<p>For poor students, an engineering degree represents an escape from poverty. hence the attitude towards studying vs learning. In India college is seen as a means to an end for such poor students. Hence the allocation of majors by rank. Best paying majors are reserved for top rankers.</p>
<p>Time to steer the conversation in another direction.
So, now that decisions are sneaking closer, I am sure many of you might have thought about how the finances will play out for you. What I would like to know is that if you get into your dream school, but without the expected financial aid offer, would you be willing to fall into debt to attend that college?</p>
<p>In response to those who say that the American education system is easier, it is NOT. Well, it certainly depends on the difficulty of the high school. Though students prepare for AP exams, the material covered in classes and exams significantly exceed the difficulty of the AP exam itself. Furthermore, in addition to the workload from classes, students are also involved in numerous extracurricular activities, which can sometimes be more time-consuming than the workload of the classes themselves. Though I do admit that the Indian education system covers more breadth, particularly in the maths and sciences, from what I have learned from my cousins (Don’t hurt me if I’m wrong. I am aware that this is purely based on hearsay :P), a lot of the learning is based on rote memorization, which in my opinion, is one of the shortcomings of the Indian education system. </p>
<p>Tizil7, yes, I would be willing to fall into debt to attend that college, especially if it’s my dream school. You go to college only once in a lifetime (or so I would hope :P). I wouldn’t throw away that dream for anything in the world. </p>
<p>No one ever answered my question :(</p>
<p>I am not sure many '15ers saw your question in [post</a> #411 on page 28](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13964536-post411.html]post”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13964536-post411.html)</p>
<p>To be honest, I would have wanted to know as well :p</p>
<p>Fear not, I will tell you this time next year what I don’t like about college :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Ecnegillenti, let me rephrase, would you be willing to undertake a considerable debt? I am not talking about small amounts here :p</p>
<p>Hehe, thanks Tizil. I think I too will know what I dislike about college by that time, but I’m always happy to hear your input 
</p>
<p>That’s a very difficult question. Perhaps I am being obstinate and hard-headed, but I would still be willing to pay a considerable amount of debt for my college education. Each person places a different value on education.
Hypothetically speaking, say if you were accepted to MIT with little finaid and to Georgia Tech with a lot (which is certainly by all means a very good engineering school)–would you be willing to give up MIT just for the sake of money?</p>
<p>9.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine anyone on this board would give up MIT, even for aid at a reputed public school.</p>
<p>In fact one would have a greater chance to get aid from MIT, if accepted, than from any public school.</p>
<p>@TheEcnegilletni- thats actually quite a misconception (the rote memorization bit). it may be a little true for subjects like english lit, where a lot of kids just memorize their teachers’ notes, but for everything else, especially math and science, its impossible to learn through rote memorization. the material required for both CBSE and ISC is pretty advanced, and you have to actually understand it completely to be able to do well…</p>
<p>Lol how to rote math and physics? If you are referring to practicing so you get used to the intuition then im sorry thats how you study for math and physics. Of course need to rote for Chemistry and Biology, those require you to have knowledge of facts. And seriously man the US high school education system is a joke. My friends here from that very system who have taken the most rigorous courses in school say it is. I don’t think the highest APs are any match for the CBSE. Even if we assume they are close, this rigour is only expected of students who opt to take the most difficult route whereas in India, the route is standard for everyone. That is a massive difference.</p>
<p>I would like to add the perspective from a parent’s point of view.Dream school vs financial ability to afford.Though those who are ready to send their kids for Under graduation to US should be well off compared to many of those in India, still how far one can stretch for that “Dream school” tag is a question.If you have more than one kid you need to plan for all of them as well !! In life one has to make a Cost vs benefit analysis always!!!
IMO dream school vs Financial debt the latter will take precedence if the gap is very big in cost for many parents.Still for Graduate studies you can aim for your dream school with financial aid!! This is just my opinion.Of course no problem has a standard solution</p>
<p>Changing the topic, any one applying to USC here??
What do u guys think of it?? :D</p>
<p>Cobalt, Y U NO Post here?</p>
<p>Anyways, it would be a difficult choice tbh. I like the idea of going to a public school … also that it is warm in Atlanta … whereas I would be dying of the cold at MIT. Full ride sounds really nice for the caliber of the school.</p>
<p>I would definitely be torn between the two choices, however, I am pretty sure I would choose GTech over MIT.</p>
<p>@Mrinal: Is that University of Southern California? A friend applied there and got accepted. If you’re asking for stats, I will save you the trouble and tell you that he also got accepted to MIT and Caltech. That should give you an idea.</p>
<p>@Tizil, Yes, it is…:eek: Your friend is sure an over achiever!! Still, the average stats of USC is not very high as MIT or Caltech. Thinking of applying there, still undecided. :D</p>
<p>@tizil- forgive me for not knowing anything about engineering programs, but im curious: how come you would choose Gatech over MIT, which is apparently the fantasy destination of every engg applicant?</p>
<p>@Shrey</p>
<p>In the end if you can’t pay for the college, then how would you go there?</p>
<p>Mystic - you are in an ivory tower and your views on american education are based on some of those who will be future nobel prize winners. I would not go by anything a student at Caltech says. Some of them are truly brilliant and represent one of the smallest sample sizes ever since Caltech only has a total of 1000 undergrad students. The sheer depth of material that is covered in AP curriculum takes a lot of time just to get through, if one is doing world history, US history etc. It may not be the case for sciences when someone is deeply interested in the subject and has been boning up on the material since childhood like some of the nerdy types at Caltech might be but it is still a lot of work for others who pay equal attention to all subjects as they progress.</p>
<p>Tizil - The cost of education in US is exorbitant and unaffordable for most people in US. So there are a lot of kids who are aiming to go to community college right after high school, get a trade diploma within two years, start working and try to get a 4 year degree while working. Community college fees are a fraction of even in state tuitions at most state colleges. So it helps students to start accumulating credits while in high school if they are aiming to go to a local college right after high school and want to continue working at whatever high school jobs they got to make a living. So they get to a community or state college with about one year of college completed and don’t need to worry about whether a specific school will accept the credits they acquired.</p>
<p>@Tizil- I wrote out a LOONG post over like 30 minutes, and just as I clicked ‘post’ internet conked off and I lost it all. * Murphy’s law * :(</p>
<p>Anyway, will post again-
Firstly, while the Physics exam was not TERRIBLE, it was not great, and most of my friends and I found time short. Plus, I got some tricky questions wrong because of silly mistakes, though I got hold of the concept right. Which sucks 
Anyway.</p>
<p>Secondly, on the CCE/before-CCE stands-
CCE was brought in to make individual evaluations a holistic process at the school level, but while this was a great CONCEPT, the implementation failed entirely IMO.
