<p>Texas is entirely its own culture. It used to be its own nation and they haven’t forgotten. It can probably be considered “Southwest.” Geographically and culturally it’s quite different from the rest of the South. But even within the South there are major cultural differences. Eastern Ky is a different country from Western or central or Northern Ky. Parts of Fl and NC are so yankee-fied they can’t be considered Southern in any way except geographically.</p>
<p>“I get the feeling you really like the idea of name-dropping your college to people you meet and seeing their reaction. If <em>that</em> is how you are selecting your college, you are going to college for all the wrong reasons. Maybe I’m wrong, but we get a lot of people on CC here (high school students, mainly) who are in love with the idea of being an Ivy League/Stanford/MIT blue-blood type and practically wet their pants at the thought of saying “when I was at Harvard…” in conversations.”</p>
<p>I would be lying if I said the college’s prestige did not play a part in my decision. If I’m going to be paying OOS tuition, then I want to be sure I am getting my money’s worth. I don’t see anything wrong with that. </p>
<p>For me, costs and loans will be the biggest deciding factor in where I go. If I get into VT, which I am in state for, then I would be more than happy to go to VT over another top tier school I would have to go into massive debt for.</p>
<p>Too many Americans are stupid about college, don’t be one of them. Go with the affordable option. I remember being a high schooler. MIT, Purdue, etc. seemed like such a big deal. They are top schools and if you can (AFFORDABLY!) attend one, then do so. But five measly years after you’ve graduated (from whatever college) employers will no longer care about where you went to school but what you’ve done. Think about that. Before you’re THIRTY, people will stop caring (unless you want to go to grad school). It will only matter what sort of engineer you are, who you’ve worked for, what you did, etc.</p>
<p>Unless you are given some huge tuition discount, scholarship, or your parents are wealthy, I say stick with the in-state option.</p>
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<p>…and once that department of graduate admissions of distance/online programs sees that reimbursement check from your employer, that grad school may not care either. All of a sudden, your GRE scores are waived, LOL.</p>
<p>IhateMonday “I would be lying if I said the college’s prestige did not play a part in my decision. If I’m going to be paying OOS tuition, then I want to be sure I am getting my money’s worth. I don’t see anything wrong with that.
For me, costs and loans will be the biggest deciding factor in where I go. If I get into VT, which I am in state for, then I would be more than happy to go to VT over another top tier school I would have to go into massive debt for.”</p>
<p>IMO - the first thing you need to decide is whether you want to pursue an engineering degree to become an engineer or whether you really just want to get into finance. Yes, engineering programs are analytical but much of what you learn has no application in high finance. If you want to be a quant guru then skip engineering and major in math. Or, major in accounting and later pick up a graduate degree in finance or a more quantitative MBA.</p>
<p>If intend on an engineering career I think you’ll find that many of the same recruiters show up at Va Tech and Ga Tech. So, the Ga Tech engineering degree would really have to be head and shoulders above Va Tech’s to justify the OOS rates.</p>