<p>Hey all,
DS has been accepted to several schools (well, deferred at GA Tech and still waiting to hear but hopeful) and has narrowed it down to 3 including Tech.</p>
<p>Tech has all the obvious things going for it but will be the most expensive. He will not qualify for any financial aid so will have to incur debt to go there. It would be a doable educational challenge for him (he's in an IB program now and doing O.K.-upper 1/3 of the class) and he anticipates that he would be in the middle of the pack at Tech (if not below that) and he's O.K. with not being at the top there.</p>
<p>He got into University of Florida which would be the least expensive. He qualifies for a Bright Futures scholarship and we have Florida prepaid tuition plans to cover tuition and local fees. It's close to home so transportation would be easy and if he were to stay in state or move back home there is a definite edge to being a Gator. At this point though, he hasn't been invited to the Honors College so would not have those benefits of smaller class sizes or priority registration. The Florida legislature is not spending tons of money on higher education these days so there is concern over what affect this will have on our universities. UF was our very first college visit and we have learned so much since then we need to go back to really compare apples to apples and see what they have.</p>
<p>He also got into University of Alabama and the Honors College there. We loved that school. Loved all the benefits from the Honors college, he would CLEP out of quite a few classes from his AP and IB classes so could really focus on the things he WANTS to study. They have spent a ton of money upgrading their facilities (I have a friend with daughters at UA and GT and she said the facilities at UA rival those at Tech) and they are big proponents of co-ops and undergraduate research. They are offering him free tuition so we'd just have room and board, transportation and books which we would have everywhere.</p>
<p>But. The rankings. The latest rankings (for grad school not undergrad-can't find any undergrad ones) I've found show that GT is number 6 for ME, UF is 26 and UA is 101! That's disturbing. </p>
<p>So, I guess my question is how important are these rankings when it comes time to get a job? He plans to co-op and wants to do research and would prefer to work in some capacity either researching or designing things vs. business applications. Do companies look at those when it comes time to interview or are they more focused on the individual and how they performed? </p>
<p>As a parent, I really want him to make the best choice both so that he loves his college experience AND so that he can get a good job when he graduates. He is torn too and truly doesn't know which factor should have the most importance in his decision.</p>
<p>Any advice would be greatly appreciated!</p>