<p>Total cost of 4 years at UW is about 160kish (including purple/gold scholarship).</p>
<p>My parents can pay for about 10k per year while I could probably make about 10k per year from a part time job.</p>
<p>I have the option of attending an in-state college for 8k per year for 24k over 4 years (live with parents). This would leave me a lot of breathing room in terms of extra money.</p>
<p>My question is if prestige of college really makes a difference in Computer Science... I don't want to move back in with my parents after attending UW which would most likely be the case if I wanted to pay down the debt. If I went in-state and lived with my parents I could probably save up money for a condo...</p>
<p>Frankly, no, I don’t think so. Though I think the field of CS is iikely to bring you to a job that pays a living wage, the fact of the matter is that you are going to have to come up with $20K a year each year. You are only likely to be able to borrow $5500 freshman year, with some increases each year up to $7500 junior and senior year. Any more loans unless you get some Perkins or school loans through financial aid will have to involve your parents. Your parents are stretched, and you certainly are going to be stretched trying to come up with $10K. A lot of things can go wrong. You can change your mind about your major. You can’t afford UW. </p>
<p>But, you’ll do quite well at your in state school commuting. It’s a no brainer, IMO.</p>
<p>ETA…you have a 34 ACT and a 3.8 GPA. I think you can find some options that are more affordable…but if you are going to go after merit aid, you have missed any school with a December 1 deadline.</p>
<p>Gosh are those the only two options? Super expensive or living at home? I’d be looking for a middle ground where you could have a fun college experience living away at college while not spending a fortune. I think you can get a good education anywhere if you work hard. Are there any other affordable in-state schools? Unless you don’t mind living at home, in which case I’d vote for the affordable option. $160,000 is a lot of debt. </p>
<p>I live in Oregon - I also have the option of Oregon State University which is 104k over 4 years as opposed to PSU 24k due to living with parents. Should I look at schools that will give merit aid (34 ACT + 3.8 GPA as said above)? Any recommendations for comp sci?</p>
<p>You need to look VERY quickly. There is a pinned thread above for auto full tuition and full ride scholarships. But the deadlones either have passed or are looming. Get moving!</p>
<p>Note that Washington’s CS major is very impacted. Only a small number of frosh are directly admitted to the major. Those entering undeclared face a highly competitive admission process later to enter the major.</p>
<p>$80,000 in debt is generally considered too much, especially since you cannot borrow that amount without a co-signer.</p>
<p>You can get a great scholarship to University of Alabama with your stats…but get going. The application needs to be all completed by December 15. But it’s online, and not difficult to complete.</p>
<p>For your situation you might want to look at the Computer Based Honors Program at the U of Alabama. My son is applying for it as a safety, but there is a good chance he could end up actually attending! Alabama seems to be recruiting smart honors kids, it’s 60% or 70% out-of-state students and there are like 900 kids from California alone. I’m not an expert on the school by any means, but I’ve looked into it, helped my son apply, and talked to the school on the phone a few times now. I’m very impressed and super grateful that he has such a wonderful safety. The cost for someone like you should be pretty much just room/board + books and expenses. But you would need to apply immediately. The CBHP app is due 12/15 I believe, and you need to be admitted to Bama first, which takes a little while. However, if you are interested, call the program directly and explain the situation, they told me they would extend the deadline if necessary. Everyone there is sooooo nice. That is one advantage of being in Alabama I guess! </p>
<p>With these stats, I recommend UAlabama over Portland State. Portland State is a basic directional, unlikely to be stimulating enough for someone who got a 34ACT/3.8GPA, and very commuter. You’d miss out on a lot.
Your choices are not “basic commuter school vs. super expensive top school”.
What is your parents’ EFC?
With these stats, you should have lots of choices and no need to go into so much debt. Heck, you could even apply to HarveyMudd, especially if you’re a first-gen kid (neither parent got a 4-year degree), you wouldn’t have any debt and it may even turn out cheaper than Portland State for a first-rate engineering school in California (however, Harvey-Mudd requires every applicant to have taken Calculus in high School, unless their school doesn’t offer it… Are you taking calc?)</p>
<p>You need to apply NOW to UAlabama because in order to apply to CBHP you need to get into UA (it’s easy but it takes some time to get the info). CBHP is a research program, they admit only 40 students. If you apply today, you can apply for the university scholarships and hopefully will hear back fast enough to apply to the Elite Honors.
Most of the universities with automatic scholarships for stats are roughly at the same level as Portland State, but they’d provide you with a “real” college experience, discovering another part of the country for free; there’s one that’s also better than Portland State: Temple, in Philadelphia. You qualify for the presidential, but apply quickly!
<a href=“http://admissions.temple.edu/sites/admissions/files/uploads/Fall2014FreshmanScholarships.pdf”>http://admissions.temple.edu/sites/admissions/files/uploads/Fall2014FreshmanScholarships.pdf</a></p>
<p>I agree…go for the college experience at least! I was a commuter (to community college!) and it really was not a super fun experience! That’s why I want my son to have a fun time, living away from home in a dorm, hanging with friends, etc. even if we can’t afford a “top” college. </p>
<p>By the way, I just found out the deadline for CBHP at Alabama is December 8! So you’d better get on it right away if you are interested. But like I said they are extremely nice and would surely work with you if you call and talk to them in person.</p>
<p>I’ll 2nd (4th? the folks talking about UA…my kid has hopes for georgetown, uchicago, and BU…but if she doesn’t get in (or,worse,gets in and we can’t afford it), we added Alabama to the list…with her stats, tuition is likely to be 100% paid for…im not saying she’ll go there but CC convinced me we should check it out…so her app went in last week…</p>
<p>I think I’d rather stay on the West Coast… It’s a really difficult situation. I don’t think I qualify for too much aid due to my parents being in debt after the recession (they want to pay these debts off which I find understandable).</p>
<p>I guess my main question is if the social aspects of Oregon State University (dorm + better peers) is worth 75k more than Portland State over 4 years. I wish I didn’t have to choose, but I’m stuck with those options. Another aspect I like about Portland State is the fact that there are going to be way more software startups than Corvallis… I definitely want to join a startup in the future so this is a big factor…</p>
<p>You may want to send in applications to the big scholarship schools (e.g. Alabama as mentioned above) so that you have choices in April, rather than close off the choices now by not applying.</p>
<p>I think with scores like yours, you can definitely get a very good deal at any number of schools. I’m surprised one of your state schools is not offering you full tuition. My son has similar stats and he’s been offered full tuition at Arizona State University already. Usually the states will give good deals to resident kids with high scores. Also, you could apply at a bunch of private schools on the west coast that may give you need-based and/or merit aid. Check the net price calculators and put out a few apps. What about Reed or Lewis and Clark? Your scores are good enough to apply at both. There is also Santa Clara in the Bay area, and there are many others fairly close to your location. Heck, you could even apply to Stanford! (My son did!) It’s a roll of the dice for anyone, but if you were accepted it should be affordable.</p>
<p>Don’t sell yourself short, you might be surprised to find that you have many more options than you think.</p>
the folks talking about UA…my kid has hopes for georgetown, uchicago, and BU…but if she doesn’t get in (or,worse,gets in and we can’t afford it), we added Alabama to the list…with her stats, tuition is likely to be 100% paid for…im not saying she’ll go there but CC convinced me we should check it out…so her app went in last week…</p>