<p>so i'm a junior this year and i want to major in something around the lines of computer science or mechanical/electrical/computer engineering (technology based). i've done some research on college park and it seems that college park is improving a lot especially in computer science and engineering and is actually one of the top colleges in these majors. i've been thinking about going to maryland college park if i can get some good scholarships (i'm a resident in maryland) over higher tuitions in some other possible schools that i might be able to get in. would anyone else sacrifice going to a top school like carnegie melon or chicago or an ivy league school that will have a higher tuition to go to college park with a lot of the expenses taken care of? i want to have low debt as i know it can be a pain in the ass and i'm very familiar with college park.</p>
<p>“would anyone else sacrifice going to a top school like carnegie melon or chicago or an ivy league school that will have a higher tuition to go to college park”</p>
<p>I have a full ride to UMCP … I might use it(leaning) or I still might go to Duke or if I get off the Harvard waitlist I will DEFINITELY go there. At my high school, several of us received full rides to Maryland … only 1 or 2 will use it … this seems to be the norm.</p>
<p>It might depend on whether you are going to grad school. If you are, I’d take a full right for undergrad and save up for grad school, especially if you want to go to med school or law school. If you are going to grad school, the prestige factor of your undergrad doesn’t really matter - employers will mostly look at your grad school. But if you don’t plan to go to grad school – and if money is not a serious issue – the prestige factor might be worth it.</p>
<p>I went to UMD instead of more prestigious schools (specifically one of the ones that you mentioned) for mechanical engineering because I received a large scholarship. It definitely happens all of the time (more often than people think). I don’t know what would have happened if I went somewhere else, but I don’t find that my opportunities have been hindered at all. I’ve gotten the same summer internships as students from the more prestigious schools that I turned down. In some cases I’ve received opportunities at Maryland that I wouldn’t have gotten at a “better” school. Like I said, I can’t compare experiences since I haven’t been to the other schools and don’t know what would have happened, but turning down a prestigious school is not the worst thing at all that could happen to you as some people at CC seem to believe.</p>
<p>definitely Carnegie Mellon, they are #1 in comp sci</p>
<p>@stadeo - would you rather go to carnegie mellon for $50,000 of tuition or college park with all of your tuition paid for by scholarships? that’s basically what i’m trying to decide</p>
<p>It all depends to your major and grad school. If you are planning to go to grad or apply to med school, law school, etc…, you definitely need to loan more money for grad school on top of the 200K for your 4 years undergrad if you pick school, like Carnegie Melon. IMO, it is not worth it. My DD is willing to turn down Rice (although they gave her some scholarships - 11K, we still have to pay about 39K more) for UMD B/K. She would like to save the money for her med school. Also, UMD recognized your hardwork that’s why you received their full-ride. You may not get that same recognition at other prestigious school, unless you are admitted in some sort of special programs, like PLME, Rice/baylor, REMS.</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision.</p>
<p>“Also, UMD recognized your hardwork that’s why you received their full-ride. You may not get that same recognition at other prestigious school”</p>
<p>The free part is nice, the “recognition” … not too sure about that. I was interested in taking an honors combo math class (Cal III/Lin alge) this fall, but the person in charge has a rather arbitrary 770 math SAT I score requirement to be invited. They didn’t care that I got an 800 on the SAT II/math 2 or that I got a 5 on the Cal BC exam or that my numerical score while taking cal BC was over 97% … the sole determining factor was my score on a silly test covering stuff I learned in 6th and 7th grade … 
… she was very rude about it, “don’t care about your B/K …” , etc. … As with most large state schools there seems to be a lack of team players between depts. … it’s a “turf” thing … It’s this kind of stuff that still has me undecided about going to Maryland …</p>
<p>Plumazul, the answer you got for the math class is probably based on past experience. Calc III and Linear Algebra are each a crazy amount of work. D1 got the kinds of scores you mentioned in h.s., too. (took Calc BC as a sophomore), but there were many times she was really frustrated in the traditional math courses. She ended up getting A’s, but it wasn’t without a lot of teeth gnashing. Certainly, no walk in the park. And the homework workload seems to be consistently high.</p>
<p>^ Since I plan to major in Music and Chemistry, I really don’t need any more math. So should I go to UMd I’ll just stay away from the math dept. I might try to get some credit by exam if they let me do that …</p>
