<p>I was wondering which option you would go for...</p>
<p>A.) A Full ride to a pretty good state college/university</p>
<p>B.) An Ivy-League school (or something very prestigious such as MIT, Stanford, JHU, etc.) paying full price</p>
<p>Let's say you're not filthy rich or very poor either. You're just a middle to slightly upper class student and you have these two options. Which one would you choose?</p>
<p>It depends what you are looking to do in the future.</p>
<p>... and which one you like better/will be happier attending</p>
<p>Haha, that's the choice I'm about to make! Except hopefully although I'll have a full ride at the state school, I will also have pretty good financial aid at a more prestigious school (I'm lower middle class, not upper middle class like the hypothetical person).</p>
<p>If the 'prestigious' school is a better fit, I'd do my best to pay for it. It's kind of hard for me to choose because I'm not going into a high-paying career, so it would be difficult for me to pay off debt.</p>
<p>how good is the state school? if we're talking a berkeley, la, or even some of the other uc's like sd, davis, and irvine, it wouldn't be too hard to choose.</p>
<p>To keep it interesting, make it a good but not amazing state school (like University of Arizona or Florida State or something)</p>
<p>u of m? what u guys think about, u of m vs. duke/bc/jhu?</p>
<p>For all the posters here claiming to prefer a good state school over an Ivy for the reason of FIT, consider that Ivies have incredibly high yields and lose many of their students to OTHER Ivies or top 10 schools. When you consider the % of Harvard admits who will choose a good state U over Harvard, it's going to be very small. Most of the students who are good enough to get in to these kinds of schools naturally fit the atmosphere of an Ivy.</p>
<p>michigan! omg is that something you have to consider....michigan is better than bc first off. ross is top 5 if youre a business major</p>
<p>chemistry major?</p>
<p>I'm pretty much in that predicament right now (though technically speaking, I haven't been accepted to any Ivy League or prestigious universities). </p>
<p>Anyway, it's hard to say. For me, I would hate to go to one of my state's universities (I live in Arizona) because it'd essentially be just like high school all over again because almost everyone at my school ends up going to one of the state universities. And just being on the campus at ASU just lets me know that I don't like the general atmosphere there. </p>
<p>That being said, if I were accepted to a good public school in-state (i.e. ANY of the UC schools, UVA, UMich) I'd probably go there, but for me, since I want to go OOS anyway, I might as well apply to the more prestigious schools.</p>
<p>Haha...since I live in CA, it would be quite a difficult decision if it's to come my way.</p>
<p>whisper-
dont go to UA or ASU. Im at UA right now and trying to transfer out. it is like high shool, stay away</p>
<p>I would go to the state school, I see no sense in putting yourself in debt for an Ivy League school unless you have a clear idea about what you're doing in school. I had the same choice in college and I chose the state school and I'm thankful for it; I graduated with no debt. I then took a loan for graduate school and it was then that I went to the Ivy League school. I guess the best way of thinking about it is, "Where are you going to end?" If you plan on pursuing a post-baccalaureate degree, I would choose the state school. I actually ended up going to the Ivy League school I got into for undergraduate when I went to graduate school.</p>
<p>
[quote]
dont go to UA or ASU. Im at UA right now and trying to transfer out. it is like high shool, stay away
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yeah, I think I might. I got a pretty decent scholarship to U Dub, so I might end up there.</p>
<p>I picked a $20k/year education at Chicago over a full ride to Purdue with $3k/year extra to help pay for books. My custodial parent at the time of matriculation only made $20k/year, though, so it was equal to or worse than paying full price for a world-class education.</p>
<p>Lately, I'm considering that I might have been wrong in my decision, though. Without a doubt, Chicago has harder classes than Purdue, a better student body, and more (paid) research opportunities, but I wonder if any of these really matter once you come down to the cold hard facts of grad school admission. I could get the same or better education if I were to go to Purdue but self-educate myself on the topics that our classes failed to cover, and I would have more time to concentrate on my interests instead of on the terrible workload of Chicago classes. Then again, if I were to go by this argument, then I could simultaneously argue that it would've been wiser to refrain from going to college period. I also had a professor that wrote me a recommendation that told me that I should go to Purdue, since someone with passion and motivation does not need an education with an overbearing workload, since he can easily make up for it with his own independent studies. Thus, according to his opinions, $23k/year would just go to waste.</p>
<p>Then again, I don't care about prestige, which I know is important to many CC-ers. This, perhaps, makes my opinions irrelevant.</p>
<p>I'd pick full ride for state school mostly because I am planning on going to a graduate school for prof. degree where fame does not matter that much.</p>
<p>yeah same, just go to the ivy for graduate school! Once you have post bach degree, no one cares where you got your bachelors from!</p>
<p>The trick is that you have to get into the "Ivy" graduate school. Even if you are admitted to very good undergraduate programs, it is not assured in the least that you'll be admitted to graduate programs of a similar caliber.</p>
<p>Personally, I chose the prestigious school for undergrad, and I am very confident that the resume I built there, which I would not have been able to build elsewhere, was the major factor in my admission to my graduate program, which is the top program in my field. I'm glad I made the choice I did.</p>
<p>I'm making that decision right now. I've been admitted to Stanford without financial aid and then I see all this National Merit and National Achievement scholarships (I'm finalist in both competitions) that basically amount to a full ride at far lesser but I'm pretty sure far easier institutions. I don't know what I'm going to choose considering I have 3 siblings behind me who want to go to college as well. And I'm also in that slightly upper class bind (at least for Ivies/comparable 150-200k). I don't see how getting a graduate degree figures into this-I don't plan on getting one at least for now.</p>