Stanford v. Yale v. USC Scholar

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

<p>My S got into Yale with no financial aid and Stanford with 6k of aid. He is also admitted to USC with a Mork Family Scholarship (Full Tuition + 5k stipend/yr) and University Scholarship ($2K/yr). He wants to be an East Asian Studies major and plans on getting a Ph.D. With the Ph.D, he is considering being a professor or working abroad in East Asia for the government or an NGO.</p>

<p>Yale or Stanford would require $35K-40K per year of loans for a possible total 4 year debt of $140K+. USC would still require costs of room and board of approximately $15k per year, but no debt would be required. Yale or Stanford would require S to work during the school year and would require family sacrifices to meet the non-loaned portions. </p>

<p>Yale is my S's dream school and seems like a perfect fit. He knows less about Stanford because we only briefly toured a few years ago, but knows its great reputation. He was impressed with USC, but has some concern with the overall academic seriousness of students (partially based on students he met at Explore USC). He is a very serious and driven student that wants to take advantage of every available opportunity.</p>

<p>From our perspective, Yale and Stanford, as two of the top universities in the world academically, are a notch above USC's academics. USC is an excellent academic school, but it is not Yale or Stanford. If money was not the issue, he would go to Yale (or possibly Stanford).</p>

<p>Our income has only recently risen to a range at or near the income cutoff for financial aid (some calculators showed a decent amount of aid, some no aid) and because of prior financial obligations for various business ventures, savings has been depleted to eliminate any savings for college. In essence, we would need to find the $60K per year for Yale or Stanford through decreases in expenses, increases in income, and loans. We also have another child that will be starting college in 2015.</p>

<p>We would like some input on the following issues:</p>

<p>-Is the difference in the Yale/Stanford education v. USC education worth the financial impact of loans, etc.?
-What will be the impact of a Yale/Stanford degree over a USC degree be, if any, for getting into a top grad school?
-Will the contacts gained at Yale/Stanford be substantially better than at USC, if at all?
-Does being a scholarship recipient at USC counter some of our perceived advantages of a Yale/Stanford degree?
-Is there any way to decrease the cost of the going to Yale or Stanford?</p>

<p>Any other input would be appreciated. Thanks.</p>

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<p>Firstly, the costs that you will be responsible for are quite daunting. I’d like to emphasize the fact that college is truly what you make of it. If your son has received full tuition and extra $ as a stipend-- use that to go study abroad and to be stress free! There will always be plenty of research opportunities wherever he goes and USC, I believe has professor David Kang-- a very well-known professor of IR and strengths in East Asian studies. (He had previously taught at Dartmouth). However, if your son’s true dream school is Yale then it’s his call. I don’t see much of a difference in financial obligations between Yale and Stanford-- if you’re going to have to pay loans for both schools-- might as well go to his dream school, Yale.</p>

3

<p>mmDad, financial aid was important to my family, and we chose Stanford. They have been wonderful, and as our 2nd child entered college, the aid basically doubled. It wasn’t free, but it was definitely worth it. </p>

<p>Also, jordan2 has had 6 posts, all encouraging posters to choose (Yale, Harvard, UChicago, Duke, you name it) over Stanford. I don’t know if he’s on the Stanford waitlist and hoping for a spot or what, but I would make your choice based on your son’s dreams and your finances. Good luck, as I know this is hard!</p>

4

<p>mmDad,</p>

<p>First, so you are aware of my biases, I am a student at Stanford and chose it over both USC and Harvard. Second, my income was below the cutoff you are talking about, and aid was not an issue – however, had it been an issue, I would undoubtedly have chosen USC (they awarded a generous merit scholarship like the one your son received).</p>

<p>As for choosing between the top schools:
If (after visiting this beautiful water fight-worthy campus for admit weekend, I hope!) he prefers Yale to Stanford, he should definitely pick Yale. The education and opportunities at either university will be comparable and 6k shouldn’t make the difference if he’ll have a much better experience at one over the other.
With that said, I know from experience that Stanford’s aid office is very reasonable and willing to consider all sorts of financial burdens that don’t show up on your FAFSA. You do need to call and inform them of any such things, though. And, as PumpkinPi mentioned, as soon as kid #2 enters college Stanford will be extremely generous with aid (my brother and I are both at Stanford this year, and his aid has been adjusted considerably from its previous amount). My point is that there may end up being more than a 6k discrepancy in choosing between Yale and Stanford down the line (ra, ra, Stanford!). I am completely unaware of Yale’s aid policy, though it’s entirely possible it may be similar :)</p>

