<p>Hi,
I am between Cornell and UMD college park (biology major). I got the Banneker/Key scholarship to UMD, which is a full ride plus books. But, Cornell will cost me 52 grand a year.
I'm not sure which college I should choose.</p>
<p>hmmmm really!?..here are some things to consider…
full ride to a decent college with no debt at the end or actually having to pay, whooo doesnt want a FREE undergrad education!!!..
in the long run a 4.0 at umcp=4.0 at cornell see you in grad school! it’s about what you do in college not so much where you go… </p>
<p>my point…
take the FREAKIN SCHOLARSHIP because if you dont you will probably regret it at the end!!! lol
im sorry but people would KILLLL for the B/K scholarship!!!
like meeee…lmao</p>
<p>good luck in your decision making…-_-</p>
<p>scholarshippppppppppppp</p>
<p>I’m in a similar position actually - UMD BK or Stanford. I don’t think I will be attending Maryland for a few reasons:</p>
<p>1) I want to major in Computer Science, and Stanford has one of the best - if not the best - Computer Science departments in the nation.
2) I was also thinking I wanted to do something along the line of Business, and Maryland’s Business School is restricted enrollment. I did not apply initially to it, and so it will be hard for me to get in now. At Stanford, when you are accepted you are accepted to the entire school - whatever major you would like.
3) If I ultimately decide that CS is not right for me, Stanford has top-ranked programs across the board. I do not have to worry about a dip in the academic experience.
4) More personal: everybody in my magnet school and their younger brother will be matriculating at Maryland, particularly the Honors program. I want to branch out a bit.
5) Stanford gave me an excellent financial aid package. It’s not free like at Maryland, but it is affordable.</p>
<p>So my advice would be to look at Cornell’s biology department and decide whether or not it would give you a better experience. Is what you would gain at Cornell worth the money? If Stanford told me to pay 52K a year, regardless of everything mentioned above I would not attend Stanford - that type of price is just out of the question in my financial situation.</p>
<p>So I guess my opinion would be, based on what you have said… go to Maryland. But it really depends on what you think you and your family can afford. I couldn’t stomach all 200K+ in loans, or whatever.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>me too! i didnt actually get banneker key - i got presidential 8K and engineering 4K, each for four years.</p>
<p>also at cornell i got a 33K grant so md would cost like 6K/yr and cornell would be like 18K
i also got into berkeley, but i’ve kind of ruled out 50K/yr
what do you think?</p>
<p>hotice-did cornell seriously give you nothing? did you apply for aid; in your position i might go to umd, but it depends on how much money your family has/ can you afford the 50K/yr</p>
<p>aberdeen15-if stanford gave you an excellent package, i’d go for it</p>
<p>i’m applying for aid now. hope it’s not too late but i doubt i can get much.</p>
<p>This is just my opinion, but I would take the full ride for four years at UMD. Cornell is obviously a great school, but I think you would not being missing out on anything if you go to UMD. It has a great campus that provides a lot of opportunities and you will have access to almost everything for free. I know it must be a hard decision, but good luck.</p>
<p>Hotice - I know how you feel, brand name or free. But for biology major, do you plan to go to medical school afterward? If so, take BK and save the 200K to pay for medical school.</p>
<p>DD is in the same boat, although she didn’t get the BK but she gets the president’s 8K for 4 years and Gemstone program, essentially the tuition is free considering we are in-state, so the COA is 12K. But her other choices are the top rank John Hopkins’ Biomedical Engineering and Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science, both will cost 50K+ and we will be full pay. The clock is ticking …</p>
<p>Question for you. Which one is actually hot and which one is actually cold, hotice or icylava? :D</p>
<p>Our s was in the same situation last year. I strongly encouraged him to consider the B/K over Duke, WashU, UNC and other top notch schools. He couldn’t be happier at UMCP and reported a month or so into the fall semester that he’d feel like a fool to have rejected the opportunities at MD knowing how much he loves the school. BTW, as a freshman he landed an incredible summer internship in NYC and does not have to worry about $ re: any of his academic choices. Good luck with your decision and congratulations on all your achievements.</p>
<p>to icylava: haha lol i like the song hot n cold so that’s why i chose hotice as my username</p>
<p>to everyone else: thanks for the advice! i appreciate it!</p>
<p>Hi Max - D was at UMD over the weekend, called me on Friday after all the activities, then went straight to Admissions and committed right there in the office! Thanks for your input.</p>
<p>My s is hosting a kid this week who got into Harvard, Yale, Stanford and is thinking of taking the B/K and HH at MD. BTW, he’s out of state. I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’…</p>
<p>Very interesting Max - do let us know when the decision is made and how he made the decision!</p>
