Admitted to all three. GA tech and Purdue OOS tuition. Texas A and M costs about $12000. Computer engineering. The first two schools might not be coup de grace but definitely an arm and a leg to us financially. What should we choose? Thanks for any advice.
I don’t know much about computer engineering or how the colleges compare but I would go with the cheapest option, and if you live in Texas, A&M might be more practical. I hear it’s a great school.
Thanks. The cost difference would be $30000 each year for the other two schools. But GA tech is a really good school and my son really wants to go there. I will probably torture myself for the next couple weeks until the deadline to reply.
$30K per year is a lot of money. I would go with the least expensive option since they are all good.
@conference - We are in Arizona. Georgia Tech is a great school, as is Purdue. FWIW, my son was accepted to both schools for Aerospace Engineering, along with Michigan and Texas. He took the national merit money and in-state tuition from TAMU and never looked back. There is just not enough differences between the schools to justify even $10K a year more, let alone $30K. That’s $120,000 after four years, which he’d never come close if at all to earning back.
Texans are really lucky to have two great public engineering Colleges. We have Arizona and Arizona State, which aren’t too bad, but nowhere near Texas or Texas A&M.
A&M engineering school is ranked 12 while the others are slightly higher. Not sure that you will get a better education at Purdue or Georgia Tech, only a different set of natives and environment.
I am not sure either is worth an extra 120,000. A&M has an unbelievable alumni loyalty.
I heard about the Aggie Network. Is it mostly in Texas or everywhere too? Some posts said it is a conservative school. What does it mean?
Are you from Texas?
Conservative for A&M usually means that there are a lot of Texas kids who come from rural areas where they have not learnt anything outside of conservative republican views. A&M is also rurally based in a smaller college town.
UT on the other hand is considered the opposite, i.e., liberal school where a lot more of the democrat types end up.
We are from a college town in upper Midwest. Will he get lost in such a big school? Will honors program give him more attention?
My son is in the TAMU Political Debate and Discussion Club. He would agree that TAMU runs conservative, whereas most universities run liberal. However, he said that many of the students tend more toward Libertarian than traditional Republican, and that Sanders has a lot of campus support.
@conference - so your son got a full tuition waiver - national merit? if you are from a non-urban area, your son might get along fine with A&M students.
I have heard A&M also adds on department scholarships and other scholarships which make it even cheaper if you are getting national merit tuition waiver.
He has out-of-state tuition waiver and some scholarship money.
What are the req for an out of state tuition waiver? Please share with me.
@conference, We were in the same boat last year. My son was accepted to Michigan and Illinois which were both great options for engineering, but in state, he had both Texas and A&M as options. In the end, he felt he couldn’t justify spending $62K annually for Michigan when A&M was about $25K. He was also interested in Industrial & Systems Engineering, which wasn’t offered at Texas. So, slowly, he narrowed his options. Your son may have personal reasons for wanting to attend GA Tech, however, and my son wasn’t married to either out of state school (although I am a proud Michigan alum). I guess I’d look at where the three schools’ computer engineering programs rank to see if there is a substantial difference to warrant the extra cost. Wherever your son goes, he’ll make it his own. Yes, A&M is a big school, but he’ll find his group. To answer your question regarding Honors, my son is in Engineering Honors, but I wouldn’t say that has given him any more attention. Early registration, a few additional class selections than most, and a couple of smaller classes, but that was about it for freshman year.