My son has been accepted into both of the above as well as several others in the mid-west that are no longer in the running due to location and lack of financial aid. He’s received the Presidential Scholarship at Rutgers and nothing at GT. He is interested in a Biomed Engineering degree with the possibility of med school after (but definitely some type of grad school).
I am torn between no debt for him (as we’d help with grad school if he takes the scholarship now) and a highly ranked program. It took me a couple of decades to get over the bitterness of having my parents make my decision for me so this is his decision though I’d like him to have all the facts and advice from those who have had to make this difficult decision. He is adamant about not going to Rutgers since it is too close to home (though he’d live on campus). We’ve told him we’ll pay a certain amount and it’s up to him to decide if he wants to use it for undergrad or grad school.
BTW, he will likely receive some financial aid after the 1st year since his brother will be going to college next year. While parent contribution will remain the same between the 2, I’m hopeful this means some aid to pay for GT. Am I wrong to assume that?
Thanks for any and all advice.
P.S. - Just found out he’s waitlisted at UPenn. (Also, waitlisted at Hopkins & UMich) While the financial situation is the same, would the cost now be worth it if he somehow gets into one of these?
Much as it pains me to say it (Go Blue!), GT is ranked higher for bio-med and undergraduate engineering overall that U-M and is much less expensive for an OOS student, so let Mich go.
GT mom here. How sure is your son that BME is the major he wants? My DS was a BME major for the first semester and switched to EE. There are a lot of GT kids who start out in BME and end up in another engineering major… I don’t know anything about Rudgers but free is hard to turn down. I would have him take another look at their other majors. Also If you are OOS for GT I would not assume you will get any Fin aid for GT other than loans next year because remember GT is a state school.
Premed? Better to save the money for medical school.
Rutgers is a very respectable school. It seems odd that so many NJ residents hate it.
Also, out of state public financial aid tends to be poor. Run the GT net price calculator with the hypothetical of two on college rather than assuming aid for when the second kid goes.
If he wants to go to grad school, going into grad school with no debt is a great gift. I would encourage him to consider it.
(I too did not realize that many (most?) New Jersey kids hate Rutgers until I started reading this forum. GA Tech is one thing, but I’ve seen Rutgers compared negatively to some really obscure state directional Us from out of state at times and it boggles the mind.)
I don’t think a lot of debt is worth it for any school. Last I checked JHU and GT were ranked very highly for BME, but I wouldn’t agree to my son (really it would have to be me) taking on a ton of debt for JHU, which was number one in 2012. But we didn’t take the cheapest option either. We found a balance in the middle. Keep in mind that a lot can change in the next couple of months to years. What if he changes his major once he gets there, for. Example? I did strongly encourage my son to go to school where he was offered significant merit money instead of where he was offered non, but it was his decision. He is VERY happy now with that school. Good luck. It’s a tough decision, and only your family can make it.
Did your parents pick your college or were unwilling to pay for the more expensive school?
How sure is he about engineering and about medical school? Yes, lots of kids change their minds but a lot don’t. If he is sure about medical school (or as sure as he can be at this point), Rutgers with savings for med school seems like a great option.
If not, GATech is a very good school. It seems the debt is not for UG but would be required for grad school, so he may decide to worry about that later. For a biomed MA he may be able to do a 5-year program or get grad school paid for.
Tough decision. Many NJ kids don’t like Rutgers as it is not as highly ranked as some others and there are some challenges going there, with the spread out campus. But many of the kids there really love it and do great things.
What is your EFC? If it is above about $10,000, even at half next year he won’t get much additional financial aid, if any, nor will his brother. Need based financial aid at state schools, especially OOS, is very limited (Pell, SEOG, Perkins loans, work study).
GT won’t change FA offers for a 2nd child, because they don’t meet need.
A second issue is how sure your son is to want and become a doctor; if he’s sure, he shouldn’t attend GTech. Its grade deflation is infamous. Kids with 56 at their first test may be in the top half of the class (and none of them were slouches to start with). Med schools only care about GPA and MCAT score, graduating from GTech, Rutgers, or anywhere won’t really matter. It’s insanely difficult to get a 3.5 at GTech (3.5 would be with the allowance made for GTech’s grade deflation.) Go to Gtech if you want to be an engineer - your job prospects as such will be excellent.
Penn and JHU waitlists: probably only way to get off the waitlist is to indicate in no uncertain term to one of them that they’re you’re first choice and that you’d be willing to be full pay. ONLY if you can afford to be full pay without parent loans. I’m guessing that, GT OOS requiring parent loans, that you can’t afford Penn or JHU without parent loans either, so that’s it.
What are his other choices, beside Rutgers?
MYOS1634 - He’s gotten into Purdue (with $10K), Case Western (with $25K), RPI (with $25K), UMaryland (with $12K), and UIllinois-Urbana (nothing). Even with the scholarships, the lowest tuition is more than Rutgers without scholarship.
twoinanddone - EFC way over that! I get that we are the more fortunate families (due to hard work, frugal living, and some luck) but I’d have to sell my house to be able to afford what they say I can (or mortgage it to the max).
mom2and - My parents picked my career for me. I ended up dropping out of grad school and never became what they wanted. Also, being 1st generation American, my parents knew nothing about the process here and I chose a school randomly. I don’t blame them that for that.
