<p>The question for me is whether I should take the hit to my pocket to attend a prestigious private school or go with the much more affordable in state tuition. So far I have been accepted into the engineering programs at UMD honors college and UVA. I have also applied to JHU, lehigh, michigan, and a program at Emory that feeds into Georgia tech. Unless I get money thrown at me Maryland will be about 23k vs. 50-60k for the other schools. Finances aren't terrible and they aren't amazing, but 60k isn't easy for anyone. In terms of mechanical or biomedical engineering will it be worthwhile for me to put myself into a lot of debt to go to one of these prestigious but more expensive universities?? Thanks</p>
<p>In case it will help anyone respond I’m salutatorian of my class have a lot of leadership positions in school and a 1390/2020 on my sats</p>
<p>As other parents have written multiple times here, engineers do not get paid more just because they went to X instead of Y, so there is no need to choose the expensive place for that kind of reason. If, however, your family is fine with footing a 60k bill each year for your education, then it is fine to choose the expensive place.</p>
<p>You do need to know that it isn’t possible for you to put yourself into a whole lot of debt. If you want to borrow more than the federal limits ($5,500 freshman year, $6,500 sophomore year, $7,500 junior year, and $7,500 senior year) you will have to find a co-signer who will agree to pay off any debt that you don’t or can’t or simply decide not to pay off yourself. Most families don’t agree to do this for their kids because they have way too many other family financial obligations.</p>
<p>UMD is a fine educational institution, and not all that far from umpteen biotech firms in Maryland. If you truly are serious about biomed, it would be hard to recommend against UMD.</p>
<p>Of the schools you listed, only Michigan and Georgia Tech seem to have a significant prestige advantage over Maryland in engineering (i.e. it makes no sense to pay more to go to a school with similar or lower prestige in your major if prestige is what you care about). Since you would presumably do Georgia Tech through a 3+2 program starting at Emory, that is even more expensive and uncertain (relatively few frosh intending 3+2 actually transfer, and it will cost an extra year). And engineering is not generally a field where school prestige is super-important anyway, so it is hard to see how $128,000 over four years to attend Michigan over Maryland would be worth it, especially if significantly more debt is involved.</p>
<p>The choice may be more difficult or interesting if one or more of the other schools came up with scholarships or grants to bring the price down to Maryland level or lower.</p>
<p>Blibo, I would go to UMD honors and don’t look back. UMD is a great school. If you look at US News rankings, which may or may not be an ideal metric, UMD Mechanical Engineering is 20 and Biomed Engineering is 33. Lehigh Mechanical Engineering is 49 and they have no Biomed Engineering. Johns Hopkins Biomed is #1, so you could apply there, but you may not get in (I would expect around a 2200 SAT required to get into that program). Their ME is 14, so basically the same as UMD. Michigan’s are both top 10, but it is really expensive for OOS, and you may not get in there, either. Plus you probably won’t get honors at Michigan, so prepare for some really big classes for the engineering weed-out classes. None of these options is worth another $100,000 for an undergraduate degree.</p>
<p>UMD and save money. Keep your GPA up and do internships/research, UMD will open up the same grad school or job opportunities as other more expensive schools. </p>
<p>What they said - UMD is a great institution.</p>
<p>I appreciate your comments! I have heard about getting grad school being sponsored with some jobs. Is it possible that I would save money from the ability to have this opportunity at a Lehigh, GT, or Michigan. Also, Lehigh has a program where you can get a fifth year tuition free and potentially a masters degree if you meet a 3.75 GPA at graduation. Should these opportunities play a significant role in my decision?</p>
<p>I’d take Maryland honors over all the other schools. The only one I may actually consider is JHU but only if you are set on bioengineering (it doesn’t sound that way) AND they give you enough aid to bring it down to the cost of Maryland plus $5,000/year. In other words, I may pay a $20K premium for JHU, but certainly not $100K.</p>
<p>Even JHU may not be worth it. Maryland is in the same area, so chances are you will have similar internship opportunities. Something to investigate.</p>
<p>Well, the private schools can give you more FA…</p>
<p>Do not make any decision until you have all your financial aid awards in hand. Did you apply for need-based aid and/or for merit aid?
Compare “out of pocket” costs, that is, consider loans as part of the “out of pocket” costs to figure out which one is the cheapest.</p>
<p>UMD!! I am a UMD EE graduate and a Jobns Hopkins graduate for astraddled with residency. Some of my UMD classmates are partners at prestigious law firms and another owns her own engineering firm after graduating Harvard Business School. In other words, the school did not hinder their future. Don’t get caught up in the prestige hoopla and find yourself straddled with debt when you graduate.</p>
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<p>PhD programs in engineering are generally funded, typically with a research or teaching assistantship. In any case, Maryland is a perfectly respectable school, so you should be able to get into a PhD program from there if you do well there (in your courses and in undergraduate research, with good recommendations).</p>
<p>Some employers will help pay for an MS Eng program. So yes, that would be something to ask about when you do get to the job market.</p>
<p>Some employers will pay the MS but it doesn’t have to do with those colleges you named over UMD. And that is a nice offer of a free 5th year but I don’t think you should make any decision for that opportunity that may never come. That is a very difficult gpa to maintain and you don’t need that hanging over your head that you paid more just to get that free year. It looks like UMD is the smartest choice, unless you get other aid. You really shouldn’t feel you can go wrong with that.</p>
<p>My engineering MS was paid for by my employer. The way it normally works is you attend school part-time while working, so your options will be universities near your place of employment, or a distance program where classes are offered over the internet or closed-circuit TV.</p>
<p>Unless there’s some reason you really hate Maryland or love one of the alternatives, I’d go with Maryland.</p>