<p>Here is the deal:
I am an instater of NJ and I am basically getting a full ride to Rutgers.
BUT-I don't want to go to Rutgers because the other schools are better and because ALMOST EVERYBODY HERE goes to Rutgers.</p>
<p>THE CATCH IS, I am getting virtually no money from these schools and my parents make around 50-60k.</p>
<p>UMICH is my DREAM SCHOOL, but I got on the waitlist..meaning if I get off...I would have to pay FULL price.</p>
<p>So the situation is as following:
Rutgers NB: Free-----------> Ranked 68
Penn State: 30k (Yearly)------->Ranked 45
UIUC: 30K (Yearly)------------------>Ranked 45
UMICH: 50K (Yearly)-------------->Ranked 28</p>
<p>Would it be worth it to go to a higher school, esp. UMICH, given the cost difference and change of ranking?</p>
<p>BTW: I want to go to medical school, and my major will be either biology or biomedical engineering.
I also got into RU's honors program.</p>
<p>Go to Rutgers. It’s a good school and it’s free.</p>
<p>Rutgers by a mile!</p>
<p>Rutgers is a fine place. I took a few classes there and lived in Highland Park (next town over) and am a UM grad. So I have seen both. Don’t worry so much about rankings, especially the US News rankings. They use just a few criteria and these work against the large state schools. One advantage of the latter is that they offer such a variety of programs and a person benefits from that. You meet a person in Social Work. You meet another in Law. You open up from this. At Princeton, you’ll find neither. Rutgers has a lot of great programs. </p>
<p>College debt is serious business. Graduates can’t find jobs. You can’t declare bankruptcy. The colleges give you some bogus stat. that college grads. make a million dollars more over the course of their lifetime. That is an average figure that factors in Bill Gates and the homeless guy. The median figure is 1/2 a million which minus opportunity cost and tuition over a full career is $4,000 per year, easily attributable to ambition and intelligence. I’m not telling you not to go to college but that you shouldn’t be dreamy about it. My general advice to people nowadays is to spend as little as possible on college. Limit your spending in school too. No need for restaurants or fancy shoes. The world has changed. I went to UM for $5000 in tuition a year out of state back in 1980. With inflation, that’s $15,000 a year now. But tuition there is $38000 now! What happened. Lots of things happened. It’s a new world. Don’t go broke on college. It is not worth it.</p>
<p>I spoke recently to a UM admit who chose Rutgers for the affordability. A friend’s daughter chose Rutgers over Cooper Union (which was not an economically sound choice). But she wanted the campus feeling and is happy at Rutgers.</p>
<p>Lots of talented people go to Rutgers. Elizabeth Warren the famous Harvard Prof. who chaired the Congressional oversight panel for TARP and who is one of Time’s most 100 influential people went to Rutgers Newark. Note also that the Academic Ranking of World Universities ranks Rutgers at 40 worldwide.</p>
<p>UM may have a special air about it but I certainly wouldn’t go to Penn St. or UIUC over Rutgers, not because they aren’t fine places but only because they are so similar to Rutgers, so money makes the choice.</p>