<p>Hi, I need your help.
My kid's dream is to become a business leader in a high tech company. She is offered a full ride to Rutgers school of engineering and school of science, which will enable her to get a dual degree in science and engineering totally free of charge. She is also admitted by UPenn Wharton Business School's Management and Technology program which would cost more than $65000 per year and very hard for our family to afford. She is thinking of a career path of either a Rutger's Bachelor plus an Ivy MBA/PhD or a terminal bachelor degree at Wharton. We need to decide soon but cannot figure out which path would have a better chance to gain a high leadership position in a tech company, any input is highly appreciated. Thanks.</p>
<p>M&T is worth it.</p>
<p>Thanks, could you please elaborate?</p>
<p>Could you elaborate? </p>
<p>Rodrigo, the OP said that UPenn will be hard to afford. One should not enroll at a college wherein despite financial aid, the school remains unaffordable.</p>
<p>The tuition of a Wharton MBA is roughly $65,000 per year.</p>
<p>The average starting salary of a graduate of the M&T program is $73,000 (see: <a href=“http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/files/WHA_2013cp.pdf”>http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/files/WHA_2013cp.pdf</a>)</p>
<p>Assuming your two options are:
- Only go to Wharton, no grad school
- Go to Rutgers, get a Wharton MBA immediately (unlikely, but for the purpose of this calculation let’s assume)</p>
<p>Option 1 will cost you $65,000 * 4 = $260,000
Option 2 will cost you $65,000 * 2 in tuition + $73,000 * 2 in lost salary = $276,000 </p>
<p>I do not take living expenses into account in option 2 because they would be paid out of the lost salary anyway, if that makes sense.</p>
<p>Perhaps this representation is slightly misleading however, as the starting salary for a Wharton MBA is $125,000. </p>
<p>It would be easier to pay off your massive debt with a $125,000 salary vs. a $73,000 one.</p>
<p>Whichever path she chooses, it’s going to be your daughter, and not her college, that makes the difference.
Wharton is the pinnacle of an undergrad business school experience, and one pays for that privilege. A full ride a Rutgers that enables her to come away debt free with a dual degree, one which is engineering, would also put her in a very fine place for either grad school or industry when she graduates.<br>
In our family it would probably come down to just how unaffordable the Wharton choice is. If it would create hardship affecting my other kids or our retirement, I’d want her to take the full ride. If it just meant that we would take out a loan we could repay in a reasonable time by making a few sacrifices-- maybe forgo a vacation or new car, I’d go with Wharton. It’s really a question about money, which only your family can answer.</p>
<p>bigwords, thanks for the excellent viewpoint, considering the end results is a dual BS from Wharton, or a dual BS degree plus an MBA from Wharton, and that the lost wage is going to be $73000 minus living expense and taxes, it makes sense to choose Rutgers.</p>
<p>moonchild, thanks for a great point, we do have a younger child who is academically excellent that we really would need to reserve some resources to support too.</p>
<p>you would have infinitely more opportunities out of Wharton M&T. These are some of the most sought after graduates in the job market. Long-term it would pay off to go to M&T.</p>
<p>It may create financial hardships now, but M&T kids will be rolling in money after they graduate and earn a lot more money per year for the rest of their life.</p>
<p>Lots of people with technical backgrounds from school do eventually go into management; a business degree is not necessary, although some electives in business or related social studies subjects (e.g. economics, sociology of workplaces, etc.) may be helpful for general knowledge in that area.</p>
<p>Before all this, what budget did you plan on? 50k? More? Less?
The problem is that Wharton offers opportunity no other school affords, with financially enormous rewards.
Would you be selling assets? Jeopardizing retirement? Taking on PLUS loans?
When you say “very difficult”, do you mean “basically impossible unless we compromise our next child’s college and sell our blood” or do you mean “lots of sacrifices to our lifestyle but no touching the retirement funds and other kid’s college funds?”’ Does your daughter have a job? Can she take one on? Does she plan on working over the summer and does her financial aid package include work study (if not, can you ask)? What’s your EFC - can you see with Wharton whether they may include federal loans + work study + ? to bridge with whatever peer school offered her something?
Do not bring up the full ride to Rutgers, but if she got 12K merit from Stern, 15k merit from Fordham, 7k from Barnard… that could be discussed with Wharton. This cannot be or sound like a negotiation though.</p>
<p>So you are not getting any aid for the M&T?</p>
<p>Please clarify if we’re talking about $65K per year straight up in cash versus just paying housing at Rutgers.</p>
<p>The Jerome Fisher Program is a top flight undergrad - I know some people who did well coming out of it (Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Stanford MBA) and I also know of some who did badly (low GPA, no med school would take them). </p>
<p>We all know a lot will fall on her and how she performs. But from a financial standpoint, this is a real tough gamble. It’s either boom or bust. At some point, you have to draw the line on how much Penn is worth over Rutgers. If she is leaving Philly with $150-200K in debt, that is completely absurd. It’s a tough thing, but you might need to let her prove herself at Rutgers…and then spend the money on pedigree after. The only problem is that nothing is guaranteed and she will have to work harder for opportunities.</p>
<p>It is possible to garner some comparable job opportunities, but it is certainly not the norm. After I got rejected from the M&T program years ago, I went to my lowly state school (100% tuition covered) in defeat, attended a top 15 school for a technical master’s degree, hustled tirelessly to get competitive jobs (not a fun time), and then a few years later got into Harvard Business School (by chance). I didn’t say this to show off, but just to say that I know how hard it is at every step - I wished plenty of times that things had been easier for me from the beginning by getting into a top notch undergrad program like M&T. But who knows what would’ve happened.</p>
<p>Another way to look at it is that if she’s good enough for M&T…and she translates that to college well, trust her with Rutgers. Of course you want to provide her with as much opportunity as possible to fulfill her goals, but a ridiculous undergrad debt burden (>$120K) is difficult to justify. For B-school, she will have a better chance to get in somewhere due to gender.</p>
<p>And she will need to work a few years immediately after undergrad to get into a place like Wharton. Look at Harvard 2+2 program as well.</p>
<p>HI Johnny, Thanks very much for sharing your experiences and for your time and the insights. It is a very good reference point. To clarify, no, nothing at all from M&T while Rutgers is free tuition plus room and board, so we are really looking at a difference of $260K. Rutgers is a top 70 college in US, and I do believe in my daughter and think she can overcome hurdles to get into an Ivy MBA program if she wish.
Hi MYOS1634, Thanks for the input, I understands the opportunities M&T offer. I am just not sure whether those would worth $260K even in the long run. The price tag is so steep we really have to cutback severely to afford it. That is my dilemma knowing that my daughter do not have a passion for finance per se, which in my mind, is where the biggest opportunities Wharton presents</p>
<p>$260K difference is out of the question. Rutgers is the better value.</p>
<p>You’re right about finance - if she doesn’t want to work in i-banking/private equity immediately after, the economics are even worse.</p>
<p>Thanks very much for your insight, Johnny. I wish you the best coming of out Harvard, very proud of and happy for you.</p>
<p>Thanks for the kind words and wish you the best. Your daughter has done extremely well and it sounds like she will continue to.</p>