<p>ive been accepted into two schools. one of which is the school i want to go to and ive been offered a full ride scholarship
the second school is a great school for my major and is highly respected however i dont think i would enjoy it there that much (paying oos tuition)
i know my parents want me to go to the great school and i know that would be better for me so i am really lost
help!!</p>
<p>If you give us the two schools, we can give you better advice. </p>
<p>alabama (school i want) vs. illinois (engineering)</p>
<p>If your parents want you to go to the more expensive school, will they pay for the extra cost without expecting you to take on more loans or work to afford it?</p>
<p>Pirate…</p>
<p>Have your parents visited Alabama? I’m guessing that they haven’t otherwise I don’t think they’d have these concerns. </p>
<p>OOS at UIUC is not worth $180k-200k for ChemE. Not at all.</p>
<p>What are your parents saying? Are they saying that they’ll happily pay all the costs of UIUC and it won’t hurt their retirement? What is the situation? </p>
<p>They’re both excellent schools and they’re both highly respected, in engineering and overall. It makes very little sense to pay six-figures to go to UIUC when you can go to Alabama for free.</p>
<p>I disagree that UIUC will objectively be better for you.</p>
<p>No contest. PIck the school you want to attend (that also happens to be a full ride). Your parents are not going to college, they won’t be living there, taking the classes, making friends. You’re the student. If your parents okay’ed your applications (and it sounds like they did), then the final choice should be yours.</p>
<p>The right “fit” for a student is an important consideration in the decision-making process. If you were turning down a full ride to go to the super expensive “right fit” then you would find pros and cons for do you spend all that tuition money. Isn’t it great, though, that the “right fit” is also the “right price”. I strongly encourage you and your parents to plan a visit to Alabama and see for yourselves. If you’ve already visited both campuses, I encourage you to visit Alabama again, attend classes, meet with professors, hang out in the cafeteria, etc. to be the most confident you can be that this is the place for you. Good luck!</p>
<p>roll tide.</p>
<p>The schools are on an equal level academically, so it should come down to the better fit (even more in one direction when costs are factored in). Try to get into the Honors College if you can, as well.</p>
<p>Full ride at the school you prefer? This shouldn’t even be a question imo. </p>
<p>Alabama. You are in a good position!</p>
<p>If parents would visit UA they will see fabulous facilities and see a very well run University with excellent faculty and educational opportunities. DD and I recently went to Capstone Honors Day, and more than half of the participants were OOS families who had to check out the school because of the great scholarships offered to their S/D. If it was their first campus visit, they were very impressed. One mom told me they were a ‘Brown’ family, but this student will be going to UA. We are thrilled with UA - our DD will be attending in the fall studying Civil Engineering.</p>
<p>Full ride at the school you prefer? Why would parents want you to go to the other school with heavy debt?</p>
<p>Hmmm, the OP hasn’t come back.</p>
<p>This unfortunately seems like an echo of other threads where the parents are pushing a more expensive school because the parents care about school prestige much more than the student does, sometimes expecting the student to take extra debt to satisfy the parents’ notion of school prestige.</p>
<p>^And when the parents have a somewhat odd or narrow idea of comparative school prestige.</p>
<p>One thing I’ve learned over the past eight months on this forum: most parents don’t know very much about colleges. </p>
<p>thank you! i am leaning towards alabama!!</p>
<p>Pirate: it should be a no-brainer. There’s no difference that justifies 180k - I suppose that where you live UIUC is “more prestigious”, but UA’s Honors College is a pretty good one too(. If you got a full ride at Alabama, I assume you got into the Honors College.) You’ll have amazing opportunities a “regular” Alabama student wouldn’t have or that a “regular UIUC” undergrad wouldn’t have for that matter… and you never regret graduating will little to no debt. </p>
<p>Pirate,</p>
<p>You really need to get your parents to visit Bama. That will relieve their concerns.</p>
<p>Send me a PM and I’ll tell you how to have the Honors College set up your visit with meetings with profs, etc.</p>
<p>While I wouldn’t make the claim they are equal academically, Illinois is considered a top 10 school in Engineering by many measures and Alabama is a very good school, but is more like top 75. What I told my own son with a similar decision…the earning power having graduated from the ‘good’ school is only marginally better than from the ‘cheaper’ school. The years of debt are almost never worth the difference. Most of it comes down to pride and ego, not so much about the true difference in education. Ultimately, you have to live with the decision. You are either a young adult or will be soon (meaning 18). Us parents become advisers, but it is your life. As long as you are willing to live with your decisions, make them. Explain the cost-benefit analysis and you will be fine. I compared MIT/Cal Tech with OU/Bama for my son. Even with the very top schools, the earning difference was negligible versus the debt. Good luck.</p>