<p>Morehead Cain @ UNC - tuition, room, board, laptop, books, stipend, about 28k worth of discretionary and summer travel, kickass alumni network, princess status, and a pony. </p>
<p>Or...</p>
<p>Harvard - It's Harvard.</p>
<p>What would you choose?</p>
<p>I realize this is approaching 0 world problems.</p>
<p>Choose the school where <em>you"ll</em> be happier.</p>
<p>My question is: do you have “sticker price” laying around? If yes, go wherever you like.</p>
<p>Ifr you’re paying full-freight at Harvard, you’re probably very well-off.</p>
<p>Very, very few people with an actual Harvard acceptance in hand turn down Harvard to go anywhere other than Yale, Stanford, Princeton, or MIT. But among the people who DO turn Harvard down to go to a non-single-initial college are the winners of the Morehead-Cain scholarship (and similar scholarships to Duke, the University of Michigan, and suchlike). Not that everyone does that automatically, but it’s certainly something that a rational person can decide to do. It’s not just the money – although the money is really a lot of money! It’s also that the extra status and opportunities Morehead-Cain winners get are very competitive with anything Harvard can offer. And while UNC isn’t Harvard, it is a pretty strong university, and depending on your field of interest may be a very strong university – you are not going to exhaust its educational potential in your four years as an undergraduate.</p>
<p>In short, there’s no easy answer to this question. No easy answer, that is, unless paying for Harvard is going to be a hardship for your family. In that case, the answer is easy as pie: Take the Morehead-Cain. But even if you have all the money in the world, you might make the same choice.</p>
<p>Definitely go with the school that you like more. Paying full freight at harvard means that you come from a reasonably well off family (100k-180k dollars at least in annual income?), so if you don’t feel like you would be financially able to pay for harvard for some reason, that would be something to consider… does money really affect you or your parents/family? If money will be a serious issue, then I’d go with UNC, but otherwise, go with the school that looks more interesting, and where you would have the better time (that may be UNC), growing more as a person means more than growing up as a princess in college!</p>
<p>Definitely go with the school that you like more. Paying full freight at harvard means that you come from a reasonably well off family (100k-180k dollars at least in annual income?), so if you don’t feel like you would be financially able to pay for harvard for some reason, that would be something to consider… does money really affect you or your parents/family? If money will be a serious issue, then I’d go with UNC, but otherwise, go with the school that looks more interesting, and where you would have the better time (that may be UNC), growing more as a person means more than growing up as a princess in college! :D</p>
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<p>closer to 225K with 1 kid in college, 265K with 2 kids in college. (no non-retirement savings, business, farm equity, blah, blah…ymmv)</p>
<p>OP - my post has been bothering me all day. I didn’t mean at all to imply that you’re being cavalier about money - quite the contrary. I meant if you’re lucky enough that you can pay for Harvard and not worry about the long-term effects, then you can, in fact, choose where you want to be the most.</p>
<p>And it’s very hard to even think about turning down Harvard. But… I’ll bet you’ve always wanted a pony, too. There’s nothing wrong with you either way.</p>
<p>S’all good, Confetti247. My “cavalier” attitude is just overcompensation because I feel guilty for living a charmed life. And self-conscious for being a princess. </p>
<p>Actually, I think it’s pretty shortsighted to be flippant about other peoples’ money - in this case, my parents’. So yeah, they could pay “full freight,” but I don’t think I can ask them to. Given the alternative, who could conceivably turn it down?</p>
<p>Oh, I know. Those who qualify for financial aid and <em>actual</em> princesses.</p>
<p>Take the moorehead. It’s an amazing opportunity and leads to great things. Every moorehead I know is happy with the outcome, even 30 years later. Nobody says, Gee, I wish I would have gone to Yale/Harvard/MIT. All of them did so for grad school.</p>
<p>Congratulations!</p>