I’m an international student in a community college in Texas. I’m interested in UT, University of Michigan and maybe other private colleges. If I go to UNT(less prestigious), chances are I can get a decent scholarship and pay for in-state tuition.
Cost of attendance for UT & University of Michigan: around 55k & 65k per year. UT offers no scholarship to international students. If I do get in-state tuition for UNT, it’ll be around 25k per year.
I’m still trying to figure out my major, but I’m leaning towards STEM. So far, my GPA is a 4.0. I have talked to my parents, and they are willing to pay for either UNT or UT/UM etc. They leave the decision up to me and now I am confused.
My questions are:
Is it worth it to go to a more prestigious college for a STEM major?
***2) Does it matter which undergraduate school I choose, if I plan to go to graduate school? (And I do)
I would love to get some opinions on this, as I’m currently torn between saving money and going to a more prestigious school. Thank you!
I think it all depends on what your major is. Start with that question. If you can narrow that down, to one or two or even three things, then look to see what the faculty are like at your three schools. What I would look for might include:
What do the faculty study? (does any of that interest you?)
How active are they? (do they publish recently and a lot? do they have an active lab/research program? do they speak around the country / world?)
Sometimes, not always, you will find that the more prestigious schools have more active, more famous faculty, but 1) that may not be the case and 2) that may not matter to you; 3) sometimes faculty at Big Name U is dead wood that got tenure and are so famous that the school likes to keep them on the faculty.
If you were my child, I would urge you to look carefully at each school to see if you can find an active lab/ research situation in an area that interests you (or may interest you). You would want to download the professor’s papers and read the abstracts to see if those topics are interesting. Your objective would be to first find a school with good coursework and second the active and interesting research would allow you to distinguish yourself, by building skills and ideas and also perhaps by publishing as an undergrad. These two things together will prep you for grad school.
Smaller schools may have the advantage here, over big-name schools. Why? Because 1) your competition for research will be less; 2) professors at small-name schools are often quite good. It’s darn hard to get a faculty position and schools like MIT and Yale don’t give tenure very often. You might find a few profs who are upper tier caliber at Small Name U; 3) going to a smaller, lower pressure school can help you develop your interests and talents. You may have more mental space for this; 4) your fellow students may not be as high level, or there may be high level students, but not as many. Your profs will appreciate your enthusiasm, work ethic, smarts, and ability and willingness to learn; 5) your profs probably attend conferences with the Big Name U.'s profs and they all more or less know each other’s work. You can network within the discipline outside of your school, into grad school.
What you will also find are students that are less prepared for studies and more prepared for fun. Keep your eyes on the prize and stay determined to distinguish yourself.
I second @Dustyfeathers comments. I have 2 kids in college now, both good private schools.
But the one in the more prestigious, well known school is pretty unhappy academically speaking.
You really are a number when surrounded by top tier kids, and in fact some really popular majors like Comp Sci, are competitive to get in and stay in (min GPA). One of my kids had to face transferring to change majors, decided not to transfer and just finish degree and look into grad school for his preferred subject. The competition was just too fierce in the elite school he attends. Had he gone to any of our state schools, would have saved lots of $ and he’d be studying what he wants (both due to lesser competition and lesser cost related to changing majors and extending time to graduation).
OTOH, my other kid is in a top STEM school (less well known name but expensive and very very smart kids). He loves his school, gets lots of help from professors. That said, this school is well known for undergraduate education over graduate education.
So overall the answer is depends on the school. In one case I feel the extra tuition has been worth it, in the other case I feel it was a mistake in hindsight.
What kind of graduate school program do you have in mind?
If you mean a STEM PhD program, then the important admission factors will include your course selection and grades, the nature of your research interests, and how well those interests align with the interests of prospective faculty mentors. College prestige per se may not be a significant factor, but a specific college that happens to be more prestigious may also have better opportunities in your intended field. Or not. For example, some of the most prestigious colleges in America have no engineering programs at all.
Look at the offerings in the department(s) you’re interested in but not just the catalog - what’s offered this semester? How many advanced classes, for instance?