Need the community guidance we need help choosing between full ride at Vanderbilt for Engineering vs zero money for MIT engineering

Thank you for coming back and giving us an update. Congratulations to your daughter and all of her accomplishments.

If you have two more children and aren’t sure how the payments are going to be made for them, and “the boys may be in trouble” in terms of what you can afford for them, then you cannot afford to pay for MIT. There was a different thread where a parent had sent an older child to their “dream” (expensive) school because it was the child’s dream, but then were going to need to limit the younger child to in-state public options. That type of situation can lead to a lot of resentment toward the older sibling as well as toward the parents and cause a lot of familial strife. Your daughter has a full ride which is a big gift from any institution, and not only is it a full ride, but it’s at Vanderbilt, one of the top 10% of universities in the U.S.

Based on the circumstances you describe, I highly recommend going with Vanderbilt.

Edited to add (ETA): You may find this thread useful. I’ve linked to the particular post that mentioned the situation I referred to above. Parents Who Paid Up For Your Child’s Dream School - Did You End Up Regretting It? - #82 by Picklenut6

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