In our time, we had to study the whole-year syllabus and were tested on all of it at the end of the year. Now, kids forget the first sem portion as soon as the second sem rolls in and FA 1 gets over. So, it’s definitely backfiring. As it is, I barely remember my history/etc from 6th onwards; now the amount of stuff that really gets retained is even lesser.</p>
<p>And, although our evaluations were based solely on academics, and sports and CCA activities played a minor role (and personality a nonexistent one), now, students have to worry about excelling in one EC, being involved in sports and developing a great exterior. At least, that was the plan. But this backfired too, because as far as I have seen, teachers show favoritism and there’s very little REAL evaluation taking place. Everybody gets a tick mark, and those who **** teachers off suffer. </p>
<p>And, I agree that 9th and 10th portions are insanely easy as compared to 11th and 12th syllabi. Sure, doing well in 11th and 12th require an adjustment in how long we study (per day) but when you’ve been mollycoddled for so many years, you find it hard to make the shift. Many, many of the people I know are unable to adjust and get depressed/caught in a mesh of school studies and coaching. It’s just a spiral downwards. What makes it worse is that societal, parental and peer pressure force everyone to walk on the beaten path. Everyone who has no clear inclination in some specific field is pushed into going for ‘engineering’. </p>
<p>So we have a whole generation of people studying for the same exam, getting into the same field (I’m generalizing here). We have thousands of mediocre engineers who are not even passionate about their jobs. On the other hand, we have a great shortage of talented, passionate youngsters in the other fields. Finally, many of the IITians even get an MBA and land up in jobs that require them to think of creative ways of selling more soap. Its a travesty, and a huge waste of talent.</p>
<p>Like someone (I think Ascaris? ) said, we need a complete overhaul of the system and the evaluation process should cover all the school years, and not stop short when it’s most needed (11th and 12th). Also, there’s no point in CCE if college admissions processes stay the way they are in India- based solely on class XII marks. Ultimately, I think these changes are only hurting the average student, which was NOT was planned.</p>
<p>Also, a complete overhaul doesn’t just mean a ‘systematic’ or procedural one, so to speak. Society needs to get rid of those deep rooted taboos which fundamentally discourage it’s youth to pursue their passions. At the end of the day, everyone’s life goal is to be HAPPY, and career obviously plays a deep role in that. Working in a field that you are not passionate about will not only make you unhappy (if it’s a field you got pushed into/hate) but is also detrimental to productivity. On the other hand, you can achieve wonders if you love your work.</p>
<p>Yes, I accept that most of the youngsters in our country choose their field solely on economic considerations, because they need to support their families, but even this concept of one job paying more than others and some fields being ‘worthless’ needs to change. Above all, we need a system which treats all fields as equal and provides the same job opportunities in each one.</p>
<p>Okay, I’m getting more idealistic now, so will stop now :P</p>
<p>One PS- I agree, also, that doing away with the Xth boards was a huge mistake. We, atleast I, needed that push to know where we stood in the country and quite simply, just get a feel for the whole All-India exam thing, since it’s THE main thing in class XII.</p>
<p>@Tizil- to answer your question: personally, it depends on which OTHER places I get accepted to. Of one of them is close in overall quality to my ‘dream college’ I would go for it. If all the ‘others’ are far worse (if I can even use that word) that my DC, I would go for the loans/debt scenario.</p>
<p>Anyway, hope you all didn’t get bored by my looooong post 
:o</p>
<p>No offence to anyone!</p>
<p>Sorry for the grammatical errors-
- is even less
- IITians, even
- NOT what was planned</p>
<p>@Cobalt; Excellent thought.Well analysed.Its really true that many professions are not getting its due credit due to the IT - boom in India.Irrespective of the branch of study the engineers end up in some IT company and the rest of them get into MBA .Also still Indian Engineering education doesn’t have the options as it is existing in US colleges.The flexibility of courses,Double major , combined MS the options are endless.Any change in the system requires serious change in mindset</p>
<p>
Don’t worry, I am not awfully well versed with the engineering programs as well. As I mentioned before, I think it is fair on my part to choose G over M in that hypothetical situation with the mentioned constraints. In all this frenzy over M, you’ve got to stop and ask yourself, is it the brand you’re running after? What I am trying to say is that if I do my best at G, I’ll turn out just as good as if I’d done my best at M.</p>
<p>@Texas: Ah, that makes a lot more sense! I never thought of people’s career choices moving in this direction. Thanks for sharing it with us :)</p>
<p>@Cobalt: I know that feeling. :mad: And that is a really long post, took me some time to read it haha.</p>