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</p>
<p>Even if you’re doing a completely unfunded MS this isn’t true. Your MS would take two years, at most, and graduate enrollment doesn’t cost 100% more than undergraduate.</p>
<p>I’m afraid that some have misinterpreted my comment. Of course Cornell is a “big school” in terms of learning and research, as is Columbia Engineering, another Ivy that can certainly carry you far, career wise. My point is…if you have the opportunity to attend a similarly strong public engineering college, or any fine engineering college where your COA will be significantly less than Cornell or Columbia, and you believe you will be happy at that school, then by all means enroll there.</p>
<p>Sorry I wrote that poorly. I meant grad school tuition is more than undergrad (not the total cost of the degree)</p>
<p>I’m not even sure if that’s true. I just checked my university and it’s $38,084 for grads and $38,085 for undergrads. At a nearby massive state school it’s $11,220.00 exactly for both.* MS tuition can seem to be more expensive due to fewer financial aid opportunities available, though. I imagine a lot of people are also less likely to stay at an in-state public for grad school, too.</p>
<p>*Actually, it’s cheaper there to be a nonresident for grad school. A nonresident grad pays $15,102.00 in addition to tuition, while an undergrad pays $22,878.00.</p>
<p>Looks like I was wrong! Thanx for the clarification.</p>
<p>There’s been a little message creep from the OP’s original question.</p>
<p>Assuming the OP’s S has to pay living expenses in either situation, the difference in cost over 4 years, assuming he gets out in 4 years, will be $175,000. That is tuition alone, $43,xxx/year.</p>
<p>If you have cash, choosing Cornell makes no financial sense at all. Investing that saved money into an index fund that returns what the broad market has returned since 1900, 9.4%, will yield your S over $22,000,000 by age 68 with no additional investment. That’s just under $5M fully adjusted for inflation. There isn’t a degree from anywhere that can guarantee bridging that financial gap.</p>
<p>Taking out loans makes that decision, on a purely financial basis, even more questionable.</p>
<p>The thing is, we don’t judge the quality of the experience on the financial merits alone. There are many subjective intangibles that may make paying that much “worth it” for some people.</p>
<p>Certainly, if your S could see himself as equally happy at either institution, save the money. If not, keep looking, you might find a happy medium that’s a proper fit for him, without the extreme price tag.</p>
<p>If you can afford it, you are investing in the experience, not just earning potential.</p>
<p>M</p>
<p>I think there is a lot more to it than most are addressing. I have no money and live in GA to it’s basically Georgia Tech for me or bust, but if I had Ivy League options, I would be giving them weight for things tech schools and state schools are not as strong in, like liberal arts and cultural stuff. I would love to be able to fill out my schedule with stuff that is going to be given a better treatment at Cornell or Berkeley than it will here at a school whose engineering degrees have a humanities requirment that can literally be filled by a class called “robots and humanity.”</p>
<p>Not that I think this makes for an inherently worse education, but I personally see it as a huge con for the less expensive options. Not to mention it gets a better mix of personality types I would imagine.</p>
<p>Cornell has really great engineering. I think your family’s finances are important in the decision. How much in loans would the student have to take to attend Cornell? </p>
<p>Northeastern is well-known for its co-op program, as I’m sure you know. Its job placement is probably very comparable to Cornell’s. </p>
<p>Does the student prefer one school over the other?</p>
<p>I have another question- sorry for asking, how did you end up with thesetwo options? I know northeastern is ea, cornell is an ED school, if you applied ED and got in, you technically
Would withdraw the NE application right? did their rd result come in? Just curious</p>
<p>PoppinBottlesMGT +1</p>
<p>I would send my kid to Northeastern without any hesitation. Save the money for grad school. Most full-time grad students get some form of FA (TA/RA) anyway.</p>
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</p>
<p>No no no no no. Do not assume anyone is doing graduate school. They may not want to after 4 or 5 years or might not even be eligible.</p>
<p>“I have no money and live in GA to it’s basically Georgia Tech for me or bust”</p>
<p>Most kids have no money to pay for college. The colleges decide what they can afford based on parental income and assets. It works out quite well if their income is considered to be at a level where the kid can get a free education at an Ivy.</p>
<p>If the kid is good enough to get into Cornell then he will do just as well with a degree from NEU. </p>
<p>I have had nothing but very positive experience working with or managing engineers from NEU. After 3 or 4 years of work experience no one cares that much where you went to college, as long as you are reasonably capable, have good work ethics and can communicate well.</p>
<p>How affordable is this to the family? Is it going to be a tough go and require taking out some big time loans or hitting up the pension funds? Or is the scholarship from NEU totally a windfall and you were completely prepared to pay full freight?</p>
<p>All things equal, I would pick the ivy. Engineering majors have a high drop rate. LIke more than half. It’s more important that a student be at a school that suits him than whether the engineering program is few points higher on the scale than another. ALso it’s more valuable that other interests that the student might have are well served by the school. </p>
<p>Northeastern is not the usual type of college and it may not be the sort of school for some kids. I have one that would have maybe liked it; the others were set on having a more traditional college experience which Cornell is more likely to give. </p>
<p>So what type of kid do you have, is more the question.</p>
<p>To be clear, I never disparaged NEU or said don’t there. I am simply advocating two things:</p>
<p>1) Don’t use cost as the single deciding factor, though it should definitely be an important one. If you decide solely based on cost, you may find yourself in a position where you can’t get the job you want. Do a cost-benefit analysis and determine which school is hte best value for you or your child.</p>
<p>2) Don’t assume you are your child will be attending graduate school by default. Four to five years of a BS is a long time and you never know how goals and desires will change, not to mention the grades required. Take into account the types of jobs you can get with a BS from a school when choosing. That may be the route you take.</p>
<p>I’m assuming on the Cornell decision for arguments sake. We were prepared to cover a state tuition ($17k) portion towards a higher priced option if we saw the value, with student loans needed to cover the balance. The full ride at NEU makes it a harder pill to swallow now. Cornell engineering has an amazing reputation. Graduating without any debt is also amazing now a days.</p>
<p>In my opinion no. yes you have the name of the school on your resume when you applying to jobs but that doesnt guarantee you a job just because you went to an ivy. there are prey decent engineering school that cost half of the fees and honestly with this economy i would try to end your college career with the least amount of debt possible. Look at other smaller engineering schools that give you the same education for a lesser price. Also ivy schools are a high stress environment so if you are not a person that deals with high levels of stress well then i would not suggest it.</p>
<p>“Northeastern is not the usual type of college and it may not be the sort of school for some kids.” - True. But many student that attend really like it, even though it was not originally on their list. </p>
<p>NEU has a big emphasis on international connections. Check out the summer study perks for full tuition scholarship students at NEU. Studay abroad may end up up being cheaper to do summer sessions abroad (where no room/board charged) than on campus in Boston. (This tip is a few years old - you’d have to verify current policies on websites and the NEU threads). Also co-op abroad is possible.</p>
<p>You’re paying more than just a degree though. The experience and intellectual environment one will have Cornell is miles away from Northeastern (apparently 200k worth). </p>
<p>That being said, engineering degree is largely the same and engineering jobs largely pay similarly. Yet, an Ivy League degree opens many more doors, say if you want to be an investment banker.</p>