<p>Need some food for thought. Accepted in honors program at GT and UL for Computer Science/Engineering. Parents don't qualify for financial aid but GT @ 40K/year certainly puts a strain on their budget and I would be responsible for about 35% of the cost. I have an all inclusive full ride at UL.</p>
<p>I have no question that GT CS probably delivers a better education (ranked #5 vs Louisville at 115) and thus may give me more job opportunities to select from when I graduate. But are the salaries going to be much different? Let's assume 5 years for both programs -- is GT education at 200K going to pay for itself in the long run? Assume I feel like I am an equally good fit in both programs.</p>
<p>Thanks for food for thought......I know I'm hungry for it.</p>
<p>In this particular case, free is probably very, very good. What you would save at Louisville would mean that you can pay for a grad program later on, or you can do a whole bunch of unpaid (or very poorly paid) internships or research opportunities. If you go to GT you will need to borrow the maximum Stafford Loans and find well paid summer and school year jobs so that you can come up with that 35% of the cost. Louisville offers you a lot more flexibility.</p>
<p>As has been reiterated many times here at CC, for engineers your starting salary is not going to be better just because of the university name on your diploma.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for their quick comments… please keep them coming.</p>
<p>Erin’s Dad - By saying “Oh look, Louisville is ABET certified. " We’re you saying that, though maybe not as highly rated, UL is still a good school?”</p>
<p>mom2collegekids:I did apply to Texas and Purdue. Purdue gave me a 17K scholarship, but I didn’t like the fit as much. I haven’t heard back from Texas yet – they said they announce awards late March through April (seemed kind of late for me so maybe I’m wrong at that). I thought I’d get at least some merit from GT – I was an alternate for a finalist for their President’s Scholar program, which would have sealed the deal for me even if it wasn’t a full ride. I would have thought the being #1 in my class and an SAT 2320 with plenty of community serivce and what I thought were very good essays would have gotten me more.</p>
<p>happymomof1: do you have some specific links to other parts of CC that indicate “for engineers your starting salary is not going to be better just because of the university name on your diploma.” I’m new here. I start search, but anything specific that you might remember would help.</p>
<p>Two people who have written about engineering issues are classicrockerdad and ucbalumnus, there are others as well who are either working engineers themselves or who are managers who hire engineers. By and large your university doesn’t matter much at all provided the program is accredited by ABET. Here’s the link for that: [ABET</a> -](<a href=“http://www.abet.org/]ABET”>http://www.abet.org/)</p>
<p>mom2collegekids: No. I was sick when I took the PSAT and missed the cutoff by 2 points. My guidance councilor said I would have easily been a Finalist if not better had I’d made the cut off. Interesting how one day can effect your whole life. All that work…frustrating. Thanks for the info on Texas. I guess I won’t count on them for anything. I completely agree with need based scholarships. The problem is, my parents have just enough apparently, to keep us out of the need based opportunities. The thing I am really upset with is how high college tuition has become. Seems like a college like GT would be happy to have someone like me for the cost of in-state. I guess not.</p>
<p>happymomof1: Thanks for the user names. I will be looking those up now.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech will likely attract more non-local recruiters to its career center than Louisville will, so if you attend Louisville, you likely need to be more aggressive at seeking companies to apply to for jobs and internships (rather than just applying to the same well known AFGM companies that everyone in computer science and engineering applies to). You may want to see if the schools’ career centers will tell you who comes recruiting for students in your major.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech at $160,000 total, including presumably $56,000 debt (your 35% share, if you can even borrow that much) and your parents’ $104,000 that will put a severe financial strain on them, is not exactly a financially prudent decision when the alternative is a full ride. Do you have any other acceptances, and what are their net costs?</p>
<p>You probably should have had the money talk with your parents before making your application list.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus: Good idea calling the career center. </p>
<p>I did have the money talk with Mom and Dad last summer, I guess I just thought I’d get more merit money than I did based on my resume. I wasn’t expecting a full ride from these schools, but, like I said, if GT would have just matched the offer from Purdue (17K), I’d say, where do I sign.</p>