Med school is a relatively new idea for him (last year). He’s talented with programming and robotics and I’m pretty sure his career will have some aspect of that. I remember even when I was in school, the statistic was that at least half the students change their major at least once before graduating.
We’re going to visit UMD for Open House (we went over Christmas when it was abandoned) and meet a BME grad at a “local” GT social in the next 2 weeks (again went to GT over Christmas break). Son won’t be able to attend the Rutgers Open House due to robotics competition but his dad & I may go instead of seeing him compete… though it would have been better for him to hear it directly since he’s got his mind set on anywhere but Rutgers. Hoping that joining the Big10 Conference will help them get more national recognition and respect.
Your son needs to do a full day at Rutgers- complete with sitting in on classes in a somewhat relevant subject matter area, before he can make an educated decision. If he can’t attend the official dog and pony show, he needs to find a kid from his HS (upperclassman maybe?) who is taking interesting seminars and doing cool work in a lab based class.
What’s the total amount of debt he’d graduate with if he went to GT? (Not asking you to say it here.)
Is it a “reasonable” amount of debt for a GT grad – meaning can it be serviced monthly on an engineer’s starting salary? (There are calculators online that will tell you what the monthly payment will be at a certain interest rate.) Any ways he can reduce it by a few thousand by working now, working during the school yr or breaks etc? If yes, honestly I’d go with GT over Rutgers. Or if GT debt is too much, I’d go with Purdue, Case, or RPI. I wouldn’t choose Rutgers for free over any of those choices. All 4 of those schools really stand out in engineering (and GT is consistently up there for BE), and the recruitment that happens there is far different than what happens at Rutgers; you can look into this as well – call career services for all 5 schools and/or look online.
I personally wouldn’t put a whole lot of stock in him saying med school. Everybody and their brother talks about med school (not everybody - but you get what I’m saying) in high school, but the % that goes is very small. I’d worry more about going some place where he has the strongest pick of engineering jobs. Talk to him about it realistically though – if he’s going to graduate GT with 100k in debt (or whatever number), would he still want to go to med school to take on another 250k (60+k/yr)? Or would he put med school on hold for a few yrs (though you can’t make huge dents in debt payments for many yrs) or indefinitely? If this is a kid who wants to hold the med door open – he will relent and say, let me go to Rutgers now or at least Purdue or Case or someplace with slightly less debt.
I’m going to put in a vote for GT, assuming you can pay for it. First, it’s very highly ranked for biomedical engineering, and if your S decides not to do that, it sounds like he may want to do a different kind of engineering where GT could give him excellent employment options (so this is different than a typical premed who would end up with a biology degree). Also, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of med school just because of grade deflation. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but UIUC recently approved the concept of a new medical school with a focus on combining medicine and engineering. Assuming it’s in existence by the time your son graduates, I would think that school would be more interested in engineering backgrounds than GPA’s from any old college – though the money would of course still be an issue.
I do not know anything about pre-med or biomed but for engineering or computer science the name of the undergrad really does not matter. Rutgers is a state flagship with an accredited engineering program. You may want to check the opportunities available at Rutgers and the companies that recruit from Rutgers. Rutgers is not a cozy place but other than that there are no drawbacks. Your son may have to get over the typical NJ snobbishness towards its flagship. The assumption that “every idiot from my school goes to Rutgers” is not true. Top students there will have top housing, top internships, research opportunities with professors, etc. They will give him a lot of credits for APs/IB so he will have time to explore other things or do a coop. He will put his Internships, high SAT and his Presidential scholarship on his resume and he will be fine. You can offer to buy him a used VW Golf and send him abroad as a consolation. Graduating without loans is a very liberating thing.
My DH and I graduated from Rutgers. From our perspective, we graduated from an ‘ok’ school. (We viewded it as a glorified county college). Then we moved south and oh my, the reactions we got when we mentioned our alma mater. It was as if we’d gone to an Ivy. It is held in very high esteem outside of NJ.
Your son is a Jersey boy and we locals just don’t realize how good a school Rutgers really is.
Offer him a car if he goes to Rutgers (although where he’ll put in on campus will be his headache to deal with).
FYI for anyone interested in the outcome… My son has agreed to go to Rutgers after adamantly refusing at first. I showed him real numbers in terms of debt and repayment, pros & cons of each college, and offered him the incentive of a laptop of his choice now and a year’s tuition towards a car later, which is a great deal for all concerned, considering the $45K/year for GT. In the end, I let him know it was his decision which, I think, is what he really wanted to hear, though I’m sure the incentives helped.
P.S. Thanks to a forum member for meeting with us and answering our endless questions about Rutgers Engineering. The fact he’s going to an Ivy League PhD program proves it’s what you do at whatever college you choose, not necessarily where you go.
