<p>My S has been accepted to the five colleges he applied to, but so far has only received merit from the private ones. We are in NY, so SUNY Binghamton would be the lowest cost at "only" $23k. The University of Pittsburgh - one of his top choices - would currently be the most expensive (OOS) at $42k. He received scholarships at Northeastern, Bentley and Pace University, making those schools $39k, $34k, and $27k respectively. He is planning on majoring in business and would like a high ranked school, so NE, Bentley and PITT are his top choices. The question is - does it make sense to pay more for a Public school than a Private school? As far as most rankings go, NE and Bentley both rank higher on most "lists", but we did love PITT. It is still possible that they could offer him merit, although it seems the stats to get merit for PITT this year are exceptionally high. We will know by March 1, but he applied in September, so the chances seem to be waning. We will not receive any other kind of financial aid. With the cost of living in Pittsburgh vs. Boston, the cost might actually be more even, but Northeastern has the top ranked business internship in the country. Is a private school perceived as "better" by potential employers? If PITT comes up with any decent amount of merit, that would probably tip the scales in PITT's favor. Still, I keep thinking that if all things were equal including the cost, private sounds preferable. Thoughts?</p>
<p>It depends. There are some public schools that are generally considered to be better than many private schools. Pitt is not a bad school, and, if it is the best fit, then that may be the way to go (assuming that you all can pay the 42K). With Northeastern, it is important to consider how he feels about co-ops.</p>
<p>It depends.</p>
<p>How would you pay the costs? If you can rather easily do so, then have him go where y’all want. If it will require Plus loans or co-signed private loans that that can be a very large regrettable risk.</p>
<p>What is his career goal? There are many very good B-schools. Going to a “highly ranked one” is rarely necessary unless interested in Wall Street.</p>
<p>How much are you comfortably wanting to pay each year? It doesn’t sound like your son applied to any schools where the merit amounts would have been firmly known upfront.</p>
<p>As for Public vs Private…only you can make that decision. I wouldn’t ever pay $42k for a public, but I probably wouldn’t pay that much for a private …lol. I’m paying around that much for my son’s med school which I can mentally justify. </p>
<p>In the US News rankings, all the top 20 national universities (except Berkeley, tied for #20) are private. All the top 50 or more national liberal arts colleges (except the military service academies) are private. The perceived excellence of private schools in the liberal arts and sciences may create an impression among many people that private schools are “better” across the board. However, in pre-professional fields such as business, engineering, and architecture, many more public universities show up in the top-N rankings. Some of the most prestigious private colleges and universities have relatively weak programs, or no programs at all, in these fields. So you cannot assume that a private school should be perceived as “better” (although it is hard to account for the biases of every potential employer).</p>
<p>Maybe the question you should be asking is whether it makes sense to pay much more for ANY college (public or private) than a good #2 or #3 alternative. </p>
<p>Where the rubber meets the road for business schools, is placement data. If I was a parent of a business school wannabe, I would look at that data first and foremost. What are the salary ranges (adjusted for COL)? Where do they get jobs? What companies recruit at each school? Is the program your kid wants stronger at one school over another?</p>
<p>As a point of reference, 2012 placement data from our 2 flagships in my state…median salary and min/max range.</p>
<p>Iowa</p>
<p>Accounting 48,000 35,000-110,000
Finance 40,000 25,000-112,000
MIS 47,000 42,500-60,000
Management 42,750 30,000-50,000
Marketing 37,000 27,000-56,000</p>
<p>And as a point of reference, Iowa State data. Iowa State is lower ranked than Iowa(by quite a bit in business)…but note that median salary for Iowa State is higher than Iowa for 3/5 programs despite placing a much higher % of students in lower cost of living areas. Iowa has a higher range in accting and finance because they have a specific program that places some of these students with IB in NYC and Chicago.</p>
<p>Accounting 45,700 27,040-65,000
Finance 43,250 19,240-55,000
Management 41,500 26,000-60,000
MIS 50,000 24,960-65,520
Marketing 39,250 24,000-61,000</p>
<p>In theory, the higher ranked school (Iowa) should have better placement results, but it clearly does not.
