I hope I’m not too pretentious in posting about this but I’m asking what you guys think is the best college for me to go to if I want to do a double major in CS and Econ (or major in CS and minor in Econ). Input from anyone that has been or is in a similar situation would be greatly appreciated. As for my preferences/circumstances in terms of other areas, I’ll just put a few lists below:
Financial Aid
Vandy (CV Scholarship, probably about $13,000/yr for room/board with NM scholarship)
Princeton ($17,000/yr)
Caltech ($21,500/yr)
Northwestern ($24,000/yr)
Rice ($35,000/yr after Trustee Distinguished scholarship)
MIT ($43,000/yr)
Harvard (no aid whatsoever, almost $70k/yr)
Student Life (as far as I can tell from visits/websites/videos)
Rice
Northwestern
Vandy
Princeton
MIT
Harvard
Caltech
Research Opportunities (if anyone were to shed new light on this that would change the ranking I guess)
MIT
Caltech
Northwestern
Rice
Princeton
Harvard
Vandy
I also got into Duke, JHU, OU, and UT but it’s unlikely I’ll choose any of those. Thank y’all for the help
Probably the two most important factors for me are student life and research opportunities, but I’m still considering all the other factors very highly as well (although I can probably get over the weather). I guess what I’m really trying to get at is which of these schools has the best programs for someone who wants to do some kind of combination of Economics and Computer Science. I’d rather not use online rankings as these tend be inconsistent. Also, I’ve either visited or will visit each of these schools in the next few weeks.
I’m at Vandy for CS/Econ, and the latter is far stronger than the former. Disregarding everything outside of academics, it would be a bad decision to turn down Princeton.
I don’t think turning down Princeton would be a bad idea. I would cross Harvard off immediately - awful undergraduate education comparatively and not worth half of that ridiculous full pay price tag. I think the ones to juggle between are Vanderbilt (for cost effectiveness, abundance of opportunity, and lifestyle), CalTech (for being set for life in CS basically), and Princeton (for blend of the two, although CS doesn’t seem to be their strong point).
Are you 100% hell bent on CS and guaranteed to see that through to graduation? If you ever changed majors, then somewhere like Vanderbilt, Princeton, or Northwestern is ideal due to the variety of strengths across ALL the disciplines, as opposed to a CalTech or MIT which are basically STEM or bust. All things to consider.
@Senior2016M Caltech is great and my son is currently considering it. However, I don’t think it is strong in Econ except possibly for some narrow computational parts of econ. MIT has a very strong econ department in addition to its obvious strengths in CS.
@Senior2016M : Harvard is not a particularly awful undergraduate experience. The academics are actually quite strong (okay, extremely, let us keep it real) and they have plenty of interesting traditions. It has become too common in pop culture to trash Harvard. Now, would I pay full tuition if other super elites offered decent money, hell no! But I would not trash Harvard. Many medium sized elite private schools (Ivy Plus or non), if you talk academics would look in the mirror and see Harvard’s educational model (and to some extent housing/social. The house and/or residential systems were done well by places like HYP and now tons of others are trying their hardest to replicate the intellectual vibe of these schools by going in the same direction) but just not done as rigorously whether they want to admit it or not. Like the class sizes end up extremely similar. H is also excellent at economics (only a handful of schools will offer an intermediate econ. course at this level: http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k40151 . Perhaps Harvard is not such an awful place for those who are very into their field of study and want to be this challenged by it and they have a good share of those types. Many may not like this aspect and prefer schools with students not that darned serious, but to each their own. It has worked at H for a while) and decent at CS (How many schools have a CS that peer institutions attempt to copy exactly?). And STEM there has very few peers. They just have so much money. Just because their social environment is not one’s cup of tea does not make it awful for everyone. Is it stressful, sure, but many in that tier are. It is a product of the academics and the intensity of those who choose to attend. I would not poo poo the place. I am willing to bet many H students have their reasons to trash other schools. Many likely look at many outside of that tier with a mixture of jealousy (due to perhaps seeming less stressful) and also condescension.
