My son has been admitted and has a good financial aid offer but we don’t know much about the school and want to get as much information to make the best decision. I’ve been looking for things like job placement and research information but can’t find any. He’s also been admitted to our state school of engineering, for which we have all the information needed.
They offer ABET accredited degrees in Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Industrial and Mechanical as well as Computer Science.
You can get more information on job placement here: http://www.ohio.edu/engineering/academics/coops/
The first part of decisions like these are pretty easy. It boils down to a single question. Can you afford the alternative without compromising your financial situation (tapping retirement, taking on too much new debt, etc.). If the answer is yes, then it gets a bit more challenging.
For the extra money you are buying intangibles, maybe a little better or even a lot better name, maybe a little better job placement, maybe a better location. The difficult question is what are those intangibles worth. I think most here would say that there isn’t a school that’s worth going into $100k debt for, even MIT.
In the end, once you know you can afford it, it boils down to personal fit. Have you visited both? Does he like both? What’s the difference in cost?
Costs are very similar, after all fin aid (and 5500 each yr in loans) at OU I’m left with a net out of pocket of $3800 (approx), that’s direct costs to university. Our state college is quite a long drive to commute, 3 hours approx. Tuition is really cheap, about $2500 for in state students (which he might get waived if he’s selected into the university choir) but offers no housing options, so I’ll have to rent him an apt to share with two of his classmates. That sums about $300 a month plus utilities, which are quite expensive here. I could skip the purchase of a car if I can get a walking distance apartment but the odds are against us since most of the apartments close to college are not the best neighborhoods when it comes to safety, so that might end up adding a car to the budget plus gas and toll ($250 approx. which either way I will have to pay for). Of course there are no meal plans either so I am budgeting $150 for groceries and $200 for eating out each month. If he gets his tuition waived we are still looking at $10K roughly minus Pell Grant ($5775 already granted) leaves us at $4225 each year plus books and some personal expenses. It’s a little more than OU but there is still the airfare left outside the equation which should be somewhere around $1000 each year for two round trips. As you can see cost is not a factor to be considered since both are at similar range other than the fact that he will have a $20K+ debt right after graduation which he won’t have in state school, but it’s something he is willing to do if it’s worth it and I’m willing to help him paying for.
Another con of state school is that engineering programs are 5 years instead of 4, so that will add another $4K+ to my total budget (as long as costs don’t increase, which BTW, it’s something OU is assuring, no raise in tuition and fees).
Few things I know are each college engineering research budget, state school $9M approx and OU $16M approx, and even though OU has far more students than our state college, there are far less engineering students in OU than in our state college. This I really don’t know if it’s good or bad. On one hand, less engineering students with much more research budget may translate in far more research opportunities, yet that much less engineering students may also mean that one school is not as good as the other. Of course I have no evidence for the second one, and besides, our state school is specialized in engineering being the only state school campus that offers engineering, with just one more school in the whole state doing so, while in Ohio there are several state and private colleges with engineering schools.
We have not visited OU and will not be able, can’t afford the round trip at this moment. We took a drive few weeks ago to state engineering campus and to be honest, it looked quite out of shape. I went there in 1992 and it is nothing as I remember it. Library’s ceiling is full of mold and most of the buildings are in bad conditions. The projects they showed us (like the campus’ solar house) looked like they had no budget, almost like middle school science fair projects. Chem labs looked fine and well equipped but the structure seemed with poor care. The impression we took from our visit wasn’t good, specially after visiting schools like Marquette. Even though we haven’t seen OU we’ve read it is well cared and maintained.
Actually, 5 years is kind of normal for engineering. I majored in engineering, and took 5 years even though officially it was a 4 year program. Most of my friends took more than 4 years; some took 4-1/2 while others took a full 5 years. I suggest planning on at least 4-1/2 years regardless of school.
I have not been inside the engineering facilities at OU, but the campus as a whole is in good condition. Sounds like it would be better than your in-state option, and worth the extra expense. I personally really like OU, as I have mentioned on other posts when you were thinking about Marquette.
Our state school, University of Puerto Rico- Mayguez Campus, is officially a 5 year program and most students graduate in 6. The curriculum includes 12 English credits, 12 Spanish credits, 6 Social Science credits and 3 additional Calculus and Physics credits. That adds up to 36 credits more than the average engineering program in the states. Mayaguez has a great local reputation though, and it’s quite known in the states, at least many big companies like Boeing and Exxon come every year to hire Mayaguez’s students, but it is in really bad shape and projects look really cheap, just like anything anyone could build in their backyard. Also University of Puerto Rico has lots of protests against government policies and as of now we are sort of entering a fiscal crisis that will impact school finances directly and increase costs for everyone and it’s threatening to cut all funding for several school programs. Usually when this happens protests heat up quick and students immediately recourse to closing the university. Last time was less than 4 years ago and many of the students lost one full semester of school, others had to complete the semester during summer.
Of those choices, I’d choose Ohio. Are there any others in the mix?
Those are the only two options. Marquette was on the list until recently but he didn’t make the Jesuit scholarship
Six years is way too long to get a bachelor’s degree.
Looks like some warm clothes are in order. 