I hope you’re all doing well. I have been accepted to Princeton University, and I have also been accepted to the Rutgers University Honors College. These are my top two choices for college.
I would have to pay for the full cost of attendance to Princeton ($63k per year), which my parents can afford. I have received a Presidential scholarship to Rutgers, which would bring the cost of Rutgers to around $8000 per year. The cost figures are from each college’s respective websites.
I plan to major in Computer Science.
In your opinion, would the cost of attending Princeton be worth it over attending the flagship state school? A brief explanation of your answer would be much appreciated. Some things I’m considering are benefits to my future career (getting good jobs, return on investment, etc.), the overall student experience, and quality of professors. Of course, please mention any factors not mentioned above that would also be significant in making this decision.
Since your parents can afford, meaning money is not much of a concern, think of it this way: you’re buying all that Princeton is well known to provide you with AND buying LEGACY for your own children.
I’m assuming you don’t qualify for financial aid at Princeton which implies that your parents have significant financial resources. When my son attended Princeton we assumed we’d be full pay and didn’t even apply for FA his freshman year. The following years we did apply and were treated surprisingly well.
If we had received zero financial aid I wouldn’t have regretted fully funding all four years of his education. He turned down the option of attending our state flagship honors college on a full ride. No regrets.
I could give you scores of reasons he’s glad he chose Princeton, but suffice it to say his first job was with a company that only recruited at a handful of schools.
Personally if your plan is to get a job and start a career in CS as soon as you finish I don’t think the choice is so cut and dry. I think a Princeton-caliber student that attends Rutgers and works just as hard will find about the same opportunities in CS as a Princeton grad. If the choice was Rutgers and MIT/CMU/Stanford/UCB I think the choice would lean toward the ‘elite’ school.
Now if your interest lies beyond CS only and you’d like to explore higher levels of Math or go to grad school in CS and are more into CS theory then Princeton will probably better prepare you for that.
Princeton. What if you change your mind about your major? Also, you may find opportunities at Princeton to enhance your CS education. Not to mention, the intellectual environment will be more at your level. And for the rest of you life you will have a degree from Princeton.
What @sherpa said. My son had opportunities to go elsewhere for free and while he is not done yet, I haven’t regretted a dime spent on Princeton. The opportunities afforded there are truly world class.
I would also echo the comments about financial aid. Princeton is embarrasingly generous, and I would not automatically assume that you will be full pay without even running it past the FA office.
Again if you plan on getting a job right after graduation coding/developing then I say Rutgers is a better choice if you care to save $220,000. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, etc won’t care that you went to either if that’s the kind of position you want. If you are looking to do something more cutting edge/theoretical then going to Princeton Grad school wouldn’t be a bad idea. Maybe you could split the difference with your parents and get a new car and down payment on a place to live when you graduate with $110,000.
But if your parents are sufficiently wealthy and $220,000 is a drop in the bucket then by all means go to Princeton and enjoy the benefits of arguably the best undergraduate education in the world.
It also matters WHY you think you are going to college. If your idea is that college is purely for job training/preparation, then you should go to Rutgers.
I think the drop from the number one school in the nation to the number 70 school in the nation is significant. Princeton is also top 10 in computer science, whereas Rutgers is around 30. I’m sure any job you’ll get after graduation will make up for the extra money spent in no time!
@mufasa1 I passed on a highly competitive LAC to go to Rutgers for reasons of cost. I was accepted to the Honors Program, got merit money, and my undergraduate degree was essentially free. This was 30 years ago, so things probably have changed. Certainly, you wouldn’t have the same professors. I hear there is now dedicated Honors housing as opposed to a wing of Demarest Hall (of Junot Diaz fame). New Brunswick is a lot nicer and safer than it used to be. However, unlike Princeton, the campus bears no resemblance to Hogwarts.
Take a look at the curriculum for Rutgers Honors and see if you like it. Back in the day it was based on the U of Chicago core and it was intellectually rigorous and exciting. I had ready access to outstanding professors and close mentoring. My classmates went on to academia, medicine, law, IT, and other fields. I got into Ivy and near Ivy options for grad school with full funding with my Rutgers diploma.
I am not saying, don’t go to Princeton. It is an amazing opportunity, especially if your folks are willing to pay. I am suggesting that you dig deeper into the academics at both places before making a decision. Best of luck and congratulations!
@mufasa1 To go to a place like Princeton is to live among a critical mass of students who love learning for the sake of learning. Who guiltlessly take a class in Shakespeare or the art of ancient Cyprus. Who get excited about a course called Great Philosophers.
This is NOT to say that no student at Rutger is like this. Of course there are many Rutgers students who get excited about learning for the sake of learning. And you’ll find students at Princeton who only want to take math classes because they want to be Wall St. quants. But you’ll find the Rutgets student body heavily tilted toward the every-class-has-to-be-practical-for-my-career camp. At Princeton, you’ll find a greater proportion of students who are there to be well educated citizens—all the while knowing that their Princeton education will go far in helping them get a first job, no matter what they major in.
If the central point of your comparison between Rutgers and Princeton is that you can get a good job as a graduate from either one, then Rutgers is an excellent choice. If you feel the tug of wanting to be around other great thinkers who are already highly accomplished, then choose Princeton.
