Should I go to an expensive out-of-state school, or go to a decent state school?

College Search & Selection
21

The idea is to get through undergrad maximizing your education dollar, with an eye on grad school. For a family in your income bracket, you will probably be full pay at most schools. If you want to go OOS, you will need schools that have good merit or low tuition. Some schools have combined BS/MS programs too, which usually saves a year. Some highly ranked OOS schools are a lot cheaper than others- Rutgers is $34K (in state), Georgia Tech is $48K, UCB is $62K.

Next fall as a junior you will take the PSAT, which could qualify you for national merit scholarships if you do well enough. It is definitely worth studying for over the summer and perhaps taking the SAT in June for practice. You could get full tuition at schools like Alabama, Oklahoma and Nebraska, or half tuition at USC (making it close to Rutgers pricing), along with many others. If you are committed to social/environmental change you could receive other scholarships. Look into it now so you have a year to start something.

Should you decide to go to grad school for business you have several options: Nearly free as a Ph.D. student in a funded program (you’ll also get an MBA when you submit your dissertation at many colleges), on scholarship (often determined by your GMAT score or if you work in a non-profit, or as a full pay student ($125-$200K)

I would keep my undergrad costs as low as possible while still attending a reasonably highly ranked uni as the best mix. Life has a way of altering plans so maintaining flexibility is a good strategy.

22

As a sophomore, your job is to expand your list of options, not constrict it. Keep UCB and Rutgers on the table and also explore other colleges. There are lots of great places where you can get a degree in both CS and business; you don’t need to go to the “best” (subjective, anyway) school in this area to get an MBA from a great school. Keep an open mind, too, in that you may change your mind a whole lot between now and later.

This isn’t quite true. Most business schools that award a non-terminal master’s to business PhD students 1) award that after the student has submitted a thesis, which is usually in the second or third year of graduate school; and 2) award an MS or MA, not an MBA. MBAs are usually pretty defined courses of study and the courses you’d have to take in a PhD are quite different. It’s my general opinion that pursuing a PhD when you really just want or need a master’s (especially a professional master’s) is a bad idea.

There also are not that many scholarships for MBAs.

23

You have way more choices than just Berkeley or staying at home. In fact most of your choices are not either of those extremes. Look at more schools than just those familiar to you, stay open to figuring out what you want, and don’t start making hard choices until you’ve sifted through a lot more options. Begin by following the steps outlined by @happy1 above: find out your actual financial constraints from your parents, figure out who you are and what you want from college and what you want to do (grad school?), find schools that match all criteria, and then go out and work hard and enjoy your life.

24

If your parents’ annual income is 50,000 after taxes + expenses how would you be able to pay for UCB?

25

To say what others have said, in a different way: My wife and I could sell all of our investments and send both of our daughters to Cal.

But we won’t.

26

As someone who also dreamed to go to UCB or honestly I just wanted to go to a UC in general. It’s just not feasible for people in the middle class who would be oos. And since you plan to attend grad school, it just wouldn’t make sense to spend it on undergrad. I definitely understand not wanting to go to your state flagship where everyone else is going. With your projected stats (Which I suggest not relying on them and go with where you are at now) you could possibly get some significant merit aid from several other universities around the country. I would advise to keep you options open after all you have all of junior to research and explore.

27

Here’s a business lesson pre-Wharton:

Forget UCB now. A 401(k) is not just an investment fund, it has a particular purpose - to fund your parents’ retirement since Social Security and Medicare aren’t enough. The way it works is that they contribute toward it from their wages and pay income taxes on the net rather than the gross. It is a piggybank not to be broken until they are 59 1/2. It is not a Want; it is a NEED.

The market is at its historical peak now. It will, at some point, go down, It always does. In 2008, it went down so far that many people’s investments weren’t worth what they had put into it. I’m one of them. Fortunately, the market and I recovered.

If that bank is broken or cracked, by the market or you, your parents lose the tax savings. The money withdrawn counts as additional income, so they’ll pay even more in taxes. Plus a 10% penalty for doing so, That, Destroyer, is a non-starter!

