"how are you getting UCSD for $45K a year "
that is the amount just for tuition for OOS students.
This will not be helpful to OP, but for any parents or students reading this in the future: Please run your NPCs and have these conversations before making application decisions!! OP shouldn’t have to be facing this decision at this point. If parents weren’t going to pay for >50% of Brown, and NPC revealed little to no need-based aid, someone should have explained this to OP sooner (including the realities of loan limits, work study, and student earnings)!
Also, UMass is great for CS. Take the $200k and don’t look back. You’ll have a great experience and get a great education.
UC is definitely not worth it OOS.
Your parents are in a position to send you to an Ivy without any debt. I say negotiate with them. Make a compelling case for them to give you a shot at best education available, unless you rather attend UMass and take one time payment for demonstrating obedience. To be fair, at the end of the day it’s their money so if they don’t agree, state school it is.
UMass Amherst sounds like the best school for your studies regardless of finances. I’d take that 200K while it’s still on the table!
For those wondering why I would be paying $45k/year for UCSD: there’s an extremely unique fund/program in my town that helps me pay for my tuition if I were to go to a UC school. Factored in, I would pay $45k/year for UCSD. I must stress that this is an extremely unique scenario, and I doubt many other towns have this same form of UC “camaraderie”. (My have a lot of UC alumns in my town). @washugrad
your parents are telling you take the cash and invest it. like Moses being offered coal…
Your decision really doesn’t involve a comparison of a highly selective private college to a generic state school, but rather to a state school (UMass) that is notably strong in at least one of your areas of interest (CS). That stated, I’d recommend you still consider various aspects of all types, as with any major decision.
“make a compelling case for them to give you a shot at the best education available…demonstrating obedience…state school it is”
What info do you have to indicate that a CS major would receive a better education at any of these schools than the University of Massachusetts at Amherst ?
OP- please disregard the toxic elitism that can permeate these threads, it reeks of immaturity and lack of real world experience in certain fields.
A “state school” that is a flagship research uni, is equal in CS reputation, considered as a preeminent player in AI “the future of computing”, is indeed an excellent option.
Also the best food options in country. Tomorrow night their ice hockey team begins the final four tournament to decide the national championship. Fun stuff. Lol.
Don’t fall for the hype. Check out the chair of the Hamilton cs department. UMass grad. I took a look at actual CS department at the most elite school on your list. The vast majority when you dig all the way to their personal home page only list their PhD schools. Almost no one mentions their UG. But some do. UIUC, Cal, University of Athens, Tufts,Williams, Swarthmore, Weissman Institute, Turkish State School, RISD. Seems like a pretty good mix. Doesn’t seem like you should worry.
If you’re talented and tenacious you’ll be fine.
Take the 200k. It is a nice downpayment or more than enough for grad school. College is four years. The rest of your life is the next 50-70 years.
If you go to UMass and take the $200K, then work for a few years while investing it, you could go to a top MBA program pretty much debt-free. With an MBA salary and no loans to repay, you could go full Wolf of Wall Street.*
I’d take the cash and go to UMass-Amherst, which is an excellent public university.
*exaggerating a little, but you get the picture.
You want to start a company? Which bank is going to give you loans if you’re $160k+ in debt before you even start? There are employers who won’t hire grads with that level of debt and some people will refuse to enter a relationship with someone who owes so much. Take your parents up on their offer.
I actually think it’s cruel of your parents to let you apply to Brown knowing that your family is full pay, they clearly have the money, but now won’t pay for your education at Brown. I don’t get it…
Your only real option is to go to your in-state public and pocket the 200k. Not a bad deal and consolation prize but in very poor taste by your parents. They are suppose to be the mature adults here but reneged on their original “commitment” to you.
We don’t know what OP’s parents said. OP doesn’t seem to be aware that earning $40k/year with a high school diploma is an unreasonable expectation, they didn’t know that Work Study and summer earnings will be nowhere near that amount, and they don’t seem to be hearing that they can’t borrow that much. Maybe the parents did say how much they’d pay.
@austinmshauri Agree with post 34.
To OP: Go to the state school and be happy. 5 years after you graduate, Come back to this thread and think about what $160,000 of debt coming out of college would have done to you. (And like what everyone else said, no one is going to loan that much to you and you won’t be able to earn it with work study or summer jobs not even close!)
In short, for what career path you’re interested in, UMass is a perfectly awesome option. And you’ll have a nice little nest egg to begin your career when you graduate. You’ll be able to afford to make some different young and dumb mistakes!
He has a shot at attending a small, amazing, academically strong, prestigious school with wonderful alumni. His parents can afford to pay for it. However, they rather have him go to a huge state school and invest that money as he pleases. What if he losses that in investment market or in a startup? Money is just money, if it’s meant to be then he’ll earn more or not but a Brown education is priceless.
OP: I think you need to have a long conversation with your parents. Taking the 200K and then figuring out you wanted a different school could lead to a poor relationship with them in the long run. You have excellent options.
People believe in various things. Some parents want to send their kids to to the best schools they can, other think that’s “toxic” thinking ( for which I have to LOL since it’s along the lines of if you don’t agree with me you are toxic-). It’s all in the perspective.
You will get a great education regardless of where you go. Since you are interested in CS(and neuroscience), I’m not sure Brown warrants the cash. If you wanted to start a company and the choices were Caltech/MIT or UMass, then I’d say VC’s would look more carefully with a Caltech?MIT degree. But I don’t think that is the case here.
One thing I’d add for parents reading this, kids have long memories. If you don’t do the right thing by your kids by being honest about what you can afford and what you will pay for based on your idea of value, it could come back to hit you in the face. Not all 18 year old kids are going to look favorably at you when they realize they are being manipulated in their educational choices. It’s one thing not to have the money. It’s another thing to say I’ll pay for X and not Y after they get accepted to Y. I’m hoping that they articulated they would not pay for Brown and the OP just wasn’t listening.
OP, I recommended UCSD because it has a fantastic program in neuroscience and a very good program in CS. It strikes me as providing a good balance between being affordable and academically excellent.
A great education from a fantastic school is priceless. If it’s meant to be, he can earn much more than that in future but if it’s not, he can loose this money in stocks or startup. Money isn’t everything in life. However, I get where parents are coming from. For a middle class, this is a lot of money and they must’ve sacrificed and saved and worked hard to save it. They may want to keep him near by at state school and buy a condo for him to live.
I don’t blame parents. I blame system for making good colleges so out of reach for middle class applicants. For discriminating between 18 year old applicants on basis of their parents’s income. College should cost less and same for every applicant. Applicants have no choice in this matter, they can’t make anyone pay.
Think of this as your first business decision. Do some research - is a CS degree from Brown more valuable than from UMass? You should be able to find comparable starting salaries as well as salaries over time.