<p>Hi. I’m thinking about a similar kind of decision as some other people in this thread were (since this was last year…I didn’t realize until now…)-- bio major, choosing b/w Cornell with uncertain aid (because I didn’t apply for aid til now, like hotice - oops!) and UMCP w/ $8k President’s scholarship and $3k MD Scholars, assuming MD scholars doesn’t suddenly go bankrupt like there were weird rumors about, and some other scholarships. There are probably other people making the same decision this year.</p>
<p>I think it should come down to how much aid Cornell gives to those of us who have partial scholarships to CP – if it will cost similar/less than College Park or not (probably not; definitely not, in the case of people with BK, unless they plan to give you enough aid that your parental contribution will be zero.) If it will by some chance cost similar than we should go, but if not, fine, stay here and enjoy the low cost and happy place. In the end how well you did, your work experience, and/or where you go to grad school matters more than the fact that you went to undergrad somewhere with a lot of name value, and CP is a great place :)</p>
<p>aberdeen makes some weird points: switching into business for a BK scholarship recipient is EASY (well, before school starts). You can just call and ask to be admitted 
BK scholarship recipients should be auto-admitted based on their stats.</p>
<p>Also, in terms of branching out, most of my relatively large public HS went to MD, and I hardly ever see them. MD is, like, nearly 30K students…it will drown out a small magnet high school like that ;). The majority of my friends are/were in the honors program, but none are from my HS.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, if a super highly ranked college is affordable, there’s no reason not to go to it. Additionally, as a comp sci major, you will be making quite a penny in starting salary, so it is again probably worth it to pay a tad more for undergrad. That’s the only part that makes sense in that post ;). </p>
<p>Cornell, in your case, does not seem all that affordable…esp. as a bio major…job opportunities for bio majors are slim, no matter what school you graduate from, unless you are planning to go onto med. In that case, Cornell becomes even less affordable.</p>
<p>I personally would never choose Cornell (creepy gorges, gothic architecture, overcast upstate NY, cold, Ithaca is crappy compared to DC, etc.). But, you applied to it, so there must be something about it that stands out. Ask yourself if that something that stands out is worth 200K+…and if MD really can’t offer you the same thing…and good luck.</p>
<p>@hotice - I like you login name :-)) Anyway, DD is in the same situation as you. Her choice is between UMD B/K full-ride and RICE. Like your situation for Cornell, DH and I have to pay around 52K for DD to go to RICE (although RICE is re-reviewing DD financial aid package right now). We will probably hear back from RICE early part of next week. At this point, DD is pretty much leaning toward to UMD B/K full-ride. Since she is thinking of going to Med school after the undergrad, DD wanted to save the money for her Med school. So, like everyone on this board, it depends on what you would like to do after 4 years of the undergraduate. Besides, IMO, it is pretty nice to go to some where that the school recognizes you as one of their top students, like UMD B/K. </p>
<p>Good luck with your decision.</p>
<p>I’ve got about three weeks now to make my decision … Duke’s grant is actually (in $ value) larger than the Full B/K, but I would still be out about 30K/year … and then there’s the Harvard WL … arrrggghhh …</p>
<p>^What’re you studying? </p>
<p>It’s funny because where Duke would most be worth the 30K (humanities or small discussion based classes), is where you’d be least likely to be able to pay back any loans LOL.</p>
<p>If you’re thinking about going into business Duke might be worth it (still depends on how much in loans you’re considering, though).</p>
<p>Weird anectdote: a (favorite) HS teacher of mine said he transferred from Duke because the kids there were too rich and stuck up and the atmosphere was more priviledged than intellectual. It’s funny because otherwise he is a prestige-whore and looked down on students who chose MD. Of course, he would’ve went to Duke in the Dark Ages, approximately…as he is quite old…I imagine it was more “old boys-y” 30 years ago than it is now.</p>
<p>I personally would choose UMCP, but it is the same as Cornell vs. MD to me…I didn’t apply to Cornell…woudln’t have…and wouldn’t have applied to Duke…so you must be in a totally different situation :P</p>
<p>I would definitely go for the lowest debt and save my debt load for grad school, especially with the economy somewhat uncertain for jobs right out of school. And UMD is a great school, really!</p>
<p>^^ Dual major/degree Music(Piano), Chemistry with a solid premed curriculum. Duke is a great place for premed while there are no nearby Med schools at UMCP. Since my parents have granted me 25K/year, I would only need to borrow around 20K, however, if I go to Maryland I graduate with over 100k to use for Med school … as for being “nice to go to some where that the school recognizes you as one of their top students”, … I tend to agree. While UMd has made such recognition tangible, Duke has done so only with words (a LL and other correspondence). For me it’s a tough call, … it just may come down to a coin toss …</p>
<p>Of course, if Harvard calls … :)</p>