<p>Really, what my parents taught me, and what my belief is, you should not let money and scholarships be your deciding factor. I would pick Carnegie Mellon. Sure, for now you will have to pay a lot of money. But it will soon start to pay off. And when I say soon, I really mean it. My friend is a comp sci major at cmu and she already gets jobs offers from google and microsoft her first semester of freshman year! They really love cmu people and umd people, but if you were a boss that needed a really smart intern, would you select the cmu or the umd person? My friend gets paid $20-$40 an hour, so paying tuition will not be a big deal once you really get into cmu’s programs/go through with the job offers. Education is most important, and CMU and umd will give you the education you really need for comp sci, but cmu is #1 in comp sci.</p>
<p>A LOT of people turn down Ivies/other prestigious schools to attend MD on scholarship…</p>
<p>I have a friend who turned down Harvard for only a few thousand (total over 4 years) at MD.</p>
<p>He hasn’t indicated in the slightest that he regrets it, and is actually in a profession where prestige “matters,” finance/business. MD hasn’t stopped him from snagging very prestigious internship where he works side by side Ivy students…so I think he feels like he’s going to be ok ;).</p>
<p>I believe the people that generally turn down those 50K a year privates are the middle and upper middle class families that receive very little need-based aid, yet would still struggle to pay the high price tag of a private.</p>
<p>Students on other ends of the spectrum - ex. students who, should they get into Harvard, would receive substantial aid, or students who are so rich their parents are able to swallow the difference in costs - would probably not choose a full scholarship over a more prestigious institution.</p>
<p>And, as said above, the other group of students that would turn down Ivies/other privates would be many going to grad school, since the prestige of the undergrad education is not very important…though saving money is!</p>
<p>I would estimate the VAST majority students who work hard and are of the intelligence to get into prestigious privates will find that an education at MD will get them the same jobs, the same grad school acceptances, etc. HOWEVER, I think there are some differences in the “environment,” in peer group, etc. Whether these differences will be “worth” the money is a highly individual decision, and depends heavily on one’s personal goals, their parent’s finances, etc.</p>
<p>I would say go to UMD. Since you’re planning on getting a major in a field that has plenty of job opportunities, it really doesn’t matter if you went to a school that was #1 in CS versus #13. I talked to some people in the CS department at UMD and there are tons of companies like Microsoft, Google (co-founder actually went to UMD), Apple, etc. who come on campus to recruit students. Plus, with UMD being so close to DC, a lot of government agencies are looking for CS majors for internships/jobs.<br>
Stadeo makes it sound like you’ll be able to get all these reputable internships only at CMU and that a company would most definitely choose a CMU student over a UMD student. It’s not like we’re comparing a CMU student with a student who is majoring in CS at some school with an unknown CS program; both schools have excellent programs. And plus, there are tons of internships available for CS majors and I’m sure that you could get an internship paying $20-$40 even if you went to UMD.
So it’s just basically up to whether or not you want to pay over $200k to get an education at the best CS or would you rather pay barely anything to get an education at a school that is still one of the top CS schools. The difference really is that each school has a different atmosphere and if you think that having a slightly more competitive atmosphere at CMU is worth $200k more than the atmosphere at UMD, then by all means, pay that much money, but I know that I wouldn’t.</p>
<p>^that’s a good point that we are comparing two schools that are fairly close in rankings.</p>
<p>Both are “top” programs…one is just more top than the other…</p>
<p>It doesn’t seem like there would be a huge difference in the kind of job offers you’d be getting.</p>
<p>Again yeah I’m sure the environment is different on many levels…CMU is in a different city…the campus is totally different…student body is much smaller at CMU…etc. Whether the difference in environment plays in CMU’s favor or against it is up to you. And if it does play in CMU’s favor, then whether that is worth 200K is again up to you.</p>
<p>200K would be like a 90% downpayment on a frickin condo in SW waterfront DC, an area that’s about to boom and is like less than a mile from the Mall and Smithsonian…you can get a huge return on that investment, probably much more return than you’d get on the difference in education at CMU and MD haha. Basically 200K is not just some number floating in thin air, it can buy real things with real returns…so think about it.</p>