I’ve been lucky enough to be admitted to both programs. With financial aid, Princeton ends up being free while UT Austin would cost about $10k a year. I’m planning to major in electrical engineering. I know UT has a slightly higher engineering ranking but I’m not sure how much this matters. I would definitely enjoy the atmosphere and personalized support of a small private school like Princeton more, but UT may provide better job opportunities? Both locations are fine with me. I live in Texas so NJ would provide a new experience, but alot of my friends will be at UT.
Princeton is the easy answer.
If anything, Princeton would provide better job opportunities.
You can’t pass up Princeton fully covered.
it’s princeton. And free.
If you want to be an engineer, UT Austin. If you want finance or consulting, or at least want to seriously think about them, Princeton.
First off, congrats on your accomplishments! To get into Princeton means they see a lot of promise in you.
As you know, these 2 schools are going to be like night and day in terms of class size, advising, type of students that enroll, etc. So there’s that, although if you’re getting a full ride thru FA then you ought to consider what it will be like to be on the low end of the family income spectrum around so many incredibly privileged students. Read the Atlantic Monthly article https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/03/privileged-poor-navigating-elite-university-life/585100/
Now to the 2nd point of careers. HYPS are the hunting grounds for those recruiting students into finance (Wall Street, hedge funds, consulting, etc). A third or more of Princeton students go into this. If you look at their career survey https://careerdevelopment.princeton.edu/sites/careerdevelopment/files/resource-links/annual_report_2016-17.pdf you can see that when they list those pursuing professional careers the examples are “IBM, McKinsey & Company, Bloomberg, Bain & Company, The Boston Consulting Group” So if you go to Princeton many of the kids around you are getting an engineering degreefor the training it will give them for finance careers. The engineering kids at UT, they are mostly going to become practicing engineers. So think about who you want around you, and the pull of sticking with your pals.