<p>I'm being offered full-tuition at USC.
I've also been accepted to Harvard, among a couple of other Ivies.
I live in LA, really close to USC.
I want to major in Materials Science or Math. I'm not 100% sure yet (might even be something totally different).
My family's well-off enough that paying tuition for an Ivy isn't that big of a deal. At the same time, though, 240k is obviously not something we can write off without caring.
I'd be grateful for any honest advice on which choice is better. They say that success depends on the student, not the school, which would seem to suggest that USC is the better choice. At the same time, Harvard has that "Wow, Harvard" factor.
Anyway, please offer any advice you'd be willing to give. Again, thank you!</p>
<p>Harvard will always have that “wow” factor, but it kinda ends right there. Your job prospects for materials science or math are not necessarily improved by having Harvard after your name – Stanford or MIT maybe, certainly Viterbi (USC), as Harvard only recently even starting engineering as a discipline. “Harvard” is a nice conversation-stopper, but then people move on and other topics arise – if you cherish that little bit of eye-pop the rest of your life, go to Harvard. But with 240K you might actually create something and patent it that will employ tons of Harvard grads – far better! For the work world, you’re just another conversation and another resume. If you fit the position they will take you; if a State school grad fits it better, they will take him. Many, many Harvard people think they will get some sort of “pass” in life, and it is an unfortunate disability they have to live with, because the world doesn’t hand out free passes.</p>
<p>You don’t say what you want to do with your degree, but unless you’re going to end up on Wall Street I’d suggest you go to USC. That’s the only career where your USC degree could possibly be outweighed by a Harvard mortgage. </p>
<p>Take your family out of the equation. Suppose your parents just wrote you a check for $250K and let you choose - you can either have the USC degree and $250K in the bank or a Harvard degree. Which would you pick?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Do your parents care which one you pick?</p></li>
<li><p>If you go to USC tuition-free, have your parents offered to use that $$ to financially help you out with anything else in life? (I’m not saying that they should – merely that if they have, it might figure into your decision-making process.)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I ordinarily don’t recommend paying a heavy price premium just for a prestigious brand, and that isn’t necessarily what I’d recommend here. For many arts and science majors, I just don’t think the program differences among selective colleges are usually all that great.</p>
<p>Math at Harvard may be an exception. If you are seriously considering majoring in Math, then look closely at the two programs. I think you’ll find that Harvard’s undergraduate Math program has few if any peers (and that USC is not among them.) </p>
<p>Yes that’s an interesting dilemma. Does H even have materials science? Are you the scholarly type and may want to go to grad school, possibly phD or are you into jumping in and going to work?</p>
What do you want to do? Use math to work in finance/industry/go to grad school, or work as an engineer?
If the answer is engineer => USC. If the answer is PHD or finance => Harvard.
If you want to work in industry, it’s up to you … no wrong choice.
