<p>I am a senior high school student who was recently accepted to Stanford in the early action round. I have already submitted applications to USC, Vanderbilt, UCLA, and UCBerkeley. Stanford has always been my dream school and is undoubtedly my #1, but now I'm faced with a few difficult decisions:</p>
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<li><p>Should I still submit applications to the seven other schools on my list which are due from January 1st-5th? I have completed the bulk of these applications, but the application fees for each school range from $50-100, which can quickly stack up. Should I still apply to the other elite schools on my list, such as Harvard, Princeton, Brown, and Yale? Could I use the financial aid packages of these schools to leverage against Stanford and increase my aid?</p></li>
<li><p>I have asked to be considered for scholarships at USC and have applied for the Ingram Scholarship, a full-ride, at Vanderbilt. If I were to qualify for a full ride or a substantial scholarship at either of these schools, would you advise that I take them over a Stanford education?</p></li>
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<p>3.
At this point in time, my two top schools are Stanford and USC. The "name value" of Stanford is arguably superior to USC, but as a prospective Communications Major, does USC's Annenberg School win out in terms of prestige and quality? Is a high GPA more attainable in USC's communications program or Stanford's communications program? If I intend to ultimately work and live in LA, will USC have a stronger alumni network than Stanford and make a good, high-paying job more accessible?</p>
<p>If look forward to hearing your thoughts and appreciate any feedback greatly! </p>
<p>I would say it’s tough because you don’t mention your parents’ ability to pay and at what amount? You did the net price calculator already and figured out your parents’ EFC? I’ve seen students on CC forego their dream school due to cost. Seen another family sell their historic home to come up with the rest of the EFC. </p>
<p>I think you can go back to stanford with only need based financial aid from universities of same caliber but merit aid packages from other top universities won’t budge them.</p>
<p>The only place USCs Comm degree may carry you as far as one from Stanford is in LA due to local alumni connections. The USC program is small and much more pragmatic than Stanford’s. What do you hope to do with the Comm degree? What’s your family’s financial situation? </p>
<p>I’d at least apply to USC. They’ve been trying to improve the quality of their entering freshman class over the last 10-15 years, and will often offer substantial aid in order to lure people who have been accepted to the Ivies, Stanford, Caltech,MIT, et al.</p>
<p>I have a Masters from USC and used to work at Stanford. I figure I’d be willing to pay a premium of about $15K a year to attend Stanford over USC, though I can’t really claim to be too knowledgeable about Comm degrees.</p>
<p>OP. The odds of you sticking with “communications” major is going to be extremely low once you get to college…it is not one of those majors that people “stick” with through thick or thin like engineering majors or premeds studying biology to get into med school…</p>
<p>…there is high high probability that if you are a very intelligent individual (assuming you are since you were able to win the golden lotto ticket already)…you will change interests and majors (80% of students do) when you step foot on Stanford campus. It would be wise to be at a school that has the highest ranked programs in ALL areas of academic endeavor that you can switch to without any reluctance or regret…</p>
<p>…there are so many opportunities to pursue areas you did not think about before…from communications to STEM to engineering/cs to social sciences to humanities to art/music to interdisciplinary majors…</p>
<p>Thank you so much. Rdtsmith, I am in a difficult financial situation because my parents’ joint income is too high for me to be eligible for any financial aid, but only one parent is contributing to my college fund. Although my savings and my mom’s savings could get me through my undergrad with little to no debt, I would be on my own for graduate school. The hope would be that, with a Stanford degree, I could land a job that would pay for graduate school after working for X number of years. Obviously this is an optimistic plan in an unpredictable market, but do you think it’s realistic? </p>
<p>Gravitas2, I am in complete agreement that I would likely change majors in my four years at Stanford, but it’s somewhat difficult because I hope to eventually pursue an MBA or go to law school, and Stanford doesn’t offer a pre-business or pre-law track. Although programs like “Symbolic Systems” at Stanford seem to foster the entrepreneurship skills needed to eventually be a successful business person, my strength is in the humanities and I would be fearful to venture into an engineering track. At a place like USC, I would enter as a double-major in Communications and Marketing, giving me a solid background to enter the business world. </p>
<p>I am struggling with this question: Would it be better to graduate near the top of my class at a good school like USC or near the bottom of my class at a great school like Stanford? Would I be silly to pass up the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of the Stanford undergraduate experience? </p>
<p>You don’t need a degree from an elite school for this. My undergrad is from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (probably not elite, notwithstanding that some of us like to refer to it as “The Harvard of Interior Alaska”), and my employer paid for my USC graduate degree.</p>
<p>There is a huge point not yet made here. The value of a Stanford degree over that from any of the OPs other choices has nothing to do with academics, it is all about connections. There is a veritable NoCal and general US tech mafia of Stanford grads out there - the connections made in 4 years, I’d argue, cannot be understated and easily trump any school in the nation at this time, including Harvard and MIT. A full ride at USC or Vandy vs full pay at Stanford? Depends whether my family had resources to pay for the latter. Consider this when deciding whether to continue applications to other schools. I see little point in applying to any Ivys given Stanford as your “dream” school - there’ll be no more $ coming from them. If your goal absolutely, clearly, was law school, I’d argue to take a hard look at scholarship opportunities. But MBA is a different matter - Stanford connections post grad in the business world are worth their weight in Bitcoins.</p>
<p>Someone mentioned on another thread…a graduate student…that you really don’t need to save for graduate school. The slots are only 1-2% that’ll you’ll even get into the program of your choice and you can actually support yourself in graduate school by being a TA, albeit a poor one should you be accepted.</p>