^^ Agreed, as Princeton is the best college offering you the most financial aid.
That said, Princeton’s need-based financial aid is about the same as Harvard and MIT’s. So, if your family contribution at Princeton will be $17K, it should be about the same at Harvard and MIT.
Here’s what I would do, have your mom or dad call Harvard and MIT’s financial aid office and ask them if they would re-evaluate your financial aid given Princeton’s better offer. Your parent’s should be able to email or FAX Princeton’s written offer directly to Harvard and MIT. It doesn’t hurt to ask, and IMHO something is wrong over at Harvard and MIT if Princeton is offering you need-based financial aid and Harvard and MIT are not.
OP has made this same post in at least four locations. In another one I pointed out that something was wrong if he was full pay at Harvard and $17k at Princeton.
I’m not sure if this is exaggeration by OP or a missing form for Harvard Financial Aid. Or is his aid at Princeton $17 and net cost $50k+?
lol sorry for the late response/confusion @Senior2016M At this point, I’m fairly certain that I’m gonna do CS for the next four years, but if not, it’ll probably still be something close to that area like elec engineering or mech e.
@gibby@Ballerina016@Sportsman88 Princeton aid was indeed 50k and the cost would be 17k, my parents actually called the Harvard aid office today to get the costs down and we’re actually in the middle of scanning additional documents and sending them. As for MIT, I’m not entirely sure what the issue is there, the only difference between them and the other schools (excluding Caltech) is that I applied/got in EA, so Idk if that could affect it. We were going to call their office tomorrow.
@theRealMesutOzil I am pretty confident that Harvard and MIT will bring their cost down to around Princeton’s level once you are done with the additional documents and you also mention to them the Princeton offer. If they don’t something really weird is going on.
If they do not change their cost, then I feel the clear choice is Princeton.
If they do, then your choice will probably come down to MIT, Harvard, Princeton. In this case MIT has the strongest CS/Econ combo but fit should be the main consideration when choosing between these three schools.
Several of them are top-10 in Econ (Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Northwestern…) but in CS, MIT is the best of this bunch probably. So in terms of the majors, the best CS/Econ combo is probably at MIT. But CS takes up a whole lot of time; you might not want to double-major if CS is one of the majors. Look hard at the possibility of minoring in one or the other (AKA getting a certificate at Princeton).
I think if you could get Harvard and MIT down to about the same price as Princeton, you’d have a real dilemma in terms of value: the tech edge of MIT vs. the prestige edge of Harvard vs. the undergrad edge of Princeton.
(Northwestern, Caltech, Rice and Vandy are great schools. But Caltech and Rice aren’t exactly stalwarts in Econ and Northwestern and Vandy are not exactly known for CS.)
I know from our applications that Princeton’s financial aid application is the easiest that I did and Harvard’s is the most complicated so I can understand missing forms. Harvard required supplemental forms as part of CSS and then asked for a few other items after that.
Did you use IDOC? I know I did for pretty much all my schools, granted I didn’t apply to Pton or MIT, but Harvard definitely requires that so if you didn’t send W2 and W9 and all those tax forms through it, then that could be why they didn’t give you any aid while Princeton threw fifty grand at you.
@theRealMesutOzil It all depends on which school you think you will be the most successful in. I know my brothers guidance counselor said Princeton is RIDICULOUSLY competitive. Said people steal each other’s library books. Princeton is a VERY good school, but I know that if I went there I would be stressed out.
I know if I was in your shoes, I would choose MIT just because of the connections with Boston, which gives it an edge in terms research opportunities and internships.
If you want to save money, obviously go to Vandy. You will probably be very successful there in terms of class rank. I know plenty of people that are successful that went there.
Caltech is a pressure cooker just because they are all Stem majors.
In terms of school spirit, Harvard, Princeton, and MIT are at the top.
I would cross Duke off the list because they don’t have an undergrad business degree.
And remember every school on the list is excellent! Congrats and definitely let us know where you attend.