Made an account after months of lurking on CC just to get some more perspectives on my current college decision. For those not familiar with the Trustee Scholarship, it’s a 4-year, full-tuition scholarship that also comes with a fellowship that pays for research. I get little aid at MIT and Stanford.
I’m currently slotted for Electrical Engineering at Stanford and USC and EE + Computer Science at MIT. What this really boils down to is the opportunities available at each school and how much money is a factor. (Not to bring up the age-old question of “does name vs. what you can accomplish matter more?”) All three universities have their merits and culture different types of students.
I’ve constantly been drafting and redrafting pros and cons lists for all three. Can anyone speak from experience with a similar decision or with one of the universities? I can definitely clarify any vagueness in additional edits and comments.
Assume USC with full tuition scholarship is what you refer to? And nothing at MIT or Stanford?
What’s your parents financial situation? You the first of a few to go to college? $70K vs USC for $15K a year is a huge difference so sit down and talk first with your parents.
Know a family whose first daughter graduated univ and they were helping with medical school. That is not considered as part of ‘need’ when looking at undergrad cost of their second child.
Parents rarely ever talk to their children about this until they are faced with it.
If your parents have a near endless supply of funds, then look at each individually. MIT and Stanford are better institutions in terms of ranking and in terms of any job you apply to. YOu clearly have massive brain power. What you do with it is another story entirely. PLENTY of students will come out of USC and go onto MIT, Cal Tech, Stanford, etc for grad school and you can get that cache then especially if you can do research with a professor.
Friends son went to MIT and at the beginning of sophomore year his professor called him in and said he came in second in the class in Mathematics and wanted him to work in AI lab.
Sure plenty of people have similar stories.
Talk to your parents. You can get just as far coming out of USC as a top student with research under your belt and PhD/MS from MIT/Stanford.
If money is no object for your parents and/or you for sure will not go to grad school, then go to Stanford (or MIT if you prefer).
Otherwise, go to USC and save the $$ for grad school at Stanford or MIT (or similar). If you do well at USC (and especially if you do research), your chances of getting into a top grad school are just as good as if you go to Stanford or MIT. And if you go to the latter for grad school it won’t matter much where you went to undergrad.
@rkelly5182 : I definitely will have a talk with them. I’m actually the one insisting on following the money with the scholarship only because I believe the opportunities USC can offer (though some might consider it a second-tier school compared to Stanford and MIT) far outweigh the 15k costs. Thank you for your guidance. Do you have any firsthand knowledge of difficulty of getting into a bigger name graduate school coming from a school like USC?
@coolweather : Honestly, my goals change so often, it’s the only thing that makes me apprehensive about looking toward the past. I think my end goal of becoming an engineer is pretty much the same going to each of the schools, with minor differences in geographic location and emphasis on theory vs. multidisciplinary vs. practical/entrepreneurial. My individual reservations with the schools (as well as what I’m looking forward to) are probably part of a duly needed pros-cons list I will be making this weekend.
But there are differences that cannot be quantified by the amount of money.
I don’t know about USC, but MIT engineering is balanced between theory, research, and practice (my son went there).
You can easily double major at MIT too. Many EECS MIT students graduate with a Master in Engineering in 5 years. A large percentage of MIT EECS graduates are from MIT undergraduates (you are almost automatically admitted to MIT EECS graduate school without going through the hassle of the application process if you meet the GPA requirement). Both MIT and Stanford have very strong enterpreneurial atmosphere. I am not sure what you are concerned about location. Where to work after graduation is not really an issue for MIT or Stanford graduates.
You should visit MIT and Stanford to get more information.
If your want to save money then go to USC (but not for graduate school reason because PhD students in science and engineering don’t pay - they receive stipends. Medical school students have to pay a lot).
If your parents don’t have the difficulty with money and want you to take the best opportunity you have then make them happy.
EECS are the most flexible requirements @ MIT pretty much, there’s a lot of EECS flavors nowadays, with many double majoring. The EECS administrators are known to be very flexible with you. I double majored with physics with little difficulty, while also adding an MEng on top.
If your parents can afford, I would go to MIT for EECS. It’s pretty much the sh*t for that area (1/3 of the institute basically). And the opportunities in EECS @ MIT are just unreal.