I need help to help my son decide on what school. Decisions deadlines are approaching!
Here’s his situation: he wants to major in computer science. Very bright kid. He has two options:
NJIT Honors College - full ride
Georgia Tech - with merit scholarship of $8,000.00 leaving him to take a loan of approximately $35,000/year or more as the tuition increases every year.
He wants to go to Georgia Tech because it’s a big school with many opportunities to get involved, but NJIT is a small public school and a big percent of students are commuter.
We can only help him on his first year based on the savings we had for him, but after that he will be taking out student loans. By the time he graduates, including interest accumulated in school, he will have about $140,000 in loans, if he doesn’t do any internships.
Is Georgia Tech education (computer science) worth taking a debt?
No it’s not. And he can’t take out that much in loans. He can only get $5500. The rest you have to take out a parent plus loan for. So you would be on the hook for most of it. So the question is do you want to be in over $100,000 worth of death just to send him to Georgia Tech.
I think you meant “debt” and not “death” . . . but there’s not really much difference, is there?
@victoryliner, you son cannot borrow $35k/year, and that’s a ridiculous amount of money, anyway. He should accept the full ride at NJIT, make the most of every opportunity there, and go on to have successful career and a happy (and debt-free!) life!
My DD is a Georgia Tech, but there is no way I would let her go there if it meant that much debt. Have him to well at at his undergrad for free and then go to GT for grad school. If he stays active and tries to do research etc, he should be good and get a great education.
I just interviewed a girl yesterday from NJIT for an internship at my company. She got the job. She was awesome. Education is as much what you put into it as where you go. She loved the school (I have no opinion). She liked the professors and is doing research. I would never pick 140K in debt, no way.
If you do decide on Georgia Tech (not saying you should), make sure he takes the $5500 loan the first year and save part of the money for the second year. No FA at all?
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By the time he graduates, including interest accumulated in school, he will have about $140,000 in loans, if h
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Insane.
And, YOU will have at least $110k of cosigned loans which YOU will be responsible for if he can’t pay, becomes disabled, or dies. That will be on your shoulders.
Your son will not be paid more just because his degree would say GT. Not at all. Companies do not pay students more based on degree name.
If you love your kid, put on your big boy pants and say, “no.”
mom2collegekids-well yes graduating from Georgia Tech would be an advantage if he is in engineering because GT is rated near the top for engineering but still, that sort of debt is unreasonable.
@sensation723 and dodgersmom, thank you for your inputs. Yes, it’s a lot of debt and we have to co sign him to get a student loan which he will do on his sophomore year.
@ NJroadie, that is good to know and thank you.
@itsv , did your daughter get a lot of FA that she is able to attend GT? Are you instate?
@ seekingpam, GT only gave him the GT scholarship I guess because of his grades and high SAT scores, but aside from that no additional FA and we are OOS. I heard that they don’t give FA if a student is from OOS. Not sure how true though. The scholarship they gave him is not even guarantee that it will be given for 4 years. There’s a GPA he has to maintain and also depending the availability of money from the sponsor.
@mom2collegekids and lostaccount, he is going to major in Computer Science, and GT computer science is on top of the ranking.
Thank you all for your advise.
He likes GT a lot because there are so many opportunities he can get involved with, but it’s the cost that’s killing us lol. In the end he is ok going to NJIT for free and he said that if he doesn’t like NJIT he will still have the option to transfer.
@lostaccount You’re assuming that employers know or care about USNews rankings. Usually, they don’t. Plus, employers are hiring the person, not the school. They’re looking at resumes, courses taken, research/co-op/internship experiences, grades, etc.
The name of the school is largely irrelevant. And you don’t get paid more by going to a particular school.
Companies do recruit at some colleges and not others, however.
But in any case, take the free-ride, and if he really feels like he still wants a “name” school, he can try for some funded grad programs if he works hard.
I can understand the student wanting to go to GA Tech, and not just for the name. GaTech has big time sports and a history and reputation in the industry. It has alums worldwide and alum groups and connections. The facilities may be outstanding, the atmosphere just what he wants. I’d have a hard time turning it down too because it is quite an honor to just be accepted there. However, I’d have to weigh whether it is $$140k better than NJ, and I know I’d find it is not.
My daughter’s classmate attended a much smaller, much lower ranked school. She had full ride offers from GaTech and Columbia for grad school (and 4 others) and picked Columbia, but she did consider staying where she was because the smaller school offered so many opportunities in mech engr (she’s very into the jet cars).
But it just doesn’t matter. Your son only needs one summer internship at a time - not 500! Once he has his first successful internship on his resume, getting the next one will be easier. If he interns every summer, finding a job when he graduates won’t be a problem.
And if he’s seriously interested in one (or more) of the “500 companies” that interview at GT, then he all he needs to do is to take the initiative to reach out to them himself! Not every recruiter can visit every school . . . but that doesn’t mean that hiring is limited to those schools that the recruiter visited. Companies are looking for the best possible candidates - and they don’t care where those candidates come from!
Finally, if you’re going to compare GT’s “500 recruiters” to NJIT’s “200,” don’t forget to look at how many students attend each school. My guess is that the GT career fairs are a madhouse, with students having to fight for a chance to meet with the more popular recruiters. At NJIT, even though there are fewer recruiters, there are likely also fewer students competing for their attention.
And I’ll reiterate what @mom2collegekids said above - companies hire the student, not the school!
Are there any schools in between those two ?
Gtech is unaffordable, but are there affordable residential colleges where he got in ?
It may not be unaffordable vs. Free ride, but affordable better fit and environment vs. Free ride.
I was staff at GT, I know NJIT well. It is a great school, and you can attend for free? That’s amazing. You can come to GT for grad school and they’ll pay for you! NJIT is comparable to GT is every sense of the word. It’s more than rankings - it’s ROI, it’s engineering research, etc.,
I know that in my sector at GT, we are starved for GRA’s and we want them! GRA’s are graduate students whom GT will pay tution for!
Send your son to NJIT. That’s advice from an old-timer like me.