<p>General Poll Question:
Would you choose your flagship state u at $20,000 (annual loans = 0) or the prestigous private school at $40,000 (annual loans = $20,000)?</p>
<p>Depends on the universities in question. Give us the details. Are we talking Indiana vs Harvard or Cal vs Duke? What do you want to major in? What kind of profession would you like to go into when you graduate?</p>
<p>I would personally pick Cal and Michigan and maybe UVA, UCLA, North Carolina and Wisconsin over any university in the nation if it meant saving $80,000. Cal and Michigan are as good and as respected as any university save H,P,S,Y and M anyway, so saving or no saving, I would probably pick them over the private schools because I tend to prefer the atmosphere at larger universities. UVA, UCLA, Wisconsin and UNC are also awesome and worth going to over any school if the price is right.</p>
<p>I'll give you another reason to consider a quality public. Consider that the undergraduate years are times to explore....you may have a variety of interests and are really not certain of what you want to do in your life. My son, for example, is a freshman at the University of Florida with a declared major in EE. However, he also is talking about getting a degree in Math and Business as well. At the moment, he is focusing on mathematics....he will be taking classes over the summer because he loves it so much. He will actually have had enough math by the end of his 1st semester sophomore year to satisfy all the requirements for a math minor. He hopes to become involved with the University Scholars program and get involved with graduate-level math research by the end of his sophomore year.</p>
<p>All this is a major diversion from his primary major of electrical engineering. And we haven't even started talking about the business courses he wants to take yet. The point is....I couldn't afford to give him this kind of experience at a private school....it would be far too expensive to allow him to explore all these academic possibilities. At a public school, it all becomes possible. So, at least for students like my son, I would argue that the undergraduate experience can be far richer at a public than what it would be at a private.</p>