<p>I have been accepted into the honors programs at Texas and Purdue as well. Purdue has offered me a $17k scholarship, but I just don’t like the fit as much as UL or GT. I haven’t ruled them out completely. I haven’t heard from Texas, but a previous poster said they have become more need based vs merit based.</p>
<p>All these comments are great …please keep them coming. What a great and sharing community this is.</p>
<p>Why 5 years? BS is usually 4 years, so GT is $160K. </p>
<p>Purdue $17K is that per year or for one year? Is it $147K or $92K. </p>
<p>I know nothing about University of Louisville except that they have a good basketball team. Isn’t Rick Pitino there? </p>
<p>Georgia Tech and Purdue are world class schools for CS, with national recruiting. </p>
<p>Your salary is determined by your capabilities, but also by other offers you get. Top companies pay top dollar. I’d be surprised if Google, Microsoft and Facebook recruited at Louisville for the premier jobs. </p>
<p>My vote would be Purdue if you’d save $68K over 4 years. For that much money, I’d suck up the fit part. </p>
<p>I can’t tell you or your parents to go into tremendous debt, and it’s possible for you to go to Louisville and then get into a good graduate school. That free ride is a nice thing no doubt. Your last degree is what really matters. However, I think Purdue and GT will push you harder and you could end up with greater capabilities at those schools. I suspect someone of your caliber will find Louisville quite easy.</p>
<p>classicrockerdad: Thank you so much for the feedback. I guess I was assuming 5 years because most of the kids I talked to from each of these schools indicated that, with the coop, they generally end up going 4.5 - 5 years.</p>
<p>Purdue is 17K every year as long as I keep my grades above 3.0. I feel confident that I can do that. My fit issue with them is that, I was not impressed with their Computer Science Program at all. I’d like to do CS vs. Electrical/Computer Engineering (ECE) because I am not interested in Electrical Engineering at all, though PU’s ECE program was very impressive. Do you have any experience with their CS graduates (i.e. not ECE) or know any recruiters that might? Maybe I will start a separate thread asking for opinions about that. Maybe the PU CS people I met with that day weren’t the ones that normally talk about the program. The counselor I talked to made the program seem very cookie cutter – everyone takes pretty much the same courses. The student that gave the tour said she was graduating in 2 months and had no job and no prospects! Was I there on a bad day?</p>
<p>GT’s CS presentation blew me away. They have dozens of choices in which to specialize depending on your specific interest. From what I hear, you are right about being pushed harder at GT and PU => more capabilities => more opportunities => better salary…but how much better? Is it worth 100-160K? If I were near the top of my class (if not the top) at UL would I have a decent chance to go to those top companies (assuming they don’t recruit there) and open those doors myself?</p>
<p>I’m going to try to call the career centers from each school later today to see if they can give me some more info.</p>
<p>Are there any other comments about differences in opportunities or salary among my choices?</p>
<p>Extra semesters spent in co-op jobs are not semesters you spend tuition for (you may be spending living expenses, but you should also be paid by the employer). Graduating in 8 school semesters plus 1 or 2 co-op job semesters is a lot different from graduating in 9 or 10 semesters because you took light course loads, changed majors late, or had to repeat failed courses. But be sure to check how financial aid and scholarships work if you take semesters off to co-op and then return.</p>
<p>In any case, if Purdue is $68,000 total, that is a much more realistic option than Georgia Tech at $160,000 total including $56,000 of debt if you are not confident enough in the recruiting and job seeking prospects at Louisville. (Georgia Tech and Purdue have career surveys on their web sites, but not as detailed as the ones at Berkeley, Cal Poly, and Virginia Tech; you may still want to call the various schools’ career centers for more information.)</p>
<p>I think you need to have a frank, adult discussion with your parents. If it’s a true hardship for them, you may want to chooseLouisville. However, they may have considered the impact on their finances and be able (and willing) to do so.</p>
<p>Even if they tell you it’s your choice, I’m sure that they will be glad to know that you are sensitive to the issue and thinking of them.</p>
<p>Thanks again to everyone for being so supportive and informative.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus: After some checking – you are probably right…as long as you keep a good course load and don’t change your major, 4 years looks like it can be done – especially with some help from my AP scores (5’s).</p>
<p>The Purdue scholarship is for 17K, so the total cost of attendance there for four years will probably end up being $95K-100K.</p>
<p>Zephyr15: We have had the money discussion. The 160K at GT will strain their budget but won’t be a hardship – probably no vacations or other non necessities for the years I’m in school, but no problems keeping up with everything else – especially if I can use some of my coop money to help pay off my portion.</p>
