<p>OK, here goes... I am a parent and need some practical advice for my son. Son is a high school senior trying to decide where to attend. He does well in school and will graduate #1 or #2 in his class. </p>
<p>Question: Is paying more money for a better program worth it? Are job offers at some schools MUCH better than at others? </p>
<p>Situation: Son has already received full ride offers from Arizona State and Iowa State (not quite but it is in the works) and will hopefully receive the same from Auburn. He wants to study AE or EE. He has applied to Georgia Tech, A&M, UT, Michigan, Stanford, Cornell, Purdue, and IUC. We don't think he will get full ride offers at any of these others and because of our income we expect to pay somewhere around $18K a year or more at most of those... some of them MUCH more (we are middle class... Mom and Dad are teachers).</p>
<p>So... what do you think? I really would like the opinion of some who are already in the field working but would appreciate any constructive input. Is the extra cost worth it? My wife and I could help with about $16k the first year and $8K for the other years and the rest he would need to cover with loans. Second son is a high school Junior and will be attending college the next year so we would split the $16K between both of them after year one.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help. It is truly appreciated.</p>
<p>My experience is that kids from highly ranked engineering programs get good jobs (obviously) but so do kids from lesser known engineering programs that make themselves standout. You won’t be on a big companies radar (a target school) at a lesser known engineering school so you’d have to do some extra stuff to make yourself stand out on your resume. Probably be in the top 10% of your class, good internships, and research experience. When I was in school I thought it was only the smartest and brightest from the best schools getting great jobs but that’s simply not the case. As long as you have the credentials from a decent engineering school you’ll be fine. I work as a defense contractor and i’d say 75% of the people i work with graduated from top 25 engineering programs and the others from schools not known for engineering.</p>
<p>If your son is looking for a challenge the lesser known engineering programs might not satisfy him. The schools you mentioned (Georgia Tech, Michigan, Stanford, Cornell, Purdue, and IUC) have an extremely smart student body. Your son will cover more material, in a faster amount of time and the faculty (on avg) will be better at these schools compared to say Auburn or Arizona State. These schools have more money so the labs and classrooms will have better technology and instruments. You’ll also have access to the giant career fairs and the coop programs. Georgia tech for instance has one of the best coop programs in the country. If you’re willing to delay graduating by a little it’s an invaluable tool for making contacts and potentially landing a real nice job.</p>
<p>Also, there is something to be said about earning an engineering degree from a top program. After you graduate (and years later) you’ll have a big sense of pride knowing you accomplished something from one of the best places. I’m not sure you get that same feeling when you graduate from a smaller program.</p>
<p>Student loans are very important to consider too. If your son accrues $40k of debt over his college career and is only making $60k then it’s going to take him a significant amount of time to pay his loan in parallel with living expenses. I personally didn’t have any student loans but my wife did from law school and it prevented her from buying things because she owed so much. </p>
<p>I don’t know much about graduate schools but I think if your son is planning on going to a top graduate school he’ll need to be successful and stand out (to some degree) at a top engineering school.s</p>
<p>Engineering spouse and parent here (son graduated 2009 in ECE).</p>
<p>If your son has an idea of the type of company he would like to work for after graduation, take a look at what companies recruit routinely at the more affordable schools.</p>
<p>If your S likes the sound of the places that regularly recruit at these schools, and he continues to be a standout student (which I’m guessing he will), that will mean he is likely to have pretty good job opportunities leaving these places.</p>
<p>vblick has given a good rundown of other pros and cons, but as a parent I know the job prospect part weighs heavily in your thinking.</p>
<p>Tripletime: Saw your other postings as well. Congrats to your son on his achievements thus far. Do you have any in-state options for your son? In-state versus OOS tuition can be huge. </p>
<p>I’d highly recommend that you fill out a sample FAFSA now and get a clear idea of what your EFC is likely to be. Looks like you are going to end up in no man’s land, middle class but will be hard to meet your EFC. At approximately $105,000 to $125,000 for AGI, your EFC will likely be more than $16,000. I can certainly sympathize as we found our EFC to be higher than expected.</p>
<p>Each school as different merit and need requirements that will require exploring. The top school that you can afford is your best bet. </p>