Need the community guidance we need help choosing between full ride at Vanderbilt for Engineering vs zero money for MIT engineering
I’d take the full ride. Vanderbilt has a great reputation and I would have trouble justifying paying over $300,000 for the incremental added prestige of going to MIT.
If there were some specific aspect of MIT’s programs or culture that made it a better fit, maybe that would require additional consideration. But assuming the student likes both schools, I think Vanderbilt (and your wallet) wins.
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Full-ride at Vanderbilt, unless you are comfortably full-pay.
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Take the full ride. It’s not like Vanderbilt is Southwest Main Street Community College…it’s still Vanderbilt! No debt is an amazing thing!
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If money were no object, I’d say MIT. Is money an object?
Also, what kind of engineering? Programs matter.
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As an MIT alumnus I might be biased but would still recommend that you take the full ride at Vanderbilt. The full cost at MIT for four years is a lot of money.
The exception would be if the parents are very, very wealthy and can afford MIT without any debt and without any concern or hardship.
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MIT is $77K this year - so that’s $308K - + there will be inflation.
Put that $308K in basket of dividend stocks - the $77K a year and let it grow - and you’ll be wealthy regardless of your job.
Unless your last name is Gates, Buffett, or Musk - this is a question that really needs no answer.
I suspect you only have to ask your parents - and they’ll be like - hmmmm - no. That’s a lot of coin.
Vandy is #14 in the country - and the name will hold weight, including in engineering.
The only downside - football team is terrible. But they have a football team!!
Good luck - all your hard work paid off and then some.
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This applies to MIT also.
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Another MIT alumn checking in…yeah, take the full ride for undergrad. You always look back at MIT for grad school (which likely would be funded).
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There is always MIT for a masters. Assuming one year, that’s a savings of 75%.
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If money matters, Vandy hands-down. However for some families the expense of MIT is not a burden. A one-percenter has a net worth over $11 million and an annual income of over $500K. I’d say on this forum perhaps 3-5% or more are in that range so it wouldn’t be exactly rare. If you’re in that category, MIT is the pick.
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FWIW, I’m not an alum but I cross-registered at MIT.
Where would he or she be happier? Which program and campus culture is the better fit socially and academically? Networking, internships, and placement records? How do the core curricula compare, and is that something he or she values about higher education? Would your child find benefit in taking some of their non-STEM classes at Harvard? How competitive of an environment does your child want? Boston vs. Nashville? These are some of the questions I’d be asking in addition to the financial ones.
The average starting and lifetime salaries for MIT and Vanderbilt grads are light-years apart. You want to get your hands on more granular data (by engineering specialty, etc.) if you can, but it’s a big difference. I’m not trying to get into an expected value worksheet or discussion on confounding variables, but this is not as simple as $320k vs. $0. MIT isn’t just prestige. It’s a better school filled with some of the smartest, best-trained STEM minds in the country, all of whom compete and collaborate on a daily basis. It’s a greatness incubator. And employers pay top-dollar for access to that knowledge and training. There’s a reason that the CIA and McKinsey have full-time recruiters posted in Cambridge.
Of course, a lot depends on your family income, savings, and/or willingness to take on debt. If you’re full-pay at MIT, I suspect you could make this work if you had to do so. Might be painful, might be some cuts, but only you can decide if it’s worth it.
Big picture: this is a great problem to have. Congrats.
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I’m thinking this is full tuition at Vanderbilt (from one of their selective scholarships) and not a full ride (including room and board). However, the money difference is quite significant. I would definitely save money for grad school (if interested down the road) and enjoy the perks that come from having an excellent scholarship. Plus Nashville is great! My son is a happy junior at Vandy. Beautiful school with great resources and lots of happy students.
If you had a plan in place to pay for MIT, there is nothing wrong with still using that money for that purpose. Vanderbilt is great, but we’re talking about MIT.
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No brainer. Take the Vandy offer. It’s a great school.
My primary care physician is a Johns Hopkins alum who went to State U for medical school. She says that if she had it to do all over again, she’d do it the other way around -State U undergrad and JHU for med school. I think the analogy applies here. Excel at Vandy and then look to MIT for grad school when it will matter much more.
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Full ride at Vanderbilt. If you do opt for MIT, I’d make sure 1000% that you know you will thrive. It’s going to be competitive in either pool. But MIT is going to be a different league. Not worth an extra 300K for MIT prestige as Vanderbilt is also very very strong but something to think about.
The missing information is how much the cost of MIT would matter to the family finances. However, if someone is asking the title question, they are probably not in the plutocrat wealth range that considers that amount of money to be pocket change and would not worry about what are to them trivial costs.
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One poster @TheVulcan’s son had to make the same decision a couple of years ago and he chose MIT, even though money was material to his family. I haven’t seen him active on CC recently but he may be able to share what led him to that decision.
Here’re my random thoughts on this issue:
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I agree with @elena13 that the Vanderbilt offer is likely full tuition, not full ride, so the difference is $55k/year between the two schools.
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Is MIT worth $55k/year? That depends on the family’s finances, but even more importantly whether the student can take advantage of those extras that MIT can offer. I agree with @Rivet2000 that the programs the student is interested matter for that reason.
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In terms of outcomes, a student can make up some of the differences by going to MIT for a graduate degree. But that isn’t guaranteed, and undergraduate and graduate experiences are very different.
Hi there, @1NJParent! Funny, I just decided to log in after a long hiatus for no particular reason - I don’t have email notifications, so this is a heck of a coincidence!
Yes, we faced the same choice with our elder: full tuition (not full ride) Cornelius Vanderbilt scholarship vs approx 1/3 off sticker at MIT, so about twice the price of Vandy.
This was two years ago, at the outset of the pandemic, and I would lie if I said we didn’t have some second thoughts at the time about saving some money and staying closer to home, but we knew what the right place was for him.
Two years hence, we would make the same choice for our younger in a heartbeat.
But @havanamama1959, you know your child, and the right choice for us might not be the right choice for everyone.
I will be sure to check in from time to time and am happy to answer any questions.
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what was the decision??