<p>Our child was accepted at MIT, along with a vast majority of top Ivy schools. She has her heart set on MIT, wants to study course 6. However two of the Ivys (Cornell and Columbia) has offered her fantastic aid packages. MIT, Harvard, Yale and the other Ivys all came in at the exact same parent EFC.
My question is- is it actually worth paying 36k at MIT, versus 20K at Cornell/Columbia for 4 years. Cornell and Columbia have no loans and MIT included loans in their package.
Why would a family chose MIT and pay 16k more a year for 4 years? Can anyone actually put a price tag on an engineering education at any of these three schools. Granted MIT is rated as #1 in engineering, but how different is it from say Cornell or Columbia? How can we justify paying 64k more for an undergrad education?</p>
<p>There’s more to being here than prestige. There’s the experience, the research opportunities, the surrounding environment (ie Boston). What environment will help her perform best?</p>
<p>What are your child’s thoughts? What does she want out of her college experience, aside from the ability to make good money afterwards?</p>
<p>I think that much $$$ would be a deal breaker for me personally. I mean, Cornell is awesome for engineering (not as much as MIT, but still) and it was my own second choice, and I would not be willing to put in the extra $$$. Don’t go to Columbia for engineering if you really want to do engineering, they tend to just send their engineering students to Wall St. (people are pursuing $$$ instead of their passion and what would make them happy).</p>
<p>On a side note, if MIT really fits her (and Cornell really doesn’t) then it could merit the expense. I mean, as an engineer, she will make a nice chunk of change getting out of college, so the debt won’t be hurting her forever. You are picking a home for the next 4 years, and this social component is really important.</p>
<p>Good Luck in making your decision. Just make sure to make the right one that compromises what is best for you and what’s best for her.</p>
<p>I really believe there is huge difference between Course 6 at MIT and EE or CS programs at other universities. Course 6 has been the flagship engineering program at MIT for at least the last 30 years. It is immensely respected by graduate schools and employers and Course 6 grads have by far the highest average salaries on graduation. At one point nearly half of MIT engineers were from Course 6. The number is now above one third. </p>
<p>Beyond its reputation, there are a number of unique characteristics of Course 6 which make it extremely attractive:</p>
<p>-Course 6 Majors have by far the highest salaries of any EE majors anywhere in the country with an average last year of $93,000 (not including bonuses). This is in part due to the fact that in addition to companies such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft paying top dollar for talent, many investment banks, hedge funds and consulting also recruit Course 6 Majors. </p>
<p>-The MEng program, which nearly three quarters of Course 6 majors take advantage of, allows Course 6 students to earn a typical two years Masters Degree in a fifth year at MIT. Best of all, over 75% of MEng students get a $2,000 /month stipend and full tuition waiver as RAs or TAs while getting their degree. </p>
<p>-A new Course 6-7 joint major in computer science and molecular biology, the first of its kind in the country has just been created. This program is specifically designed for students interested in computational biology underpinning much of the work in genomics. </p>
<p>-The UROP undergrad research program copied on a much smaller scale by other universities largely guarantees students involvement in research sometimes as early as freshman year. Many of the UROPs are actually paid. The department also offers a large number of US and international paid summer internships through its corporate partners. </p>
<p>In short, I think the MIT difference is well worth the 64K difference. The extra cost will be picked up in as little as a year or two after MIT with far wider prospects upon graduation. If your child is a Course 6 Major he/she will most likely graduate with a Masters degree for the cost of the BS, a value well exceeding the 64K differential. If the choice was between MIT and Stanford I could understand the hesitation, but here it is not even a close contest. </p>
<p>Our D chose MIT over a number of Ivy options 4 years ago and we have not regretted her choice for a second. The ROI was well beyond our expectations.</p>
<p>This was really helpful to hear from all of you. I did not know about so many opportunities at the undergrad level at MIT, this was immensely helpful.
I feel that I cannot prevent our child to not go to the school of her dreams. so whether the finances hurt or not, I think we are looking at paying for MIT at this point. She has worked very hard for the last 4 years, and this is all she has asked of us- pay for MIT. How can I refuse that?</p>
<p>We felt just the same way. Good luck to you and your D.</p>
<p>Our daughter committed to MIT this morning, class of 2015.</p>
<p>I’ll see her next year. Yay '15!</p>
<p>*Best of all, over 75% of MEng students get a $2,000 /month stipend and full tuition waiver as RAs or TAs while getting their degree. *</p>
<p>Wow. That’s ridiculously nifty, I’ve almost never heard of anyone but PhD students getting offered that kind of treatment, much less a 1 year program. It would certainly make one think twice about thinking twice about staying for the master’s.</p>