I say take the free ride and use the money as a down payment on a house when you decide to settle down later on in life.
go to the free school put the 240,000 in my bank account!( I will write your parents a thank you note!!)
money or prestige? your offer from USC gives you money AND prestige. it’s a darn good school. i vote for full-ride at USC.
If you plan to go grad school in the future, go to USC and save the money for grad school at an Ivy. This is your opportunity to get out to experience another part of the country.
First off congrats on the acceptances and choices.
Many employers do not view Ivy League grads more favorably than state flagship or other private school grads.
Why? Many are looking to work a year or two and go back to school.
Some are too self centered or lack the drive to excel in the workplace.
Ask your parents if you can use that saved money for grad school or a down payment on a home.
USC is the easy call here
Which Ivy?
Follow your gut and where you actually see yourself being for 4 years. Congrats on 2 awesome opportunities!
“I say take the free ride and use the money as a down payment on a house when you decide to settle down later on in life.”
Since when are parents then obligated to give their kids the money that they “saved” by getting a scholarship? If my kid got a scholarship, good for her, but I’m not just handing over $240k anyway. That goes back into my retirement savings.
If the grad school…especially an Ivy is an academic PhD program(as opposed to professional), practically all students who are qualified for admission are given full funding for cost of school and a small living stipend. In short, such programs tend to be practically free.
While the stipend will mean a bit of frugal living, most grad students IME including those at expensive places in NYC/Boston manage to make it work without parental assistance, inherited money, or non-academically relevant outside jobs.
Also, the Ivies are not necessarily the strongest in all fields. For instance, most engineers I know of from HS and work would find someone who turned down schools like MIT, CMU, Caltech, Stanford, Berkeley for any of the Ivies for engineering PhD solely because of the Ivy association to be daft. Similarly, folks in the field of Philosophy would feel similarly with those who turned down a Philosophy PhD admissions offer to Rutgers for an Ivy for the same reasons.
“save the money for grad school at an Ivy”
On what planet are the Ivies necessarily the best / most superior grad programs? That’s the exact same lack of sophistication that assumes that they are always the best undergrad choice.
@decisions199 Above is the popcorn section where people largely argue while presenting conflicting anecdotes and pretending it is evidence. Just ignore it, many of them are overgeneralizing. For example, I know you aren’t interested in engineering, but I will address it because it seems to be the topic dejour. The truth is that engineering pay is very similar at Ivies for certain engineering majors, but matters a lot for others. Details matter.
DD1 is at an Ivy and DD2 is going to a great school, which is not an Ivy. Well meaning people try to give blanket advice, but much depends on the individual.
For DD1 turned down a lot of merit money at many top schools to attend an Ivy. Top issues in her decision were a high level of challenge, a very difficult major, social opportunities, research opportunities, internship opportunities, active activity-focused clubs, a school in a large city, and great fitness facilities (especially a pool).
From a salary at graduation perspective, look at the data from each school for what the graduates salaries are for that major, and the percentage of students with jobs.
From a fit perspective, I think it depends greatly on your individual interests and willingness to engage in available opportunities. If you are a student who likes to hangout with your friends in your free time, then you can do that anywhere. If you are someone who wants to be involved in research, hands-on volunteer experiences, speakers, clubs, and grabbing every opportunity that is made available to you, then the Ivy may be worth it. You will have to investigate and compare specific opportunities that are of interest of you at the two schools you are considering.
Regarding the STEM minor. If you are interested in a CS minor for example, which I highly recommend for any major, you should investigate the feasibility for your situation at the schools you are considering. For example, Penn or Cornell, this should be fairly easy to do. However, the core and major requirements would make this difficult for many students at Columbia. It pays to investigate the details of your specific situation with the school and be sure that you will be able to do what you want to do.
In the end, you will probably be successful at either school, but your experiences may be vastly different, and no one can decide which one is right for your life except you. I can tell you that in our family DD1 would choose on path and DD2 would choose the other. Good luck in working through this decision. Please share the specifics of what issues you have identified as you get more information and hopefully posters here can provide more feedback.
- There are Ivies and then there are "Ivies", IOW not all Ivies are equal. And it depends on the major.
- The chance that an Ivy degree will help you more than a USC degree is pure speculation. The money you and your parents would save is not speculation. Go with the sure thing.
- If you plan on staying in Southern California, a USC degree will be worth more to employers than an Ivy degree. USC has a very tight alumni network.
