<p>Hello, I have narrowed my colleges down to Colorado School of Mines and Kansas State. I got $12,000/year scholarships to both making it about $35k to go to Mines and $19k for K-state.These schools are very different but I'm not sure which is right for me. I am from Texas but have family in Kansas. I also feel that both schools offer different opportunities. What do you think?</p>
<p>Have you been admitted into engineering at Kansas?
What is your parents’ budget - how do you expect to pay for the 35 or 19k, college fund, parents’ income…?</p>
<p>Yes, I got in. My parents have a 529 for me. They make over $200k/year but they are frugal. However, they trust me to make the right decision. I just don’t want to burden them and want to know if Mines is worth the extra cost.</p>
<p>Very few things are worth 16K/yr for four years. Colorado School of Mines is not one of them, and that is not a slight of this fine school. Fact is that employers don’t care so much where you went but what YOU did while you were there. If you acquired nothing but elementary skills, had no internships, your letters of rec are vague and mediocre, that’s what employers will care about. So YOU, not the college you go to, will have to make sure that you acquire these skills, internships, etc.</p>
<p>I see what you mean. Mines does have a reputation for getting students jobs, internships, and good preparation for the job market. I think this is what makes them one of the top engineering schools in the country, but you are right. College is what you make of it. I also wonder which college will give me more valuable memories to look back on. </p>
<p>Hah! There you go again. One sentence you say “College is what you make of it” and in the next “I wonder which college will GIVE ME…” Colleges will give you very few memories. YOU will give yourself the memories. If you find yourself in your freshman year thinking you haven’t had enough memorable experiences 
whose responsibility will that be, OP? Yeah, the man or woman in the mirror. You want a Carnegie Mellon experience on a Colorado School of Mines budget, then go get one. MAYBE it will be a little harder at CSM than CM, but you’ll have had that experience, too, of having to do for yourself. Quit thinking of what colleges can do for you and instead of what you can do for you.</p>