If My kid was interested in finance, I would send him to Iowa. MIS, Iowa State. The others, won’t really matter. </p>
<p>Look at your data. </p>
<p>If Binghamton has equal placement data to Pitt or NEU, why pay the extra? Employers don’t care if it is public or private, they go to places where they can recruit lots of good people. See this list, WSJ listing of top universities for recruiters, mostly large state schools.</p>
<p><a href=“Best Colleges & Universities - Ranked by Job Recruiters - WSJ”>Best Colleges & Universities - Ranked by Job Recruiters - WSJ;
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<p>Your question seems to presume that private schools are categorically better than publics. That anti-public bias is fairly common among people in the Northeast, but in most of the rest of the country it sounds silly. Both publics and privates vary widely in strength. Even if you go by the US News rankings (which IMO heavily favor privates because the metrics generally reward the school with the highest cost-per-student), it’s true that the top 20 are mostly private. But look at the next 30, or the next 50, or the next 80–it’s a solid mix of public and private. And if you look at world university rankings, which use different metrics, many leading U.S, public universities outshine all but a handful of elite privates. Bottom line, it’s about the school, not the category, and don’t take any ranking as Gospel.</p>
<p>As for the schools on your son’s list, I don’t know much about Bentley. As between Northeastern, Pitt, Binghamton and Pace, I’d say Pace is the weakest. Northeastern and Pitt are the strongest, and in many respects they’re not that far apart. Yes, Northeastern is ranked #48 in US News compared to Pitt’s #63, but if you look at the rating points on which those ordinal rankings are based, NE gets a 62 and Pitt gets a 58–pretty darned close (on a scale where Princeton=100, Harvard=99, Yale=97, etc.). Schools are just bunched up in this range, so minor differences in ratings sometimes translate into seemingly large differences in rankings. In student-faculty ratio they’re about the same, 13:1 at NE and 14:1 at Pitt. Northeastern ranks a little higher because it’s more selective (not surprising, given that it has fewer seats to fill and its Boston location has more glitz than Pittsburgh), and probably because it pays its faculty more to attract them to and retain them in its high-cost of living location (“faculty resources” rank: NE #29, Pitt #131, partly a measure of faculty compensation, partly s/f ratio and class sizes). Northeastern does have fewer large classes (7% with 50+ students v. 20% at Pitt). These aren’t negligible differences, but I would still rate the two schools in a very similar range–both are very good schools, such that if my kid were choosing between them and had a strong preference for one over the other, and other things were equal, I’d say, “Great choice!”</p>
<p>As for cost, the $39K to attend Northeastern v. $42K to attend Pitt would seem like a relatively small difference to me, but you need to look at that question in light of your own family’s finances. The bigger question, it seems to me, is whether it’s worth $39K-$42K/year for either Northeastern or Pitt, when Binghamton would cost only $23K. I’d say both Northeastern and Pitt are stronger schools overall than Binghamton, but Bing is no slouch, and it’s a perfectly respectable place to get an undergraduate education. Again, that’s a question only you can answer in light of your financial situation. (This leaves out Bentley, but as I said I know next to nothing about Bentley so I can’t really comment on it). </p>
<p>I appreciate all of your responses, especially @bclintonk and those who clearly put a lot of thought into his/her answers and offered a lot of useful insight. As for our financial situation, we have been saving aggressively for five years and at worst will have more than 80% of the cost covered before he starts in September. It was a struggle to save this much money, but our son worked hard in school and we wanted him to have options. The plan was to have enough saved for his education before he started and save for the next five years for when my daughter starts. With costs rising each year, that did not quite happen, but it seems likely that even at the highest end we could afford all of these schools without loans. Would we rather save the money and have the head start saving for our daughter? Of course, all things being equal. The problem really is that things are a bit too close to being equal and my son currently has no clear preference (but he definitely seem to be leaning towards PITT or NE). I don’t know how to guide him or find the answers and don’t want to make the call just on money if there are other factors to consider. Binghamton is a great school and I agree with the arguments for saving the money, but there does seem to be a public vs. private “stigma” here in the Northeast and I wanted feedback on that. It’s good to hear that this just exists mostly here and that’s part of why I asked the question, but the Northeast is likely where he would live and get a job, at least initially. Thinking broadly with respect to the rest of the country or the world, I would think name recognition would also be important. I wonder about that with Bentley - it’s a top notch business school, but doesn’t have the name recognition if you leave the Northeast. I don’t even know if Binghamton’s name carries weight outside of NY… I would think PITT would have more name recognition and that does carry weight on your resume. Binghamton is considered a “public ivy” here in NY, but while he liked it when we visited, it seemed more like his high school than some of the others and is more of a suburban environment, similar to where he has grown up. The draws and opportunities of a city like Boston or Pittsburgh were definitely a plus and would offer him a more urban life experience, which he has never had and I think would prove valuable for him. </p>
<p>While I fully agree that PACE is the weakest of his options, it is interesting to note that my husband graduated from PACE with a BBA in Accounting. He makes a very good living and he has at times been hired or promoted over ivy league graduates. His degree at this “lesser ranked college” has in no way hindered his success in life. This process is so difficult because there are so many factors at play and you can’t rely on any list as “gospel”. I think in the end it will come down to PITT or Northeastern, but I think the general consensus here is that the private vs. public argument is just another hair being split. Some merit money from PITT would make the decision easier so I will continue to keep my fingers crossed on that! Thanks again!</p>