<p>I wonder how many of the people who have responded actually studied engineering/physics/math at MIT…</p>
<p>MIT is world class and has many of the best researchers and best facilities/equipment, don’t get me wrong. The point I was trying to make was that they don’t have everything everyone wants in terms of research or facilities.
//insert anecdotal<em>evidence
The people I know personally who have gone to MIT for undergraduate work, both geniuses mind you:
- Physics at MIT, then MS/PhD at UIUC
- Math and MechE at MIT, then MS in MechE at Colorado School of Mines
//end personal</em>knowledge</p>
<p>Even if MIT is the epitome of STEM education, the vast vast majority of people don’t go there, just by the numbers, most of the world’s research papers come from places other than MIT.</p>
<p>But we’re getting off point, to the OP; in your particular situation, for undergraduate engineering, a state land grant university like MSU-Bozeman will offer a solid education at a fraction of the cost to you.</p>
<p>Right, but not fraction of the quality right?</p>
<p>You can buy a brand new Kia for $15,000.</p>
<p>You can buy a brand new Mercedes for $60,000.</p>
<p>You can drive both of them on the road, and they can both get you to your desired destination. The people that you meet on the way to your destination will have a different first impression of you based upon what they see you driving.</p>
<p>Some of the many reasons to choose MIT over a school like MSU</p>
<p>Career placement:
Jobs at places like Bain, Mckinsey, D.E Shaw, Ren tech, Facebook, Google, … are almost the norm at schools like MIT.
I doubt anyone from MSU got a job straight out of college at any of the above.</p>
<p>Alumni Network:
Obviously going to be a lot stronger at MIT.</p>
<p>Grad school placement:
Getting into a top phd program is going to be a lot easier if your adviser and professors writing your recommendations are well known in their field. Research opportunities are going to be exponentially better at MIT.</p>
<p>Could go on…</p>
<p>
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<p>Grad school placement will indeed be better as an undergrad from MIT…especially if that grad-school is MIT itself. Far and away the most well-represented undergrad program within the MIT grad programs is MIT. Indeed, certain highly popular grad programs such as the EECS MEng program are exclusive to MIT undergrads - if you were an undergrad at another school, you can’t even apply to those programs at all.</p>
<p>At MIT you will be surrounded by future world technology leaders. Depending on your life ambitions that may or may not be an incomparable advantage. If you’re just interested in getting a stable 9-5 job that can support your family, then you can probably get that from a school like MSU. If you want to work at the cutting edge of tech research or the business world or be an entrepreneur, then the 200K(if you have to pay that) is a small transaction cost for the connections you make there in the long run. </p>
<p>Personally, if you really love technology I don’t see why you would turn down MIT, when you are essentially guaranteed at least a very high 5 figure job upon graduation. Maybe… for a top public like UIUC, GA Tech or Berkeley, if you get a great discount.</p>
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<p>As others here have stated, it all depends on how you define ‘quality’. </p>
<p>As a topical example - what with the recent sale of an 18-month-old startup with zero revenue for a billion dollars - quality to some techies means deep alumni networking connections to the venture capital community with which to fund your tech startup. Plenty of promising startups can’t get off the ground for lack of funding because they can’t even get a meeting with VC’s. That $200,000 price tag, presuming that you received zero financial aid and aren’t rich enough not to care, might then very well be a savvy financial investment, relative to the millions you might reap from a VC-backed startup. </p>
<p>Another pathway is, rather than garnering VC funding for your startup, to instead become a venture capitalist yourself by being hired by a VC firm directly. Given the remarkably high pay that VC firms provides, whatever undergrad educational debts you accumulated could be retired quite quickly. </p>
<p>But certainly it is true that not every engineer defines quality by access to VC’s. Nor do they define quality by access to name-brand consulting and banking firms, or to the world’s top graduate programs. {As a case in point, poster molliebatmit is on record as saying that if she had not gone to MIT as an undergrad, she probably would not have gotten into top graduate programs at MIT and Harvard.} </p>
<p>Therefore If you’re one of those people who does not define quality in that way, then certainly there is little reason for you to pay extra for MIT.</p>
<p>I graduated from MIT with an SB in Math many years ago. We have a son that’s a junior in high school and are wrestling with a similar question – a less expensive, possibly free state school education vs a much more expensive private or OOS school (JHU, MIT, Duke, Ga Tech). The one thing I can say, from experience, is that having that <em>name school</em> on your resume opens doors. Potential employers see MIT and it gets their attention. I’m still not sure it was worth the extra money but I have gotten some opportunities that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise.</p>