<p>hi, i'm a transfer student majoring in aerospace engineering. i've already gotten into the university of miami and ucf, and i'm still waiting to hear back from uf in late march. after i got my acceptance letter from miami, i got confidence to apply to some better schools, all out of state. </p>
<p>i applied to virginia tech, maryland-college park, and nc state. let's just assume i get into all of these schools. i'm trying to get a consensus ranking of what my first choices should be, considering the fact that i live in florida and would save a whole hell of a lot of money by staying in state.</p>
<p>i have never visited any of those schools, i am just going to wait to hear back from them so i know where i got in, then plan a little road trip in may to visit the ones i get into. but at this point, i'm just curious as to whether or not the extra 20k i'd pay for out of state would be worth it to go to a better school. i figure either way i'll be fine in the end because i guess you could say i'm counting my chickens before they've hatched but i think i'll get a pretty good job out of college, and could take care of the debt with relative ease.</p>
<p>virgina tech is probably the best of those although i believe UF has a good aerospace program, it all depends on money and your family situation although you really cant go wrong with any of those choices.</p>
<p>Of the schools on your list you’d be crazy to turn down UF for any of the other options… especially after expenses are considered. Unless, of course, you simply hate the gators for some reason :)</p>
<p>Is that 20k extra per year? Make sure you factor in the cost of living at each local, since I’d be surprised if it costs as much to live at NCState or VT than it does at a Florida school.</p>
<p>If it is 20k total still be very careful about A) assuming you’ll get a good job out of college (maybe things will rebound, maybe they won’t), B) assuming you’ll still want to go into engineering as a career and C) assuming that 20k isn’t a substantial amount of debt. </p>
<p>Let’s pretend that you decide to pay it off over 10 years, meaning that assuming this 20k is all you’ll have to take out in loans you’re still making payments on your education when you’re in your 30s and possibly settling down and having kids. Your payment, assuming a kind 5% interest, would be over 200/month and in the end you’d be paying over 25000 to pay back your 20000 loan. 200/month is a pretty big chunk of change to be paying for 10 years. I love VT an it really is a great school, but UF is very good too and taking out the loans you’d need probably won’t be worth it in the end. Plus it’s cold up here.</p>
<p>thanks for the responses. the 20k extra i was talking about was just referring to tuition… i haven’t even looked into housing yet. i think the most likely scenario will be me staying in state, but i’ll just hope i get lucky with a fat scholarship and financial aid package at one of the out of state schools, because i’d like to move away from florida, i’ve lived here my whole life and i want a change.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s too late, but apply to Purdue. I was a FL resident for many years and was accepted to UF, Purdue, and a number of others. </p>
<p>I will warn you that financially I do regret my decision. The burden of debt from OOS tuition, even with substantial aid, is greater than the benefit of coming to a very well known engineering program. I could’ve gone to UF for next to nothing, and if I had the chance to do it over I probably would. </p>
<p>Don’t let the rankings fool you - for 8/10 people I think it’s a better move to go to UF. Instances where this isn’t the case would be if you have your heart set on a very selective career path where the OOS school has known industry ties. There’s no doubt that Purdue has more recruiting, but for the top companies/jobs Purdue attracts that UF doesn’t, you’re still going to have to be in the top 10-20% of students to land one. Other instances might be if you’re dead set on living in a certain geographical location, as recruiting is largely regional - however, how much debt are you willing to take on in order to move? And, could you end up in the same geographical location without taking on that debt?</p>
<p>i actually was gonna apply to purdue… but i didn’t feel like going through the whole process with another school (application fee too)… and i have never been to that area whereas i have been to NC, around DC, through VA, and i really like that area. i’ve lived in florida for 20 years almost now and i think the change of scenery and whatnot will potentially be worth the debt. i actually wanted to apply to GA tech but their deadline had passed :(. </p>
<p>but i want to get out of florida, because as it was mentioned, recruiting is largely regional, so i would hate to have no choice but stay even upon graduation too.</p>