@Much2learn We only hire full time college grads from our internship program. We have 7 every summer for two months and they generally make $5,000 plus $24 an hour for overtime. In the last 5 years, only one Ivy kid was asked back, one from Penn, while several from Lehigh, various NESCAC, Bucknell, Colgate, Rutgers, Notre Dame and Boston College have been asked back, among others. We have taken kids from regional schools as well that have performed just as well. Manhattan College is a good example.
We need kids that can multi-task, socialize well and come in nervous. We just haven’t had luck nor do we go out of our way to hire prestige, although that happens for other reasons. The kid from Notre Dame or Lehigh tends to be our sweet spot. NESCAC kids do very well once the arrogance blows off. The NESCAC kids are invariably athletes. Many of the successful kids are fraternity or sorority members, Lehigh for example.
And if hired, they all start at the same salary.
So there is some evidence.
Go to USC for CS or Eng over the Ivy; did not read all the posts of which Ivy but hardly/no advantage in getting the degree there unless you want to directly head to the likes of Wall Street. My bro studied Architecture at USC, followed that by an MBA from Wharton a few years later. My D1 chose a full ride to Pitt (GAP admit) for undergrad over Harvard/UPenn and is in the 1st year of Pitt Med. I work for a VC in the Bay area and my clients will not give an extra edge to an Ivy CS/Eng grad over one from USC!
My son (who was planning on majoring in CS) had to choose between Harvard and Carnegie Mellon. Harvard is obviously not known as an engineering or CS powerhouse, but what he discovered is that CS graduates there end up at all the same big name firms as the ones from CMU. He spent accepted students weekend playing board and video games with similar nerdy kids and discovered he liked it much better than he had expected to. In the end he went for CMU - because he liked the stand alone school, the intense nerdiness, the fact that there are 200 prof instead of 20. And also because he is not the sort of kid who was really going to take advantage of what makes Harvard great (the residential colleges, getting to know kids from other disciplines, the incredible array of extra-curricular activities done at a very serious level.) It’s the one place you can major in English, work on the Crimson or the Lampoon and have jobs fall into your lap. (I am sure there are similar things at USC.) You need to make your own assessment.
I personally am a big fan of some of the Ivy League schools. Particularly if you think you want to end up working on the East Coast, the networking will point you in that direction. OTOH I am also a fan of getting to know another part of the country and college is a great time for that exploration.
Our family sounds similar to yours. A lot of savings, but not necessarily a huge income. We felt that giving our kids the education that fit them best was our gift to them. We haven’t been to Europe in five years, but I don’t consider that a big sacrifice. Grad schools vary. PhD programs pay you. Many masters programs will be paid for by employers.
Enjoy the accepted students weekends. You’ve got at least two very good choices. You can’t really go wrong either way.
Two factors that haven’t been discussed but which I think are fair consideration here are (1) do you have sibs and would this choice effect them/their future choices and (2) what is your parents retirement situation–ie are they as well set financially for retirement as for your college expenses.
Cornell also happens to be the only Ivy League school with the majority of its students in professional majors.
@TatinG “The chance that an Ivy degree will help you more than a USC degree is pure speculation.”
Your comment is overly broad. It is the same argument that is used for not going to college at all. You spend 4-6 years on it for a benefit that is pure speculation.
The facts are that from a salary perspective it can make a difference for certain majors. Also, the experiences and opportunities will be quite different. For a student who is unable to identify specific reasons why the Ivy option is better for them, I would choose USC. It is a very good school. However, visiting both colleges and understanding the unique benefits and opportunities that each school offers for this specific student is worthwhile.
@Pizzagirl is right that the Ivies are not a magic ticket that should always be chosen, as some people seem to believe. Similarly, the cheapest school is also not a magic ticket. These decisions depend on many factors and the specific student involved.
We did not apply to any Ivies for DD2 because the level of difficulty is too high for majors she is interested in. Even for free she would hate every minute of it. In contrast, DD1 thrives in an environment of extreme challenge, and opportunity. Claiming that either choice is right for all students is just silly.
It’s a hard conversation to have with your kids. I don’t think I did a great job when my daughter was accepted to a prestigious school. Just read this article today. I wish I would have had it a few months ago.
@Much2learn Perhaps you don’t realize but you make the most broad and completely unsubstantiated statements.
And you are wrong on salaries. I believe on average Washington & Lee graduates make the most to start apart from STEM graduates, where non Ivy League schools prevail. US Naval Academy grads make more money to start than Harvard grads.Babson grads are right up there.
I think many would agree that rigor at Ivy League schools versus other schools is very much a myth.