<p>Because your son does not intend to go into a technical major, I don’t believe the extra cost of Stanford or Yale is worth it. Stanford and Yale may have some more acclaimed professors, but because access to highly-specialized individuals, equipment and materials is unlikely to be a primary concern in the success of his research, USC should serve him just fine. Whatever advantage he might gain from the Stanford/Yale brand or from a recommendation from a well-known professor, I think it’s highly likely that not having $140k in debt could offset this. It would take a huge burden off his (and your) shoulders and allow him to think more openly about his prospects after college.</p>

<p>Not that this should have any weight in your decision, but I absolutely loved USC. I’m not one to party (ever) or partake in Greek life, but the students on that campus have a very unique bond and pride in their school. They were all very kind and friendly when I visited, more so even than at Stanford and definitely more so than at Harvard (and Yale, during my admittedly brief visit). It was hard for me not to go, and had Stanford been out of the question I might have picked it over Harvard.</p>

<p>Ultimately, and very very importantly, his experience will be what he makes of it. There are plenty of opportunities to be had at all of these universities, and if he’s willing to work for it, I’m sure he could get just as much out of an education at USC. He might even stand out from the crowd more easily there. BUT if he’s unhappy at any of the three universities for any reason, he should not go. It is incredibly easy to get bogged down and avoid seizing opportunities if you’re not enjoying your experience! If he thinks he would hate USC (its weather, its culture, its academia) and might be muddling though the next four years instead of trying to excel and stand out, <em>that</em> is worth the $35k/year of picking another school, not any supposed brand-name advantage he might receive.</p>

<p>Best of luck!</p>

5

<p>If your S were planning to major in engineering or computer science, I’d say go to Stanford no matter what because he’d easily recoup the extra financial investment. But given the major and plans for grad school, I think he should probably choose USC. We loved Yale when we visited, so I can understand the appeal, but the cost is so high and they’ve offered nothing at all. Yale’s $6,000 extra per year over Stanford, which could increase with tuition increases, will be $24,000+ total–nothing to dismiss lightly IMO.</p>

<p>One thing you could try first, though, is to contact the financial aid office at Stanford and ask if they could bridge some of the gap between their cost and USC’s. Stanford students have a singular dislike for USC, so if that is shared by the administration they might be willing to help out, LOL. One thing I’d consider also is which school attracts the most East Asian experts to campus for lectures. I would think the west coast location of USC and Stanford might result in more East Asian speakers coming to campus than would come to Yale? Also, campus jobs at Stanford pay very well ($12-$15), so that should help a little if you choose Stanford. D was able to get a well-paying summer job doing research in her field after freshman year at Stanford, and continued it for a time into sophomore academic year. Would this be a possibility at USC too?</p>

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<p>I got my Masters from USC and have worked at Stanford. I’ve only walked around Yale for a few hours - a gorgeous campus.</p>

<p>I’m thinking (admittedly a dangerous thing) that it’s going to be expensive to get a Ph.D., especially if S ends up going to places like Stanford, Yale, or USC. It seems like the rational choice is to go to USC if it’s a free ride, and then go to Yale or Stanford for the graduate degrees.</p>

<p>But if S is depressed at the thought of going to USC instead of Stanford or Yale, then don’t send him there. He’ll be miserable, and it’s hard to maintain your motivation if you feel like that for four years.</p>

<p>As an aside, I know a few people who teach Japanese at UC Berkeley, and they’ve told me multiple times that Berkeley has the best East Asian Studies program in the US. They seem to genuinely mean it. I also get the impression that job prospects aren’t good for people who graduate from that program, which is another reason to minimize the cost of a degree.</p>

<p>“Stanford students have a singular dislike for USC,” Haha. Everyone hates USC, and USC students take that hate as a point of pride. I grew up in Ohio, and we hated Michigan the most, and then USC. When I was working at Stanford, I was advised not to advertise that I went to USC, on threat of being hung off the side of Hoover Tower by a rope tied around my little toe.</p>