Hello everyone,
I joined College Confidential today and this is my first post. I have been on this website before to read some forums before which really helped so here is my post.
Ok so im a high school senior and have heard back from everywhere so now I’m just trying to decide.
Major: Computer Science
State: Massachusetts
Options:
UMass Lowell
- cheap bc in state
- honors college
- Got in for computer program (program is ehh over there, not even ranked)
Virginia tech
- 6k in scholarship for first year ONLY
- cheaper than most out of state schools, i would still take a good amount of loan out (Around 50k)
- did NOT get into the college of engineering for computer science
- got in for Computer modeling and data analytics (CMDA) which is a new major and has a good job spectrum after graduation as data scientists and big data is a huge future field. My parents really like this major as it is a blend of mathematics, stats and computer science.
University of Maryland - college park
- got in for comp sci and is #15 in the nation!
- out of state so pretty $$ (around like 6k per year more than v tech)
UMass Amherst
- WAITLISTED for 2016 Fall
- Accepted for 2017 spring
- cheap, in state
- not really considering this an option but still listing it
- not for comp sci though so its a risk to transfer into the program
- probs not going here
Money is a issue as parents are only paying 20k and i have a car to pay for along with insurance. Because of this UMass lowell seems good BUT the campus is really bad… I visited multiple times and seems like a dump. I also would just not be happy there as I have worked to so hard in high school and would be going to UMAss Lowell. Graduating with 50k in debt but from a school like v tech does not sound too bad but I’m not sure what to do.
Any and all feedback is appreciated.
Thanks in advance
I’d take UMass Amherst in a NY minute. Good school, great brand, well-connected alumni… You’re smart to think about debt since you will need to get a Master’s too, so don’t want to come out with a lot of financial baggage to limit your future choices… Good luck!
Is that 50K from 27 Stafford (federal loans) + ? <- where do the 23K come from?
How much would you have to borrow for your first year?
Is that loan after deducting all scholarships/grants, and work earnings (ie., you’d have to start working par time now, work full time all summer, and continue working about 10-12 hours a week during the school year… is the loan after deducting work earnings?)
Any reason why you think you won’t get off the WL at UMass Amherst (if you worked hard and go into VTech, how come you were WL At Umass Amherst which is easier to get into?)
What exactly is in your VT and UMCP aid pkgs
<<
Virginia tech
- 6k in scholarship for first year ONLY
<<<
If your parents are only paying $20k per year, it sounds like you’ll be borrowing about $25k per year for VT or UM-CP (except $6k less first year at VT)
I would love to go to UMass Amherst except i did not get into the computer science major and it is a risk to try to transfer in. Also the fact that i would have to go to UMass lowell for a semester and then go to Amherst sounds inconvenient. And i have NO idea how i did not get into UMAss Amherst if i got into V tech. All the money figures are excluding the work earnings current college savings and stafford loans. The 6k for freshmen year and the 5500 stafford loan are what was in the and pkg for v tech. Thanks guys
You can only borrow $5,500 freshman year, right? Where are you going to borrow the rest? Are your parents going to borrow it?
Umass is really gr8 for computer science
It has very calm and “educative” atmosphere
The question is, how are you going to pay the difference? It sounds like you can’t afford any of them.
@mmaannii : actually, UMass has the opposite reputation, of being a ‘zoo’ with partying students, but you can always request a quiet or substance-free floor (or honors if you got that) . And yes, CS is VERY GOOD.
only the southwestern area is the partying type
u can take northeastern of north
which are very calm
@MYOS1634 so here is how it looks:
Parents are paying 20k anywhere
5500k (Increases 1k every year) in stafford loan
I might be able to contribute around 5 to 6k a year which depends on my summer job
The rest will be taken out as a private loan
Im actually visiting Virginia Tech right now! I love it here! The people so far are really nice as well as the campus! The campus is beautiful and looking very modern and new. I can’t wait to experience the food tomorrow. Will let people know how the open house goes tomorrow.
NOTE* I would prefer to not go to lowell for a semester and transfer to Amherst.
Virginia Tech is about $40K a year for OOS students. If you only have a $6,000 scholarship, and only for the first year, and your parents are paying $20,000 a year, that sounds like $40K - $20K - $6K = $14K for the first year and $20K for the next 3 years, which is a total of $74K. You can’t even borrow that much money yourself - your parents would have to co-sign, and that is not a good idea.
Borrowing $74K to go to Virginia Tech when you could pay much less to go to UMass-Amherst doesn’t sound like a good idea. Sure, you may not want to spend one semester at Lowell, but it’s the pragmatic decision to make - you’ll still get a really excellent education for much less than VT. I think it’s a shame for so many colleges to require students to apply directly to CS - it really throws up barriers, especially for students who might discover an interest in the major later - but the CICS website at UMass says that students’ admission is held up only when they struggle in prerequisite courses.
@myos1634 - The “zoo mass” label is decades out of date. The middle class is being driven out of the highly selective privates (Ivy and NESCAC) and the increased state investment is attracting them to UMass Amherst. Also they are giving more slots to out-of-state students to increase revenue. Engineering, CS, Business and Nursing are getting hard to get into. VTech is probably also allocating a larger number of slots for out of state students to increase revenue.
UMass Amherst is very strong for CS, especially AI/Machine Learning which is really hot.
Can you just delay a semester?
Can you take UMass Amherst courses online?
http://www.umass.edu/learn/
@Mastadon : I was responding to mmaannii who’s said the campus was ‘very calm’. Come on, it’s a college campus. A large State University campus. With tens of thousands of 18-22year olds. It’s not ’ very calm’. It’s energetic and frequently too loud, with lots of drunk kids on weekends.
It’s VERY good for CS as I stated before. Loud, energetic, and academically strong aren’t impossible to find together as the work hard play hard mentality lets us know :). But 'very calm '? Sorry, not.
@subieguy : what will you do next year when you don’t have your scholarship?
It sounds like you don’t have choices - one unaffordable, one you don’t to go to, and one where you were waitlisted. Accept the waitlist and think of taking a gap year I’d that doesn’t work out.
@myos1634 - Apparently you do not follow the the Princeton Review, Playboy and Brobible party school rankings.
In party-o-phile circles it is pretty much acknowledged that UMass has lost its position as an elite (top 20) party school. In fact, it is no longer considered the top party school in New England. If it were not for the Blarney Blowout, then UMass would slip even further in the rankings (now at #33). As a result, many (but not all) ardent party-o-philes believe that UMass is no longer worthy of the title “ZooMass”. …
http://archive.boston.com/news/education/2013/04/18/umass-really-zoomass/69oLZrEf8WwSLbyBMr4uTJ/story.html
http://brobible.com/college/article/the-best-party-schools-ranking/
I would admit that “calm” and “educative” represents ian unusual choice of words, but the dorms close to the engineering complex do tend to be quieter and more studious. Likewise for the new honors dorms.
Lol no, I was thinking ’ UMass isn’t uchicago or caltech ’ 
@juillet Also take into consideration that I will live off campus soph+ years which saves about half of the Room and board cost.