How would you decide between these options for Computer Science?
MDC Honors: The program pays for everything. I would get a two-year Associates and then transfer to another school.
UF: Total cost w/o loans = $4,000 per year.
RIT: Total cost w/o loans = $13,500 per year. Did not get into the CS program, instead I would do the Software Engineering program.
Money is a big concern, my family can’t contribute much, so it would mostly be paid by loans. I am very weary of going into debt.
I don’t know which the best option is regarding cost, program quality, career possibilities, etc. Please help, Thank you!
I think that for CS, UF for $4,000 is a better deal than Miami Dade, which has only recently been upgraded from a community college. Part of college isn’t just going to class, it’s also a whole environment, which you’d get by going to UF.
I assume it’s $4,000 a year after Bright Futures etc, right? Still, it’s really not bad. 16K can easily be paid back by someone who’s as gifted as you are (as evidenced by your being admitted to UF in the most competitive year ever) and who’s going to major in CS.
Good point MYOS1634. I would still like some more opinions, just to hear different arguments. Anyone else?
One thing I’m taking into consideration is that after two years at Miami Dade I could reapply to colleges and possibly get accepted somewhere else. Also apparently MDC Honors transfers get scholarships to the schools they transfer to? I don’t know, that’s what I heard. What do you think?
There should be a Transfer Advisor at Miami Dade whose whole job is to get students into good 4-year schools. That person can get you information about where the MDC-Honors transfers end up, and the money that they are offered. Ask specifically for information about MDC students who have won the Jack Kent Cooke transfer scholarships. That would be a good goal to work toward because even if you didn’t land one, you would also be set up well to compete for other transfer scholarships http://www.jkcf.org/scholarship-programs/
The key to making the CC+Transfer process work is self-discipline and motivation. You can achieve your goals if you stay focused. A lot of CC students don’t have that focus. My guess is that you do. Otherwise you wouldn’t have received the offer from MDC-Honors. Students who land in the honors program at Happykid’s old CC transfer to lots of amazing places.
If money is a serious issue for your family starting at MDC-Honors makes, sense. You would have UF as a safety school for transfer, am I correct? And you can apply elsewhere and see what happens. Happykid started at our local community college and then transferred to a state U. Like you, she had a full-tuition merit scholarship at her CC. The savings ultimately did make a big difference in the overall cost of her education. She’s now working in her professional field, and wouldn’t trade her 2+2 experience for anything.
happymomof1: I’m not sure your daugher “wouldn’t trade her experience” if it meant 4k allowed her to attend her state’s flagship, one ranked within the top 15 public universities in the country…
I’m guessing the financial constraints of attending another college than her CC would have been much greater.
MYOS1634 -
Happykid wasn’t making a choice between the CC and the state flagship - she positively hated UM-CP. And you are correct, the differential between free-except-for books at the CC and what we would have had to pay at even the cheapest state U was much larger than 4k. As luck would have it, for her particular major the CC offered superior opportunities to those available in the first two years at the state Us. I do know that isn’t true for all fields of study.
The point I wanted to make is that the 2+2 plan is not always the very worst choice, especially for a family that truly can’t scrape together 4k or for which even the standard federal loans could pose challenges to pay off. If MDC-Honors has a clear transfer pathway into the Florida public system, and if luckyjerry’s family is truly hard up, then 2+2 may well be the way to go. On the other hand, if the family doesn’t need luckyjerry’s earnings to help cover the family’s cost of living, and the only thing standing between luckyjerry and attending UF is some cash earned in a summer job and/or a partial student loan, then UF is a good choice.