ride is normally a better choice. The only thing that I would seriously look at is the GPA that you need to maintain to keep that full ride. Is it a realistic GPA? Remember that college is not high school and even if you have a 4.0 now it doesn’t mean that you will have one in college. Some scholarships are harder to keep than others. So make sure and look at the average GPA for students at Rutgers in the majors that you are considering and see if they are over the GPA necessary to keep the scholarship. Good luck.
I’m a Mom of a GT student who really wanted to go there but also could have gone to Rutgers with a nice scholarship, so I have an idea of what you are going through. Did you visit GT already? I also have 2 kids who graduated from Rutgers and received an excellent education.
As a parent, was in the same boat - Rutgers Honors Engg (full ride 4yr) vs.Georgia Tech (OOS 47k/yr). Asked my kid to put all the pros and cons for each category and compare (academics, finance, housing, on-campus life, on-campus commute, dist. from home, food, research opp., study abroad, internship prospects, challenging oneself to be in the top%( big fish in small pond vs. all fish), graduate study prospects, NYC vicinity vs. Atlanta prospects, innovation lab/s, credit for AP courses, work-load, max vs avg # of credit hrs, faculty credentials, majors/minors, and finally being contended with the decision). Overall, the weighted factor favored Rutgers. This did help in making the decision a bit easier. Visited both universities. The new honors housing at Rutgers is probably one of the best freshman housing for a public university. He chose Rutgers.
@danpat I am actually a student at the Rutgers Honors College studying Finance and Economics. Although the decision is ultimately up to you, I would encourage you to take the full scholarship. I have a friend who is paying OOS at GT and he is constantly worrying about the crippling debt he will face when he graduates. It is very rare for a student not to have to worry about debt when they graduate. In addition, Rutgers has an unbelievable amount of resources (especially the HC) and will provide you with all the resources necessary to succeed and get into any graduate school you desire (given you put in the work). That begin said, if your heart is set on GT, DON’T come to Rutgers. You do not want to go to a school and then always be thinking “what if I went to GT instead…”. Let me know if you have any other questions about the school or the programs
@danpat My son has some similar choice to make. He got 4 years UCONN full ride honor scholarship and accepted to GT. As the parent, from financial point of view, we like him to go to UCONN (close to home is also a major consideration). However, son insisted to go to GT especially after he was accepted into the GC program. After all the pros and cons evaluation, we all agreed that GT will be a better choice.
So the final decision where to go should be upon yourself.