<p>So here's my friends situation. She is a prospective chemical engineering major who has been accepted at:</p>
<p>Ohio State honors (collegium probably) with a full scholarship (national merit finalist) that covers tuition, room and board, and all cost and gives a stipend (which she doesn't need since her parents are well off) of 4,500 a year.</p>
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<p>Stanford-- nearly full price</p>
<p>Her parents are willing to pay full price at Stanford but only if it is necessary. She says she will probably go to grad school (grad/med/business) and may change her major. She really wants to go to Stanford since its been her dream since like 1st grade and fits her perfectly but doesn't want to give up the awesome scholarship. O and she is planning to work in the oil industry once she gets out of school.</p>
<p>Basically, she is asking me to ask CC to give her some advice for what she would do.</p>
<p>The best way to look at this is how much money will she make if she graduates from Stanford than Ohio State. In most cases she will make equal amounts graduating from either school. There maybe a rare case where she could get a job at a start up company that lands big which would most likely occur at Stanford. </p>
<p>And its not like Ohio State is a terrible school , it is getting better and better every year. I've heard of a story from my Brother (OSU grad) that someone went to Ohio State and graduated as a Chemical Engineer and got hired by the Marathon Corp. right out of college and makes around 70-75k. Just some food for the thought.</p>
<p>If she's planning on going to graduate school for chemical engineering, and can attend Stanford for undergrad, I'm quite sure whatever program she's accepted to for graduate study will provide a full stipend and tuition, so it won't cost her a dime.</p>
<p>its a personal decision. Most people would most probably pick stanford, but it really depends on the individual. If she really doesn't like OSU, then she should goto Stanford. If she's okay with not burdening her parents with 150k+ tuition, then she'll be happy at OSU and accomplish a lot because she'll most likely be the best at OSU and have a great time. I'm sure there's plenty of kids at OSU's Honors program who are just like her. On the other hand, if she totally loves Stanford and is already hating OSU, then take loans, whatever, goto Stanford.</p>
<p>the truth is that whatever Big Oil job she wants, will still be available to her as an OSU student. But she really has to make that psychological turn and like OSU.</p>
<p>You're looking at a price difference of $52,000+ (don't forget about the rise in tuition/housing prices) a year for 4 years.</p>
<p>That's $210,000-$230,000 right there.</p>
<p>I know a lot of people on CC keep tuition second to prestige, but take a moment and ponder how much money that is. Given the average salary of ChemE's, she could take 3 years off of work with the money she saved.</p>
<p>It's not like OSU is some unranked community college. It is a full fledged state university with an engineering program ranked just below those of UCLA, Columbia, and RPI.</p>
<p>My cousin's girlfriend was actually put in a similar situation. She was a ChemE student who chose to start out at a community college and transfered to her local state school (she was perfectly qualified for higher level schools, she just wanted to save her family some money). She landed a great job when she graduated and now her company is PAYING her to attend Stanford's Graduate ChemE program.</p>
<p>Maybe she can consider transferring to Stanford after attending OSU for a few semesters? Sounds like she really wants to go to Standford, so I think she should find some way to go there. Maybe after 4 years she'll change her mind about grad school and won't have to worry about not having the funds for it. I was accepted to USC and UT Austin and would have loved to go to either one but I decided on a cheaper school and I think i'll regret that in the future.</p>