<p>The more I think about the job choice issue, the more important that issue becomes. </p>
<p>I know I’m only 18 and 4 years of college might change my point of view, but I think 4 years from now I’m going to value what type of work I’ll being doing more than how much they pay me to do it. Do you think I would be correct in assuming that that, no matter where I go to school my starting salary wouldn’t vary by more than 10-15%? Am I over or under estimating that difference? </p>
<p>If I am right, maybe this decision comes down to paying to have more choices of jobs at the end of 4 years. If I have a better chance of finding a job I love at the end of 4 years, does that make the $160K worth it?</p>
<p>On the other hand…clearly a GT graduate would have more opportunities than a UL graduate, but does that automatically make those opportunities more DIVERSE? And again….if I perform well and am assertive enough, can I make those opportunities happen at UL or do many of these more diverse organizations look at the school on the resume and stop there?</p>
<p>I’m a parent, so I have some understanding of wanting one’s child to go to the best school possible. </p>
<p>Based on what you have written, if GT is your first choice, and your parents are willing to support the decision (both financially and emotially), I think you should go there without guilt.</p>
<p>It does speak to your credit that you are considering this.</p>
<p>zephyr15: Thanks for the comment. I feel very lucky to have parents who can afford to put up what they have told me they can, but if I go to GT, I will have a hefty bill to pay myself….so I have to admit it’s not all about me thinking of them. It’s why I put up the original question.</p>
<p>By your junior year, you get to choose among 9 different tracks. GT has 8 different tracks. There is not complete overlap. There are certainly areas that GT has that Purdue is weak in and probably vice versa. </p>
<p>I’m not sure what specifically you are not impressed with. They have co-op too by the way. </p>
<p>Frankly, this seems like a pretty good department as long as the “tracks” they have interest you. </p>
<p>I’d like to better understand what you don’t like.</p>
<p>classicrockerdad: I did come across this page along the way. Maybe I got sucked into how GT CS was “marketed” vs. GT CS. I have to say that I have been heavily influenced by how PU presented their information on my visit. What they gave me in their information packet (no detail about the tracks at all) and how it was presented (again, they hardly talked about track choices) did not represent the quality I expected from a school who I thought had a top notch reputation. I had to find this and most other information about their program on their web site. When I did find it, it just seemed to me to be more of a grouping of courses vs. a thought out plan of study.</p>
<p>On the other hand, GT blew me away when I visited. They gave me a detailed explanation of how their threads work together in what I thought was a very logical fashion to create 28 possible degrees. Their information packet actually shows it much better than their web site (see this: [BS</a> Computer Science ? The Eight Threads | College of Computing](<a href=“http://www.cc.gatech.edu/future/undergraduates/bscs/threads]BS”>http://www.cc.gatech.edu/future/undergraduates/bscs/threads) and then this: [Current</a> Undergraduates ? Undergraduate Study Plans | College of Computing](<a href=“http://www.cc.gatech.edu/current/undergraduates/academics/plans]Current”>Thread Combination Credit Sheets, Academic Year 22-23 | College of Computing)). The tour guide was amazing and very knowledgeable. In addition to speaking in detail about the undergraduate program she discussed GT’s CS graduate program (not discussed at all at PU). Can I assume that GT undergrads have a better chance than non GT undergrads of getting into such a program (all performance factors being equal)? That would seem to be a big advantage. Also, there seems to be more research opportunities for undergrads because of such a strong program. </p>
<p>Am I a victim of good marketing? I have to admit that GT did such a good job on my visit that it immediately became my #1 choice (money matters aside) and started to get used to the idea of going there (at the expense of doing more research about PU). I didn’t find out about the Purdue Scholarship until mid January. At that time I was a semi-finalist for the GT President’s Scholar Program and felt very hopeful. I just recently found out that I finished as an alternate to that program. </p>
<p>What really matters is results. How do GT CS graduates compare to PU CS graduates? Remember I’m talking about Computer Science (my preference)….not Electrical/Computer Engineering in both cases.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all of your help and advice!</p>
<p>Also, does anyone know if it would be effective to go to GT with my other offers to see if they could help me out a little financially? I wouldn’t even expect them to match, but if they could make it a little easier (a smaller scholarship or maybe just a fixed rate loan that wouldn’t start to accrue interest until I graduate) it would help.</p>