I’m debating wether or not to take the Morehead Cain to University of North Carolina (Full ride, four funded summer trips, $8,000 travel stipend, laptop stipend, plus my parents have generously offered to pay for grad school if I take it) or Princeton University…
Princeton has always been my dream, but the Morehead Cain seems too good to pass up, I’ve just never imagined myself attending a state university. I love the idea of being surrounded by some of the most accomplished intellectuals and professors of our nation (Princeton) but just love the morehead in general. I want my life to be an adventure, which seems more Morehead like.
I would appreciate any advice, as I have no idea which to choose.
I also have no idea what I want to major in.
Doesn’t Morehead Cain scholarship include mentoring ?
Are you full pay at Princeton ?
Yep, full pay at Princeton and Morehead Cain includes mentoring and a super tight alumni community.
Morehead Cain at UNC for free plus a laptop & travel funds & mentoring is the wiser choice for you than paying $280,000 for four years at Princeton.
Save your money for grad school and go to UNC. It’s a great school, great campus and you’ll have plenty of great professors and peers.
What area do you plan to study in undergrad?
If your parents have the money, it truly is a family decision. There’s no wrong choice.
Here’s some information that might help as you consider your choices. I faced a similar decision about a decade ago. I was accepted to Princeton and the Jefferson Scholarship program at UVA, very similar to the Morehead Cain.
Of the 27 people initially offered the scholarship, 3 ended up attending Princeton, 3 Harvard, 2 Yale, 3 Stanford, 1 Oxford, 1 Georgetown SFS, 1 Duke, and the other 13 chose the Jefferson. I know at least some of the people who chose the Jefferson had offers from Princeton-level schools.
The students that chose the Jefferson generally did pretty well. Among them are a Rhodes Scholar, a Marshall Scholar, a joint JD/PhD in history candidate at Yale Law School and Princeton, etc. The students that chose elsewhere also did well. Among us are a Marshall Scholar, a PhD student in CS at Stanford, a student at HBS, etc. Of course, some had arguably better outcomes than others at both places.
Almost a decade later, it looks like everyone made the appropriate decision for him/herself. Quite frankly I think the divide between those choosing the Jefferson and those choosing HYPS was largely along demographic and academic interest lines. People more interested in STEM and economics/finance chose HYPS whereas people interested in the humanities chose the Jefferson. Far more international students/recent immigrants were among the HYPS group. I don’t think any of that should come as a surprise. Again, in hindsight I think mostly everyone made the correct decision.
While factors like location, faculty, class size, academic resources, social atmosphere matter a lot, your background and personality probably play far more greater roles in determining your outcomes. There is intrinsic and extrinsic value in attending Princeton instead of UVA, but those values vary for different individuals.
Hope that helps!