It’s good to dream, have a plan, and do your own research. It’s still early. You’ll have your PSATs, SATs and, hopefully, a wise guidance counselor to help you navigate through the process. But let’s keep it real. Focus your dreams on a long, happy life after college. College is merely a step to getting there, and there’s a lot of choices.

My advice is to find the right fit for undergrad. The right fit for your current plan us a school where you can realistically get your undergrad diploma in four years, where you can be involved. Maybe a place that you can get a dual-major degree. A value place that allows you to save money for grad school. Don’t forget, you don’t want to live your life with high debt which will limit your ability to borrow money if needed. You want good credit - making promises that you can keep 100% of the time. And, if something happens (and it will), you don’t want to start over.

Good luck!

28

Just to clear up a matter, I mentioned my parent’s 401k to say that they have a secure retirement fund, not that they would empty it for me. Even I would not be that selfish to make them give me everything that they have worked for.

Also, I have been doing more research on Rutgers, and it seems as if I can skip so much more filler courses here than at UCB. And as many of you have mentioned, the undergrad does not matter as much if you plan to go to a grad school.

Also, my 9th grade unweighted gpa was a 3.6 (I was so careless), while my weighted gpa was apparently a 5.2. My tenth grade GPA will most likely be a 3.8, with the weighted being about a 5.4.
My sat score will probably be around a 1500, as I have consistently scored above that on practice tests. But I have the whole summer to study, so I will still be aiming for a 1600.

After reading all you guys’ suggestions, I think that Rutgers is obviously the better choice, as it is drastically cheaper, I can skip more classes, and I would have a decent chance of getting into the Honors college. Thanks for all your help in this matter, even thought the choice should have been self-evident.

29

Please continue to research all options. Rutgers may be the best bet, but there are other schools where you could get great merit that brings the cost down. Good luck.

30

Thank you for the clarification. it was confusing because you said that your parents “could afford” Berkeley, when clearly they can’t. (No one would say that a person could “afford” a school if it means emptying their 401k, paying huge penalties, and have no retirement)

If you get the grades and test scores that you expect, you may have some other merit options from other schools.

How much WILL your parents pay each year towards college?

31

As an OOS student, you probably will not qualify for ANY financial aid from Berkeley.
Have you run the online net price calculators for any other colleges that interest you?

We don’t know what “upper middle class income” means to you. The US median family income was about $52K in 2013. If your family’s is $100K, you might qualify for as much as $50K in annual need-based aid from some selective private schools. If it’s $200K, you might still qualify for ~$15K in annual need-based aid from some of them. Or none, or a bit more, depending on the school and your situation. You’d need to run the NPCs to see.

In my opinion, though, it’d be hard to justify paying $60K for Berkeley if you could attend Rutgers for less than half that. Some other college might be worth a smaller price premium. A lot depends on how much of your your parents’ “50000 after taxes and yearly expenses” is available for your college expenses.

32

Look into Penn 's M&T, the collaboration between Olin and Babson.
Look into UMaryland Honors?

33

If you want to major in CS I would strongly advise you to go to cheap local tech oriented public college. If you can find honors college that would be fantastic. For computer science it doesn’t really matter where you go, what matters is what you squeeze out of it. So it depends on you for the most part. I also advise not to double major, but instead take more advanced classes in CS, do more research and projects, learn new languages, build up your portfolio. You can start working part-time too. CS is extremely broad sphere and it is constantly changing, so you shouldn’t have time for BA. Again, look for honors colleges with financial aid and look for cheap local tech schools (this schools are extremely underrated) for safety.

34

Also for CS and STEM in general I would say Stevens institute of technology is the best in NEW Jersey.

35

^^ Piling up on tech courses is one way to go. It’s not a bad way to go if your objective is a decent job right after graduation (or before). If you have longer term ambitions of rising up into management or technical leadership positions, with greater career earnings and responsibilities, then a broader liberal arts program (with a CS major) could work to your advantage.

36

^Not necessarily true. In fact, having more working experience, more experience with team projects and recognition for your work(and knowledge in particular field) would be far beneficial for career advancement.