Exactly, cptofthehouse. For our s, the small private $$$ u was a better fit than Tech. Tech is great- no complaints, but we promised our kids we would handle undergrad and we honored our commitment.
If money truly is no object for you, tell her the choice is GT or OSU + $170k you’ll give her after graduation. I’d rather have my kid have the money than GT given the two schools involved.
If I had a nickel for every parent who told their kid they’d buy them a car if they choose the cheaper school I’d be a rich person.
What does she want to study? Does she have any career goals at this time?
Is size a concern? OSU is triple the size of GT. Might be an issue for some.
@i012575, even though Pitt and CMU are in close proximity, your med school daughter at PItt is probably too busy with her schooling and CMU students are basically worked to death (my D goes there) so they probably wouldn’t see much of each other anyway.
@Chardo, my daughter is set on Industrial Engineering which in some websites list GaTech as #6 in the country with OSU at #56.
Not sure where you see GT as #6. GT is generally regarded as the top industrial engineering program in the world, year after year (USNews 20 years in a row). It’s the largest IE program in the country, more than twice the size of any other. The recruiting is spectacular. Still, recruiting for OSU IE students is supposedly very good as well. Hard to justify such a huge price disparity unless there are other compelling reasons (and the difference is easily affordable).
My son was also admitted to both GT and OSU for IE. He got the National Buckeye and Provost scholarships from OSU, vs full pay OOS for GT. Difference for us is about $18k per year, not nearly as big a savings as you are facing.
Haha, people on this website. Ivies and MIT get all the love. GT gets lumped in with everyone else.
OP - Where are you getting the tuition cost of $170,000? The current OOS tuition and fees for GT is $30,698 a year.
So it’s about $123,000 for 4 years of tuition… Of course it’s still a lot of money.
IE requires 128 credits. I assume your D is coming in with AP or IB credit but even if she isn’t it shouldn’t take 5 years of classes.($154,000) The majority of the GT kids that take 5 years are doing Co-op or Internships which adds the year.
I’m wondering if you were looking at the total cost including room/board/books/personal stuff. That would be $44,000 X 4 or $176,000. Does she have free room and board too at OSU or is she thinking of commuting?
@MichiganGeorgia, yes I was including living expenses at 170k. At OSU, she has free tuition and is currently short-listed for the Distinction Scholarship, which is a full-ride. I think getting that would definitely tip the scale for OSU, but we won’t know yet.
And you DO have to include living expenses. It’s not like the kid can live in a tent at GT.
Is there any reason to worry about this right now? Wait and see what the final aid offers are from the schools. Then make the decision.
If that $170,000 cost difference isn’t a problem for you, I would let your daughter choose. BUT, I would have her do accepted student visits at both places before making a decision.
@thumper1: Nope. That would be Duke. But only during basketball season.
When comparing school costs, generally I don’t include personal costs like books, travel, etc., because they’re approximately the same for every school. I only compare tuition and fees, room and board.
Georgia Tech is only slightly more prestigious than OSU, definitely not to the tune of the value of a house in difference. Should be obvious to go to OSU.
I’ve been to two IIE conferences, one in Columbus (which obviously would have had a ton of OSU kids) and one in San Juan and met a few people from a bunch of different schools. It’s really hard to say, but it didn’t seem like one school was way better off than any other in most cases. Though I’ll admit, I was probably seeing mostly the best/most involved at these schools.
When we compared schools, on first pass we just compared tuition. Room/board varies from school to school, but usually within a few thousand only. Tuition varied greatly, especially when a full tuition scholarship was in the mix.
Note - Families looking at state schools that have thousands of dollars of fees (to make tuition look cheaper) may need to pay attention to fees. One friend said her son got “free tuition” scholarship at UMass, but she was shocked at the high fees (on top of room/board).
@OneOf5
The acceptance rate at GTech has dropped dramatically from over 70% to around 33% in 10 years.
