I am OOS NJ and I received no money from UCLA, so the cost would almost be $59,000 each year. I would be going for the engineering program which I have heard is one of the best. I also love the weather, campus, and whole feel of the school. Unfortunately I don’t know if it would be worth the rising price to get that experience and education because I don’t want to be stuck with a pit of student debt. Any advice?
I have also been accepted to other good/reasonable universities, if that changes anything: Northeastern, Drexel, Rutgers, Penn State, and UMD (I’m leaning more to Drexel, Rutgers, and Penn State).
Let me put it this way: UCLA costs a quarter of a million dollars. Would u go deeply into debt for a flashy car when a solid toyota will serve you not just adequately, but excellently?
@Allie52 Fellow NJ here. Went to Rutgers and engineering is good program. However you mentioned Drexel and Penn State, What is cost compared to UCLA as OOS.
It’s a matter of how much your family and you can spend on the school. My son would have loved to have gone there and had he been accepted in his program, maybe gone there. And who knows if things would not have worked out better for him had he done that? However, he is now very grateful to have zero student loans Alot of people he knows are suffering greatly from those payments and having gone to a state school, he is free of them. A lot of years to pay for those 4 years at a college, and really, you move on about your college once you get out. But that loan payment comes up every frigging month for 25 years for some kids.
I would say no unless cost is not a concern to you.
UCLA doesn’t really have that good of undergraduate education here for private school money. And it’s going up 5% every single year for the next five years or so. However, it’s great for in-state tuition, and UCLA has a good name which means you use less money to get a good diploma if you are in state.
Also, the cost of living in LA (Westwood, more so) is very high. And you will most likely need a car here to go anywhere.
From my personal experience, engineering education isn’t that much different at any top 100 universities. As long as you do well in a decent engineering program, you will be competitive in the market.
So just consider how heavy is $60000 a year for your family and yourself. If your family can easily afford it, then come! I love the west coast so much that I stayed for college. And you will be academically challenged at UCLA. If $60000 is a considerable amount of money for your family, then just go to another engineering program and you will be just fine.
Absolutely choose UCLA and avoid a lifetime of regret. It’s a better and more prestigious school than your other choices and seems to fit your requirements well. Don’t forget the intangible benefits of knowing you accomplished something great like going to UCLA and meeting great people there - those can not be strictly quantified.
It’s incredibly shortsighted to compare this to choosing a Toyota over a BMW. This is one of the few choices in life where you need take some risk, go into debt, and over the long-term make back your investment many times over. I’m shocked at how many on CC recommend take the cheapest choice in every case, but I guess that’s good news for those that want the best they can get and will do what it takes to make it happen.
Go to one of your affordable options and then attend UCLA for grad school. Future employers will look at where you went for Grad school, not undergrad. Save you money now so you can spend in later when it is important.
I see the argument of go to the inferior cheaper choice now and save the money for graduate school over and over again on CC and I think the advice is completely backwards.
How do you know what you want to do in 4-6 years? Why go to a worse school now and maybe decide you don't need grad school later?
It's harder to get into a good grad school from a lesser undergrad school - I don't think that's debatable. Why would you save money/avoid debt to go to a lesser grad school. Unless you think there is very little difference between grad schools or that grad school admissions care only about undergrad performance and not where you went, this makes no sense.
I guess I have a minority opinion but I would tell the OP to go to the best undergrad, do well and then go to the best grad school. If that means going into debt, so be it - in the long term it’s worth it for tangible and intangible reasons.
I really don’t plan on going to graduate school, so just undergrad at the moment. I’m also considering Northeastern instead of Penn State now, but that is even more expensive than UCLA for me - not including the cost to fly to CA and not including the return from Northeastern co-ops. My parents are willing to pay around $30,000 (maybe a bit more) so Rutgers and Drexel are comparable with the scholarships I got.
@em2424 Yeah, I’m worried that I’ll regret not going to UCLA for all that it could have offered me and all that I could have experienced there, but I’m also worried that if I go I’ll regret the amount of loans I would have to take on if I can’t pay it off easily once I get out.
@Allie52 Good luck - I think you have some good choices. I think it comes down to how you view risk vs. reward. UCLA probably gives you more upside but you will have to deal with some debt, which might affect your lifestyle in the short term. I would argue you would come out way ahead in the long run but if it sounds too scary then take the safer route and maybe give up some potential upside. There is no definitive right or wrong answer - it is a personal decision based on your tolerances.