<p>ROI controlled for major (i.e. same major at each school) will not necessarily result in the same ranking as ROI for the school overall, which is heavily dependent on mix of majors (ignoring other problems with the Payscale ROI calculation).</p>
<p>I am inclined to believe (though I have not seen Chicago’s numbers) that the increment of the salary scale between Mudd and Chicago - for CS - is noticeable. Mudd publishes data of their CS grads and it’s impressive, amongst the highest, if not the highest, in the entire country. </p>
<p>Thank you for all the replies; they are very helpful! I have no problem with the campus or the rigor of the courses, but the additional $40k would indeed be a burden on my family. With these thoughts in mind, I do think U of C would be an incredible school to attend next fall. Before committing to any school though, I am trying to work through all of the options, both for the sake of my family and the future students who may be in similar predicament.</p>
<p>I think HMC is a little too niche-y. And the campus is, yes, not the most aesthetically appealing. The school is even named Mudd for cryin’ out loud. But you do get the benefits of being in the Claremont Consortium, although I’m sure that Chicago has similar resources, if not better.</p>
<p>How is it “niche-y” for the OP? I can understand if he wanted to double major in a humanities subject. But he wants a STEM education. Nothing “niche-y” about the core at Mudd, their results in the job market, or how happy the students are there. The big issue for the OP is seeing if they can get the cost side figured out, possibly by approaching Mudd to see if they can review his FA and possibly adjust it.</p>
<p>“Harvey Mudd over Berkeley as a top feeder school to Silicon Valley? I seriously doubt that. Anyways, if you’re more concerned about post-college outcomes, I would suggest that you go for Mudd, it having performed much better than Chicago in terms of salary scale of graduates. The price difference between Mudd and Chicago can be paid off easily after having a Mudd degree.”</p>
<p>This is probably because people in Uchicago don’t only major in science/math stuff, and also go into things like the humanities and the social sciences which aren’t quite as high paying. </p>
<p>@DrGoogle, even paying $10,000/year extra for Mudd? I am hoping Mudd can adjust their financial aid offers; otherwise I may be taking out loans for Mudd or attending Chicago, depending on my family’s input.</p>
<p>Always call the school and express interest in attending and ask them if they can give you more aid. It does not hurt to ask. Although, I’m aware that the math department there is very good, if you watched the Election last year, I think a Chicago grad predicted Obama election win using math/computer skill.
See link here.
<a href=“Nate Silver: U. of C. grad gets it right”>Nate Silver: U. of C. grad gets it right;
I’m in this field. However, I never worked with anyone from Chicago. I’ve worked in Silicon Valley and there is more UCB than Mudd. Caltech and Mudd are more prevalent down in Southern California.
Last but not least, $10K for CS/engineering major is not significant debt. Who knows, you maybe the next person to start a company like WhatsApp which was sold to Facebook for $19 billion. If you like Mudd I would go for it.</p>
<p>Chicago’s math/cs department is very small, perhaps even smaller than Mudd. And there is no problem with its graduates getting top jobs. A guy I know just started his job at Microsoft last month and some went to Google, Yahoo etc. They were in my DD’s “house” or dorm. If you want to compare ROI within the CS department, I’d say Mudd and Chicago are equal. But why pay $10k /yr more to attend Mudd? </p>
<p>However, Chicago’s cs is very theory oriented, they concentrate on the math/software side of the CS, instead of the hardware side of the business.</p>