Since your parents have the money, what would they do with the money you’d save them? And if they told you that you can either spend it now and figure things out on your own later (ie., get a job and live off your salary/go to grad school and live off your stipend :p), or “bank” the 250k for whatever you want, what would you choose?</p>
<p>The point about Harvard’s math program being at the top is a good one, but before you immediately choose that option, you have to ask yourself (and be honest about it), will you be able to take full advantage of what that sort of program offers? It’s one thing to get into Harvard, it’s another thing to major in math, and yet another thing to really take advantage of what they offer. Majoring in math and graduating in the bottom half of the pack is likely to confer few advantages over keeping the $250K and just doing math at USC. </p>
<p>And I agree that in most cases, engineering should be done at USC.</p>
<p>“Harvard only recently even starting engineering as a discipline.”</p>
<p>This is incorrect. Harvard established its department of engineering in 1918. You may be thinking of the redefinition of the “division” of engineering & applied sciences into the “school” of EAS in 2007.</p>
<p>We don’t know that the OP will get any of the money if he doesn’t spend it on Harvard. That would be something he’d have to discuss with his parents. It’s a common assumption on CC, but in practice, I don’t see many families that hand any of the saved money to the kids. (Grad school tuition yes, outright gifts, no.)</p>
<p>I don’t support borrowing bunches of money for undergrad, even for Harvard, but if your parents can afford it without wrecking their retirement…run to Cambridge and never look back. It’s special. Are you going to Visitas?</p>
<p>What other schools did you get into? But honestly, like other members on this thread, if you’re going to thoses other schools for “prestige”, don’t go.I personally reccommend USC, but my sister goes there and as we’re from nor cal and don’t go to so cal ever, she thinks the ppl r fake, well DUH! The steotpes got there for a reson, but of cousre not everyone in so cal’s fake. I Hear Sn Diego’s good, but rlly HOT.I digress, but there r a couple draw backs to USC, If u like sports no matter how hped up it is, this ain’t ur school, their rivals:UCLA. USC Is the topic of sevral bruin’s jokes bcuz of our location. We’re in the poorer side of town(near Hunting Park), but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem unless u’d like un real world perfection in ur college choice.</p>
<p>Harvard students had full rides at better schools like Duke, or Chicago, or WUSTL, or Rice (which is why these schools had these non-need scholarships exist in the first place). While I’m not advocating going with status quo, it wouldn’t be out of the norm for you to turn down SC at all - especially if you can afford it</p>
<p>I see some posters who are known elitists being cautious, and I see known pragmatists drooling over prestige. </p>
<p>But this seems to me to be a no-brainer. No matter how good Harvard is supposed to be at math we’re still talking about an undergraduate who is not yet in need of math wizards. Genius is one thing. Undergraduate education requires something else. I’m not saying the Harvard professors don’t have what it takes to be u/g teachers, but do they have it that much better than USC math teachers? Not likely, and certainly not to the tune of a quarter million dollars. </p>
<p>USC. Go to Harvard for grad school on Harvard’s dime. </p>
<p>What do you plan to do after getting your bachelor’s degree? Do you like living in SoCal, hope to make your life there? USC is pretty prestigious, too. And, if you plan to go to grad school, perhaps your parents can direct the extra $ there? Congratulations on your options.</p>
<p>Prestige aside, Harvard is one of the world’s best universities that has few peers. Whether that’s better than a full tuition scholarship at USC is debatable. Think about how the situation would affect your parents and what they’d do with the money if they didn’t spend it on your education. Also think about how much value you’d really get from going to Harvard.</p>
<p>USC is excellent for networking in southern California. If your goal is to come back and set roots in Los Angeles, or SoCal in general, your degree would serve you well (but so would H’s obviously.)</p>
<p>You have a tough decision ahead of you. Many people don’t turn down Harvard, but certainly some have in the past. What you have to decide is whether you want to be one of them.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is true. Grad school admissions are less than 2% in some disciplines.</p>
<p>“Easier said than done. Grad school admissions is potentially harder than undergraduate admissions.”</p>
<p>Au Contraire’
a student who is smart enough to be awarded the Trustee Scholarship award at USC and be accepted at Harvard is smart enough to make full use of all the opportunities USC offers, and get into any grad school program.
DS turned down 2 Ivys and 10 other more “highly” ranked U’s to go to USC [ with a
Trustee scholarship], excelled there and was accepted at every grad school program he applied to.
He currently is in his 3rd year of his PhD program at Caltech…
Ymmv, but his other , equally smart classmates at USC are now at MIT and Princeton</p>
<p>Although as a parent, I would strongly lean toward taking the full ride at USC, there are some cases where forking out the $250K for Harvard might be worth it - and if OP has ripped through a university’s undergrad math program while in high school, I’d say the math program at Harvard would be worth it. (Given OPs proximity to USC, they may have already done the math program, or a substantial portion of it.) But if you’re merely good at math, not John Nash, then USC may provide plenty of challenges at a much lower cost.</p>