<p>{{hugs}} from another mom.</p>
<p>Please do consider flight cost.
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/471442-freshman-year-college-almost-over-what-i-wish-i-had-known-before-4.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/471442-freshman-year-college-almost-over-what-i-wish-i-had-known-before-4.html</a></p>
<p>!MIT!, congratulations socal!!! Don't even give this a second thought, go to MIT. This is coming from someone whose husband is a USC alum. He would tell you the same thing. Getting into MIT is a HUGE accomplishment, again congratulations!</p>
<p>My parents are the same. I mentioned Yale and my dad thought I was going to jail. He said, "No! Never!"</p>
<p>Go to USC.</p>
<p>^give the OP your reason why. (I want to hear it also.)</p>
<p>You'll have a better idea of whether MIT is the place for you after you attend Campus Preview Weekend. If MIT admitted you, you are more than qualified academically. If financial aid is an issue, talk to the Financial Aid Office while you are out there. They have Open Office hours reserved for visiting prospective students.</p>
<p>MIT is running an Admitted Students Gathering for admitted students and their families in Los Angeles on March 27th. Other similar programs are being run across the country that week. If you haven't gotten an Invite, it should be on the <a href="http://www.mymit.edu%5B/url%5D">www.mymit.edu</a> site under "Admitted Student Gatherings. Campus Preview Weekend will help you figure out whether you fit MIT....The Admitted Students Gathering will help your parents get more comfortable with MIT and letting you go across the country.</p>
<p>I'm quite familiar with USC and MIT, but am somewhat biased since I have 2 kids at MIT right now after facing the same decision as you. If you have any specific questions, email me offline.</p>
<p>it's true about MIT and the whole EFC thing.. if you have a super low efc, they'll pay for everything with a "MIT Scholarship" which is literally a scholarship, not loan, not work study, nothing but free money. and they give you travel money</p>
<p>Ha, I said to go to USC because it is the USC forum. If i were majoring in engineering though, I'd choose MIT..</p>
<p>It's sort of like choosing between USC and Wharton as a business major? If I can afford USC though I will be happy to go.</p>
<p>One of the most brilliant co-workers I have got his PhD at MIT. Two of the worst PhD's I have ever interviewed got their degrees at MIT. The conclusion? The name on the diploma has little influence on how you turn out: Getting</a> In: The New Yorker</p>
<p>
[quote]
To assess the effect of the Ivies, it makes more sense to compare the student who got into a top school with the student who got into that same school but chose to go to a less selective one. Three years ago, the economists Alan Krueger and Stacy Dale published just such a study. And they found that when you compare apples and apples the income bonus from selective schools disappears....</p>
<p>Having Penn on your r</p>
<p>Oh wow thanks GroovyGeek, hat article was really interesting.
Thanks to evryone who replied :-)</p>
<p>I'd take MIT in a flash.</p>
<p>MIT is in a complete different league from USC, and I love USC. If you're willing to take a challenge, there really isn't much of a decision.</p>