My D got admitted through the 2024 admissions cycle to a few schools and we’re having a difficult time making our decision. We are considering: full ride to GTech, Cornell, UCBerk, Rice, and JHU (BME).
D says she can see herself at all of the institutions and believes the difference in weather/location/terrific social life in each school around balance each other out. She plans on coming back to the east coast for a job no matter where her undergrad is. She also wants to look into going to graduate school.
I’ve listed two of the main discerning factors below.
Finances: We are lucky enough as a family to be able to afford paying the full cost of her undergraduate/graduate education with the money we saved up for that exact purpose, but the 300K-400K could, of course, go towards other things/savings. For perspective, my husband and I can earn that much back in net income in about 3-4 years.
Major: D is still figuring out her exact interests in engineering. For Cornell/UCBerk/Rice, she will enter as undecided engineering with the possibility of exploring any major she wants. BME at JHU is a separate and very great program, but we see that all of the other engineering majors at JHU seem to be overshadowed by this major, and fear that if she changes out of it, she won’t get the best education.
We have done a lot of research, but are really new to this process as we let D do her own admissions/applications.
I believe a school’s prestige and other small factors add up and still matters, and I don’t want my D choosing a school just for money. We have worked so hard in our careers just so she can be able to not worry about money. We want her to get the best education.
Any opinions about the relatively negligible or large difference between an education at GTech and the other schools are appreciated, along with any other opinions. Thank you!
GA tech is an excellent university. If it seems like a good fit for her I can’t imagine turning down a full ride there and paying full pay at the other schools.
Can I ask if there are more reasons why? We are new to this, and a few of the other people we’ve talked to have said if we can afford it, we should go for it.
@ser7in1 The reason I say it is because GA Tech is a highly respected institution for engineering and a degree from there will open just as many doors for your daughter as those other schools.
For an engineering degree, I would choose GT over any of the listed schools even paying full cost. I could not see passing up a full ride at one of the best engineering schools in the country. I don’t think there is any loss of prestige with GT. Many students that get rejected from GT actually get accepted at the other schools listed. Also if you are concerned about changing majors, GT makes it extremely easy to change to any major they offer.
Re-stating the question to be sure that I understand it correctly:
Our daughter is equally happy to go to GaTech for free or to Cornell, UC-B, Rice, or JHU for $300-400K and as a parent I want to be sure that she isn’t giving something up by not going to a more ‘prestigious’ name?
Or…
Wait! we didn’t have to do all that careful saving for the last 18 years b/c our daughter turned out to be smart and hardworking and got herself a free ride at one of the top engineering schools in the country??
You should be just so so proud of the young adult you have raised!
(tl;dr: she won’t be giving up anything to go to GaTech. And with an investment nest egg like that she can chose any path going forward).
GT has one of the very best engineering programs in the country. Higher ranked, and in my opinion, more industry connected than the other schools on your list. Save your money. Especially in today’s uncertain times.
This one isn’t even debatable. Take the full ride to one of the engineering programs in the country. I’m assuming it’s the Stamps scholarship? Icing on the cake.
Wow. I would gladly pay full tuition at Georgia Tech for engineering over any of the others. Johns Hopkins would be the only one that would give me any pause at all, but given the totality of the offerings at Georgia Tech, I don’t think even Hopkins can match it. Full ride at GT is so hard to get. Grab it and go.
GaTech gives very few full ride scholarships, so the prestige of that scholarship on a resume will get your D noticed as she applies for internships and co ops.
Ga Tech reputation is solid, meaningful, and many students find it to be a good fit. It is a campus that melds into downtown Atlanta, it is not an enclosed, gated campus. As a preference, some students will embrace the urban life, others will find the busy traffic irritating as they make their way from one class to the next.
If you can let yourself move past the prestige factor, which school has the best fit for your D? Stop focusing on measuring prestige and look at best fit for your child instead.
I suggest your D list what her ideal college life looks like, and see how each school fares against that list. Are the other schools very similar, or are some complete opposites?
Compare Dorm rooms, general education requirements, AP/Dual enrollment credits given, will scholarship give D early registration for classes?
Would she be living in dorm with other scholarship recipients?
They are all good in engineering, so that is a wash, or nearly so.
Georgia Tech is obvious if $$ is the primary consideration, but it isn’t necessarily, I take it. In my case, we allocated money towards our kids’ education, and there seemed like nothing more important to spend the money on. (at the time). D1 had a free ride and turned it down. Many students who attedn selective private u’s had cheaper alternatives.
So consider the other aspects more carefully:
distribution requirements, major requirements, programs of study
social life, quality of life, nature of campus, types of fellow students, campus vitality, setting, weather
ease to get home
If, upon closer scrutiny, they still really “balance each other out” then the only criterion left is the money.
In terms of future location, although all these schools are nationally recruited, in my experience there is an underlying regional aspect to engineering recruiting generally. IIRC something like 40% of Rice grads wind up staying in Texas. My guess is even a larger percentage of Berkeley grads stay in-region. Etc. The large midwestern engineering firm I worked for (eons ago) did some selective recruiting out of region, but didn’t even recruit at Berkeley, because they figured nobody would come.
On the other hand, though there was east-coast regional recruiting at Cornell, the fact is my personal cohort from there is scattered all over the US.
This may or may not matter to your daughter: diversity of scholarship. How would she feel studying at a university where there are no English majors? No history, political science, or philosophy majors? Where naval science is considered a liberal art (really)?
Many people love that the entire university is focused on tech and science. Many people want to be exposed to more diversity of thought among the student body. Where does your daughter fall on that spectrum?
Can I ask how your thoughts have changed since then (regarding the “at the time”), and maybe a little of if your D has seen any worth of the more expensive education? Thank you so much!
Thank you all so much for all of your kind advice! Was overwhelmed by how much support GTech got! The scholarship is indeed Stamps. Many have suggested looking over the other factors (other than money/prestige/major) again. We have tried many times to make a pros and cons list, and could pretty much eliminate Rice/UCB. The others schools each have their own thing that about balance out. I added the two schools to the list in case there was something else we could glean from others’ more experienced opinions.
I also looked back and realized I forgot to add MIT. Sorry about that! Listed down the colleges and skipped over one!
My husband and I are not from the STEM field, and really know no one in STEM and did not do any of our education in America. MIT seems like one of best based on online rankings, but we have heard that rankings do not matter all that much. Do any of you have insight you can kindly provide on the comparison of these two schools?
Sorry for the hassle, we did not expect this decision to be so hard and did not have much prepared. With COVID19, we haven’t been able to visit most of the schools, adding to the difficulty.
One more nugget for GT My OOS daughter attended GT, loved it…then applied to grad school…she applied to 7 schools, got into 7 schools, and received great merit aid from all…she’s now in Boston, living her grad school dream. GT opened every possible door for her.
MIT is THE name…but the one caution I would have is that MIT really tends to be a ‘fit’ school. My STEM collegekid (currently at Cornell) didn’t even apply to MIT b/c she felt it didn’t ‘fit’ her. This is highly personal, so not nay-saying MIT at all!! Just saying that imo, w/ no chance to visit it’s a harder call.
And, I would still take the STAMPS- it’s not just $$!
@ser7in1 MIT is probably the only one in the list that I would pick over GT assuming you were full pay for both, though GT would still be 20K cheaper per year. I still couldn’t pass up the Stamps full ride at GT even for MIT, unless you are really that well off that 300k is meaningless. As others have brought up, you need to consider fit.
