<p>I have a very difficult decision to make. Please help! I've narrowed down my choices to three schools:</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins. I was accepted into the BME program, which is very strong. However, tuition is expensive (55k/year). Also, while it's untrue that JHU has no fun and no parties, the social scene is a little quieter than I would like. Also, the campus is beautiful, and also, contrary to popular belief, the surrounding area is quite nice.</p>
<p>University of Virginia. I'm an out-of-state student, but still, UVa is quite a bit cheaper than JHU, at about 43k/year. UVa's academics are great, and I LOVE the campus and social scene.</p>
<p>University of Southern California. USC has strong academics, and a great campus, although the surrounding area is a little dodgy. The social scene is great. Best of all, I got the Presidential Scholarship, which would put tuition at around 30k a year.</p>
<p>So, where should I attend? Would the prestige of JHU make that 25k/year difference pay for itself? Or does it not really matter where I go for undergrad? Thanks for your help! I've got until May 1st to decide.</p>
<p>I like all three. if a big social scene experience is a key factor for your college years than I think you’re choosing between UVA and USC. I’m a big fan of UVA and I think USC is an impressive school, so many impressive alums, like Neal Armstrong:)</p>
<p>go visit, talk to a bunch of students, then go with your gut!</p>
<p>oh, I don’t know. he may be the last living real american hero we have, so his reputation and accomplishments reflect positively on both institutions, Purdue and USC. And therefore reflect positively on both undergrad and grad students attending those institutions. although didn’t thomas jefferson start UVA, he’s not too shabby of an American hero as well!</p>
<p>now, schools such as Brown have the opposite problem with their illustrious alum. a school built by slave trade money.</p>
<p>Hopkins has made efforts to improve the undergraduate experience since I was there (and I agree that the campus is lovely and that the area around it is nice too). Still, I think UVA offers students a better quality of life. The UVA student body is more diversified in its interests than JHU’s, where the focus is strongly on life sciences/premed despite academically strong humanities depts. Both are stronger schools academically than USC.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m missing something here. But to the op, can you afford to take on large amount of debt? Are you or your family financially well off that paying 50K a year won’t adjust your or your parent’s life?</p>
<p>No school is worth that much amount of debt(JHU or even U of V), if you can’t afford it, when you have a cheaper option. I don’t know what entry level salaries are like for BME, or whatever engineering field you enter, but the difference between JHU and USC, will be an extra 100K. Do you know what your loan payments will be on a 200K debt. It won’t matter that you’re making 80K or even 100K a year(out of undergrad, and i’m being generous with the 80/100k figures)salary(before taxes) if you’re going to have a loan that takes out 16-24K a year of your salary for over a decade. You’d be in the same position as if you originally made 60K a year out of USC, the difference is that you’d arguably have less debt.</p>
<p>I won’t be at USC’s engineering school. I’d do BME at Hopkins just because the program is so good, but at my other two schools, I’d major in neuroscience. Do you know anything about these schools’ neuroscience programs?</p>
<p>All to learn the same things. What could you possibly expect to learn or experience at JHU that is worth $100,000 more than USC? If most of that is debt, you will graduate with a potentially crippling financial burden that will effect your lifestyle for at least the first 10 years of your career. JHU is an excellent school, perhaps the finest BME program on your list, but make no mistake about it, you will be paying an extra $100,000 plus interest for your “hand-tooled” education. </p>
<p>This problem is about resource management and expected returns. What possible advantages educationally and financially exist between these three schools that justify the added expense? $100,000 of student loan debt will probably turn out to be a $1,100+ monthly payment upon graduation. That will dramatically (negatively) affect your choices when it comes to buying a car or a home. Even if JHU resulted in a higher starting salary than USC, the difference would have to be tens of thousands of dollars in order to make up for the opportunity costs and interest expenses you will be incurring. It seems highly unlikely that that level of first year salary difference exists among these three schools. My suggestion is to save your resources for either graduate school or the things your want to do after graduation.</p>
<p>thanks for the advice. starting salary isn’t really an important consideration for me since I’m going to grad school. will johns hopkins help me get into a better grad school? is this admittance to grad school worth the extra cost?</p>
<p>omg, if you are going into grad school you are going to want the least debt as possible. I would have suggested JHU BME, but if you are going to grad school, go USC. Once you go to grad school, noone cares where you went for undergrad, only for grad. USC has the capability of sending people to jsut as good grad schools as JHU if the student is capable.</p>