<p>If you had the choice of going to your local state university (which also happens to be one of the best public university in the nation) vs going to an Ivy League/HYPMS, which one is a better choice?
I'm having quite a debate with this topic, and need some feedback!</p>
<p>Umm… Disregarding financial costs, there’s no question that the better education an opportunity will like in the ivies/hpyscm</p>
<p>Even UVA’s Jefferson Scholars–the ones who have been offered admission to one of the nation’s best 2-3 public universities IN a semi-honors-program with many perks and full tuition–often end up torn away to HYPSM. So there’s that. (I have no statistics, but I’ve seen it happen twice and almost happen once but then the money talked louder. I’ve also seen one person happily turn down all the Ivies that were knocking to go to UVA. Not that large a sample, but >0).</p>
<p>Other things that factor into the decision:
Finances, of course, matter. That said, the financial aid at most Ivies is either good, very good, or incredible.
Which Ivy you’re talking matters. It’s very hard to turn down any of HYP, period. The non-HYP Ivies, I think, have more love-or-hate-it characters, so “fit” may become a bigger issue. I could’ve turned down Dartmouth in a heartbeat: rural semi-Canada and a huge Greek scene? Blech to the max! I’d go to urban Berkeley in beautiful San Francisco in a heartbeat. Some people feel the same about Columbia, say; where’s the campus? Also, I’m not sure how much of a monolith “Ivy” is when compared to top state schools–with Cornell at USNWR #15 and Berkeley at #21, there is probably less difference in a given field between those two than between Yale and Berkeley. (And I know how flawed the rankings are, but while I do not think the “public Ivies” are HYPSM-comparable, I do think they are CDPBC-comparable). So you have two questions: one of the best public universities in the nation or Ivy, and I answer “I could go either way.” You ask one of the best public universities in the nation or HYPMS and I answer “HYPMS almost without doubt or question.”
Career track. There are some career paths for which neither HYPMS nor Ivy helps much. If you can get into Penn State’s 6-year or whatever ridiculous college-and-med-school program, that may be better for you than the extra years entailed by Ivy. Some of the more practical majors are at least as well supported at state schools as at the Ivy League, like architecture. (Better than MIT probably not.) It may make sense for premeds to go to state school if they want to relax a bit and then go to med school; they’ll be better prepared from Harvard, probably, but they will still be prepared and they may have been able to spend more time enjoying college. Enjoying college is totally legit. If you want to go to journalism school, Mizzou has one of the best in the country. I wasn’t interested in any programs where state school might be better so I can’t list a lot more, but they exist.</p>
<p>^really good post right there</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>great post, thanks! btw, do you have any idea about harvard college when it comes to a career path in business?</p>