<p>OneMom, I dunno about that. At tech i have to apply for a job. At Penn I will be recruited for a job...</p>
<p>They only recruit certain types. Your major, GPA, image, and background matter. Many Ivy grads do not get jobs easily. If you are sure that the Wharton/engineering program will virtually insure your recruitment, then go with it. But sometimes, students and parents have unrealistic expectations. Also, companies do recruit intensely at the top tech schools.</p>
<p>Aurelius,</p>
<p>The only people who should make their decisions without considering cost are the ones who have received generous grants or earned substantial merit aid. Penn is an Ivy League and therefore offers no merit aid. If Chyea chooses Penn, then she has estimated debt after graduation to be at least $180,000. If she chooses Tech, then she graduates with almost no debt. I don't think it's wise to make this decision without considering cost.</p>
<p>Penn may be better known, but given that Chyea is interested in studying BME, Tech is clearly the better choice. It is higher ranked, has a better reputation for engineering, and costs less.</p>
<p>A fancy name that may not even be better for a certain field is not worth $180,000. Tech's College of Management is improving every year; it jumped nine spots in the UNSWR rankings.</p>
<p>I don't think you understood what is meant by "without considering cost"...</p>
<p>Also, you also didn't get what I wrote about BME. Basically, the school's overall reputation in engineering is mostly irrelevant for BME because the field is a very niche and is still mostly based on research. That is why if you look at Berkeley's career reports for BME, the salary range in that industry is lower than that of other engineering field - because there simply is not a huge market for a lot of undergraduates. A lot of BME people study the field to go into med school, graduate school, or gain background knowledge for the industry while not becoming an engineer. Basically, the Wharton side will take over for all practical purposes.</p>
<p>Aurelius,</p>
<p>No, I understand. Thanks for your concern, though.</p>
<p>Without considering cost means making a decision as if money were no object. Luckily, we're not a Communist nation; cost matters, and 180,000 is not pocket change.</p>
<p>My point is making a decision without considering cost when cost is a factor (i.e. small grant, no merit aid) is foolish. It is not fun trying to pay off that kind of debt, which is triple the "shock estimate" posted in the featured discussion.</p>
<p>Entering medical school with $180,000 in undergraduate debt does not help.</p>
<p>Most graduate schools to my knowledge have tuition waivers for PhD candidates, but the cost of living is still relatively high, and it is worse coupled with previous debt.</p>
<p>As good as a B.S. from UPenn / Wharton is, it is not good enough to justify leaving university with $180,000.</p>
<p>I really think you don't have an appreciation for how expensive that is. If you did, you wouldn't be advocating "making the decision without considering cost."</p>
<p>
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Entering medical school with $180,000 in undergraduate debt does not help.
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</p>
<p>But of course the counterfactual is that you probably stand a better chance of getting to med-school if you went to Penn than if you went to Georgia Tech, chiefly because of the higher grading scales used at Penn. The major cutoff in medicine is simply getting into med school. Plenty of people don't get in anywhere. Put another way, if you want to be a doctor, it's better for you to take on undergrad debt to get into med school than to avoid debt and not get into med school. {Of course the worst situation is to take on debt and still not get into med school, so you have to assess what your odds are that you wont get in}. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Most graduate schools to my knowledge have tuition waivers for PhD candidates, but the cost of living is still relatively high,
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</p>
<p>Well, I don't know about that. There are plenty of decent schools located in dirt-cheap places. Pittsburgh is pretty cheap (for a city), Urbana-Champaign is pretty cheap, up-state New York is pretty cheap, much of the Midwest and South is pretty cheap. Furthermore, living as a graduate student in a particular town is almost certainly cheaper than just living in that town but not as a student. For example, many schools have free or cut-rate transportation services such that you can often times get away without owning a car. Since most campuses are wireless-enabled, if you live on campus, you probably definitely don't need to get your own Internet connection. Free food tends to abound at most graduate programs due to conferences, research talks, etc. - so much so that one of the 'skills' that new graduate students pick up is how to scrounge for free food. MIT, for example, even has a 'renegade' mailing list that is updated every hour or so regarding where the free food is. Many schools also have deals with local businesses and government services to offer a wide range of discounts. Again, to invoke MIT, if you're an MIT student, you can get monthly passes for the Boston/Cambridge subway/bus system for about half-price. Couple that with the fact that MIT runs its own free shuttle and local bus service, including a very convenient service that will pick you up as late as 3 in the morning from the Back Bay bar/restaurant scene for no charge (hence, no need to call a cab), and you really can get away without ever having a car.</p>
<p>sakky,</p>
<p>Your response to my medical school debt point was very complete and included both sides of the argument.</p>
<p>I type corrected regarded cost of living as a PhD candidate. Thank you.</p>
<p>Both are of roughly similar size in decent-but-not-great cities. The engineering education at both is comparable. But you're looking at 4 years with 2 COMPLETELY different groups of people (and significantly different weather).</p>
<p>Tech is better for engineering probably, but the overall academic enrichment that you would get at Penn is better, in my opinion. In addition, if you go into business, there is no better place for that than Wharton. However, Tech is a great school and if you can't afford Penn, then you just can't afford it. You don't want to graduate from Penn and be unable to pay for medical school because of your costly undergraduate education.</p>