<p>For what it's worth, our close family friend who has been my brother's best friend since they were kids went to MIT for engineering. He would not hesitate a moment to recommend the Rice option. As a student who was on full aid at MIT, and who got his master's in engineering there as well as his bachelor's, he is adament in saying that it really doesn't matter that much where engineering majors go to school. He was working with kids from Rose Hulman, West Virginia U , any school with engineering and they were all making about the same money and they all hit about the same ceiling in the field. He then went to Harvard for his MBA and is now an investment banker making much more than he would as an engineer. He had to borrow nearly every dime for that MBA as there really are no grants or scholarships (maybe a wee bit) in aid for professional degrees. THat on top of the loans he had from MIT really stung. He has kid of his own, and though he is very active with his alma mater, he is adament that should his kids be faced with that choice, he would put his vote in for Rice. Now, if we are looking at State U vs MIT, a there would be some other factors, namely the quality of peers at the school in the program and the quality of life. But a school like Rice, is no runner up in his mind to MIT, and he is someone who has hired many kids both in engineering and banking.</p>
<p>After finishing MIT I had only $20,000 in loans and no regrets, but after medical school I had more than $100,000 in loans. Since I was not in a high paying medical specialty and since I was also trying to raise a family, the loans were a SIGNIFICANT issue for me and my family. My husband was making good money, but I was paying $1800/month in loans at one point.. a lot of money...</p>
<p>If in fact your family can afford to send you without taking the loans, that is one thing.</p>
<p>But I would think LONG and HARD about taking on that much debt, when you have the option of such a great school as Rice.</p>
<p>I loved MIT, my MIT education was worth every penny (I am not sure I would say this about med school). But, if my child had an option like you do-- and if for his potential field of interest Rice was as or nearly as strong---I would be hard pressed to tell him to go to MIT.</p>
<p>Another consideration, if you expect that the BS will be your terminal degree, the cache of MIT MIGHT be more significant than if you anticipate going on. I think that if you are a fine enough student to get into MIT and get the money you have been offered at Rice, your graduate school options will be the same whether you go to MIT or Rice- I wouldn't give that a half a second thought in your deliberation.</p>
<p>To my mind it really comes down to how you would finance MIT. It is easy to say, "If I go to MIT I will make a ton of money and the loans will be no big deal."</p>
<p>YOu never know where life will take you, you never know if you might want to pursue a lower paying job option for a while...and you don't want loans owed be the deciding factor at that point...if the idea of an MIT education is that it maximizes your long term options (more than Rice??)...then consider the reality of $100,000+ in debt, and what that does to your options..</p>
<p>A general thank-you to the several people posting to the thread who picked up on the idea of graduating with debt versus graduating without, and on the issue of whether there is any meaningful difference in job prospects between Rice graduates and MIT graduates. It does get rather interesting, doesn't it, to figure out what to do when </p>
<p>a) the future is unknowable, anyhow, </p>
<p>b) the schools are different, for sure, but neither school is "bad," </p>
<p>c) the initial cost difference looks huge. </p>
<p>My own decision as a high school graduate back in the 1970s was to go to the state university, where I could work my way through and graduate without a cent of debt (which is what happened). My best friend at the time pursued an engineering degree there, and I remember him remarking while we were still in high school that "all engineers have the same salary," similarly to one of the replies above. I didn't study engineering and am not an engineer, so I like to see what people say about different schools that are noteworthy among engineering schools. How much would the calculation of relative value change if the graduate of one school or the other pursued a job in Wall Street finance? Do MIT graduates have a clear advantage in obtaining a job like that? (I have heard that they do, but I heard that from a Princeton graduate. :) ) Or, to take a contrarian position, how thriving of a business could the Rice graduate fund and operate if he took the money he saved on his undergraduate education and invested it in a start-up business?</p>
<p>robyrm makes excellent points above.</p>
<p>One thing about graduate schools. If you intend to go to <em>MIT</em> for graduate school, then it would be significantly easier to get in from the MIT SB program. In engineering at MIT, I believe everyone has the option to enter a combined masters program in sophmore year (someone can correct me if I have that wrong). Getting into MIT graduate school from the outside is extremely competitive.</p>
<p>Now, if any great grad school is acceptable and not necessarily only MIT, then Rice seems like an excellent option.</p>
<p>MIT without a doubt. Rice is in Texas, remember...</p>
<p>if u have money - MIT, if you dont - Rice. But try ur best to go to MIT</p>
<p>Tokenadult,
I think it is a truth now, as it was in my day, that MIT grads are sought after in a wide range of fields. My husband was an engineering graduate (I wasn't) and even in the recession people came recruiting at MIT. As noted above, however, I would guess they also recruited at Rice. The OP seems like he is probably of the caliber that no matter what school he goes to (even non-MIT, non Rice) he would do great. Aren't there plenty of statistics which show that the kids who get into Ivies, or MIT or whatever, end up with the same "results" whether they end up going there or to another school?</p>
<p>A few years ago I interviewed a boy for MIT who was ultimately accepted and would have thrived had he gone. Shortly after I interviewed him his father's job situation became unclear and when Clemson offered his a complete, 4 year free-ride, he took it. He was going to study a science and planned to go to medical school. He looked at the MIT medical school statistics, and looked at those for the very top students from Clemson and decided he would be in good shape. What he knew,and I knew, was that the atmosphere and student mix at Clemson would just not be the same as it would be at MIT...but Rice is not Clemson!!</p>
<p>Lots of MIT undergrads do go on and complete an MS while at MIT, but if you look at the schools of origin of graduate students, you see there is a huge range of schools feeding grad students to MIT....and in fact plenty of MIT students go elsewhere for grad school as well. </p>
<p>Again, I am not going to deny that an MIT education is special. But if the difference in cost is to be made up in loans, the value equation definitely changes in my mind- Knowing what I do now about the relative value of medical schools, I would NEVER have done what I did and gone to the incredibly high priced Ivy medical school. It hasn't "paid off" financially, and I am sure my education would have been comparable at many other more moderately priced schools...</p>
<p>"if the idea of an MIT education is that it maximizes your long term options (more than Rice??)...then consider the reality of $100,000+ in debt, and what that does to your options.."</p>
<p>Keep in mind that, for the OP (who does not believe he/she can receive substantial financial aid), going to MIT for "100,000 dollars more" does not necessarily mean he will need to take out 100,000 in loans. I think there's a difference there. If that were necessary, a good deal of financial aid would be offered. I don't think this issue can or should be tackled right now, since he/she has yet to receive a financial aid package from MIT. For all we know, MIT might be more generous than we think.</p>
<p>Let's say his parents have $160,000 saved for him for college and he uses only 60,000 for Rice...this gives him $100,000 for grad school (some programs are funded, some are not- it depends what you want to do).</p>
<p>If he goes to Rice he has the $100,000 for grad school.
If he goes to MIT, unless he has very generous parents, he might have to finance himself.</p>
<p>It is not just a matter of what MIT gives him, it is a matter of overall use of the funds available to him.</p>
<p>We have told our sons that they have X dollars for college, anything they fail to use of that money (by virtue of merit scholarships, etc) is theirs to use for grad school, or for whatever else they might want to use it for. If they choose to use it all for college-so be it.</p>
<p>And yes, MIT might be generous, but the original post suggests he is expecting nothing.</p>
<p>if u can take a loan go for mit :)</p>