<p>My son was admitted to MIT, his lifelong dream, and then the next week he received a Hodson Trust scholarship to Johns Hopkins. What to do??? I hate to make him go to JH just because of the offer, any suggestions??</p>
<p>Are you wiling/able to pay for his MIT education with little-or-no debt upon completion of his undergraduate degree? He shouldn’t feel as though he is being cheated anyway, the choice is between MIT and Johns Hopkins lol.</p>
<p>MIT. </p>
<p>copy/paste my response from another thread.
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<p>I believe that all financial aid at MIT is need based. Hopefully you applied. If not, call them and plead your case. If you did apply and they offered no aid, then (obviously) they believe that you can afford it without. Still talk to them, it can’t hurt. </p>
<p>It then comes down to whether you let your son go to his dream school. MIT was my dream school and fortunately I was able to go. </p>
<p>They are both good schools, so you can’t go wrong at either one.</p>
<p>Can you afford MIT?</p>
<p>If you can easily pay for MIT then yes, he should go to MIT.</p>
<p>If you can’t, he certainly is not being cheated by going to JH. It is a great school.</p>
<p>When your son applied to MIT where you prepared to pay for it? If JH was not on the table would the cost of MIT be an issue? The answer to your question rests in these two.</p>
<p>Hopkins is a very fine school and I doubt your S would get a worse undergraduate education there than at MIT. If you can afford MIT, then maybe he should go there, but it’s not rational to take out huge loans just to go to the slightly more famous institution.</p>
<p>Well, he applied to JH. So there must be some appeal. How much is the Hodson Trust scholarship?</p>
<p>Also, does the scholarship come with any perks that are attractive to him, and are GPA requirements reasonable for keeping the scholarship? Does he have strong interests (curricular or extra-curricular) that would be better served at Hopkins?</p>
<p>If it seems certain that he will stay in a STEM field, and no hefty loans will be involved, I would not stop him from going to MIT if that is his preference but would ask that he visit both schools again and confirm that MIT is still his dream school before making a decision and sending off the deposit.</p>
<p>What are his career goals? </p>
<p>There are some careers that just wouldn’t justify the extra cost. For instance, if he’s going to be “pre-med”…then the extra cost would NOT be worth it. </p>
<p>*Our DD is also a full pay @ $55K and could have gone to a top 20 college (Rice) for less than $25K (after merit scholarship) but she loved the college and the city during the campus tours prior to application process.</p>
<p>It is turning out to be a great fit to her personality and we think the extra $30K is worth each penny and she is having a great time at a great university.*</p>
<p>Well, it’s not an extra $30k…it’s an extra $120k. But, you have the one child and you’re quite affluent, so no biggie. Right?</p>
<p>To the OP…if you can pay full freight to MIT and not have it negatively affect other things…such as law/med/business school costs or something else, then open the checkbook and all is well. But…if paying full freight for MIT means scrimping and borrowing, then it won’t be worth it.</p>
<p>Were you expecting any aid when you began the app process?</p>