2004
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-11-02-collegerates_x.htm
2014
http://admission.gatech.edu/life-tech/class-profile
Mid-50%
SAT 2050-2240 with M 700-780
ACT 30-33
The SAT scores have also shown steady improvement and have yet to level off… this is a very encouraging sign for the school.
http://factbook.gatech.edu/admissions-and-enrollment/sat-scores/
2013 – 1420
2014 – 1485 (EA only)
2015 – 1488 (EA only)
As you will note, the above numbers are for the university as a whole and includes non-STEM and primarily in-state students.
During the same period, the quality of the students has steadily improved to the extent that it can now be favorably compared to some strong privates like Tufts and Emory. Check out the mid-50 percentile scores of these institutions.
Tufts (Freshman 2014) - http://admissions.tufts.edu/apply/accepted-student-profile/
Emory (Freshman 2014) - http://apply.emory.edu/discover/fastfacts.php
One has to realize and recognize that it is quite an achievement for a state school to have made such a progress in the last few years. On top of that, just like other elite publics like UCB and UMich, GTech is able to lure high caliber students from out-of-state without many handouts. In order to do so, it has to provide superior value for its education. Currently, over 30% of the undergrad students at GTech are from outside Georgia. Why should someone pay full (or close to full) tuition at a state univ. if there wasn’t a “return on investment”? In fact, two (out of three) of my D2’s best friends at GTech are from OOS – from MD and NJ.
There are tons of charts and lists (and articles) that compare tech schools and streams. I am providing one such link that may be pertinent to you. Though it provides a ROI-type of ranking, I will certainly admit that lot of the value is not quantifiable.
http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/top-25-ranked-engineering-programs-with-the-best-return-on-investment/
You may do your own analysis for OSU. But as has been recommended in other posts, definitely make it a point to attend the GTech Gold Carpet Day.
http://admission.gatech.edu/goldcarpetday
In the end, the full (or near-full) ride at OSU may not even make any other school a viable option. I am sure you and your child will be thrilled if it works out that way. All the best !
P.S. I just wanted to add a link to an article in this morning’s WSJ.
How a Two-Tier Economy Is Reshaping the U.S. Marketplace
http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-a-two-tier-economy-is-reshaping-the-u-s-marketplace-1422502201?mod=WSJ_hp_RightTopStories
The article is about the advance of the top 5% earners - I am quite sure some of this money is going towards education!
Free tuition beats everything else. In addition, it does not matter where one goes for engineering, engineering firms hire locally anyway. I have lots and lots of friends with kids who went to OSU for engineering, all are very successful.
My D. was in similar situation, except that she had a clear choice. She was on full tuition in-state public and since she was planning to attend a Med. School, the UG name did not matter. So, she choose the school that she really liked and it worked out perfectly. Tuition free UG allowed us to pay for her Med. School making her loan free after graduation. It is biggy! Save your $$!!! Unless, your D.loves another place much more, but she has to love it $170k more, hard to imagine that.
@MiamiDAP , I have been in your shoes too. My D1 had acceptances to Harvard and UPenn but chose to attend Pitt with a full ride for undergrad (she was one of the GAP admits); she is in the SOM now. But in my D2’s case, we chose GTech over OSU (full tuition). All I am saying is that there is no “one size fits all” formula.
GaTech’s admission percentage dropped most notably 2 yrs ago when it went to the Common App
I understand your struggle! We too are weighing GT vs a full ride at a second tier university. At least for engineering, GT’s program is in the top 4 of all US ranked colleges/universities…that’s nothing to sniff at. In fact, it seems like those good enough for MIT who can’t afford MIT default to GT. I had a GT professor tell me this. That new radar technology that lets you see “through walls” was just developed in GT research labs…they have a lot going on in their research labs that is cutting edge. I know nothing about OSU but if you want to be on the cutting edge of research, GT is the place to be. Their coop and internship programs are top notch as well. It’s a very tough school but graduates are highly valued from everything I’ve read. That is our struggle and what we are comparing.