Yes I know that is a ridiculous choice to have to make, but I live in Arizona. At ASU I have a $16,000 scholarship for being a National Hispanic Scholar, an additional $4,000 scholarships from the school, plus whatever I win from outside scholarship. I have been admitted to the honors college, which have nice housing, smaller classes, and many study aboard opportunities. I would be going for almost free, but I would be stuck in my home state at pretty much the opposite of a prestigious school. I was also admitted to my dream school, UC Berkeley. There are many negatives to going there, including only a $5,000 scholarship, which leaves me to find the remaining $62,000 as they don’t provide need-based scholarship to OOS students. But are the opportunities and networks I would find at Berkeley outweigh the cost? I know the name would open many doors for me, and despite the hard work I would end up somewhere successful. I have never wanted to stay in state, but, even at the nation’s #1 public school, I’m scared of accumulating so much debt in these unprecedented times. I’m majoring in Business Admin, so UCB is excellent for this - assuming I can even get into Haas.
How much debt would you need to take on in order to attend UC Berkeley? How do you intend to qualify to take on that much debt?
My daughter is in almost the exact same situation. We live in SoCal. She is a National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholar. She had to choose between Michigan (my alma mater), Wisconsin, Cal Poly SLO, and SDSU Honors. She picked Barrett Honors, and will be in WP Carey this fall.
I know it’s not what you imagined, but it appears to be a really great program. We were so impressed by the school, the attention paid to her and us on our visit, the dorms, and the campus. Michigan would have been almost $300,000 for us OOS, similar to Berkeley.
Carey is a really good business school. #2 in Supply Chain Management, #9 in Management and #11 in Marketing, if you pay attention to US News. If you graduate with a degree in those specialties, or even another from the B School, you will very likely get a good job.
I’d also encourage you to look at the ASU Thunderbird 4+1 program. You would get a Master’s Degree in Global Management for your 5th year there, comparable to an International MBA. My DD is looking at this.
Think of what you could do with an extra $250,000. Go to grad school, buy a car, put a down payment on a house, and travel for 6 months. And still have a bunch of money left over. (and you could go to Haas too for an MBA and it would still be cheaper than 4 years OOS at Berkeley)
The whole “open doors” thing is overblown. Michigan is similar to Berkeley (both are Top 3 public universities), and to be honest, it didn’t open hardly any doors in my life. The connection thing is way too hyped, so don’t fall for it.
Barrett is well respected, both in Arizona and by grad schools nationwide. The study abroad program is cool, and so are the research opportunities. You will meet a lot of people from everywhere, since ASU pulls in a lot of people from all over.
From all of this, you can tell what my advice is. Good luck with your decision!