<p>My S has been lucky enough to be accepted at both schools for mechanical engineering.</p>
<p>Michigan is OOS tuition, and USC offered full tuition and he would be a "Viterbi Undegraduate Fellow" and on the honors program. </p>
<p>The thing is, Michigan was his dream school, and he is really sure he wants to do ME as his career. He's very social, loves sports, and doesn't care about the weather at UM (he's visited twice). He will probably try and get a 1 year masters either at his undergrad school or at a transfer. He's also really keen to do SAE projects, research etc.</p>
<p>$200k matters for sure, but we budgeted for UM and so the money is there. But assuming he ends up doing a masters at Michigan, does it matter that he didn't go there for undergrad?</p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>the difference is not worth 200k, i would go to usc</p>
<p>Even if the money is there, it does not mean you need to spend it. You can set it aside for your son for another, more functional purpose, such as graduate school, a downpayment on an awesome home, inheritance etc… An undergraduate degree from USC should serve your son well, and saving those $200k for an alternative use will serve him even better. Unless you have a lot more set aside than his college budget, I cannot see how going to Michigan can be justified.</p>
<p>If money is not an issue, then I see no problem in spending $200K for Michigan if it has been budgeted already… Alexandre, how is spending $200K for UMich any more foolish than buying a million dollar home or a Bentley? When you are wealthy, you simply do not need to worry about opportunity cost and can spend money at will “just because you want to”.</p>
<p>The OP already has stated that 200K “matters for sure.” It appears that money does have some meaning to him. </p>
<p>That is what I was saying ennisthemenace. If the OP is very wealthy, spending $200k on Michigan is perfectly fine. But if $200k represents a large chunk of his savings, then I do not think it is worth spending on a college degree. The same would go if the OP were considering MIT or Stanford or Princeton vs USC. </p>
<p>Save the $200k and you will have more options for graduate schools.</p>