I have been very stressed out trying to make this decision, especially with only two weeks left in the decision process! For those who do not know, Eminence scholar entails a full ride to ohio state, including room and board (even if off campus), a faculty mentor, and a $3,000 dollar enrichment fund. Chicago has quoted me at around $20,000 for the first year (assuming this will go down because my brother will be in college next year). My family takes in about 100k after taxes per year if that helps with perspective. I plan on studying philosophy and economics, and most likely pursing a law degree after. Which school will give me a better chance to do this? which will allow for a better return? which encapsulates a better experience academically and socially? I feel like if I go anywhere but Chicago I will regret passing up the opportunity, especially if I do not end up going to law school, but at the same token I don’t want to be a financial burden. Free college is free college so there’s that. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated; what would you do?
TL; DR full ride at Ohio State or 20k at UChicago?
OP - Congratulations on your accomplishments. You’ve got 2 great options.
We were in a very similar situation: top scholarship to flagship State university or UChicago and about $20 K in merit / need based aid.
What do you want to do? In our situation I was willing to let son decide and he picked UChicago. I did this for several reasons. One I trusted my son; he had always been very appreciative of and responsible with his opportunities,he had always been hard working, and I was confident he would make the very best of it. Since entering UChicago he hasn’t let me or himself down in that regard. Two, I really thought he was the type who would thrive at UChicago–that is someone who is deeply involved with his studies and who values learning for its own sake. Third, we had set aside the money, so I was willing to spend it. Fourth, I wanted my son to experience the “deep pond” of a very high level academic setting. I didn’t want my son to wonder about UChicago later, and possibly regret not going. By the way, for us the “big pond” includes the Hyde Park neighborhood inside of one of the great big cities in the world. We come from a mid sized city in the mid-South.
In terms of law school, I think you can get to the very best law schools from either university. I do think that a 3.5 from UChicago will be slightly more valued than a 3.5 from OSU, but I don’t know of any reason why you wouldn’t get similar LSAT’s from either place. And as you probably know that’s what top law schools want: grades and great LSAT scores.
How important is the major Big-10 football game experience / party atmosphere to you? To my son it carried almost no value, so he has not missed that part at all. You will not get that at UChicago. While there is certainly school pride and spirit, it is not centered around sports.
I will say that if you do choose UChicago, you will have to work hard. Economics and / or Philosphy are great majors at UChicago, but they are far from cakewalks. Economics is highly quanititative at UChicago, particularly if you move into the pre-PhD track, and the quarter system throws the work at you fast and hard.
So there you go. Best of luck to you.
I heartily endorse everything that @kaukauna wrote. I would especially focus on how much do you “value learning for its own sake.” If this is your nature, to learn for the sake of learning, then you should try to make U.Chicago work for you. If, however, you are more interested in professional preparation (particularly law), then OSU would work well. Again, @kaukauna is correct:
Hi! Congratulations on receiving this scholarship! I was recently awarded the Eminence Fellows scholarship as well, and created an account as soon as I saw your post. My situation was extremely similar to yours. I fell in love with Saint Louis University and received a 22,000 scholarship, leaving about 21,000 of tuition to pay per year. Their Nursing program, its size, and general atmosphere all really appealed to me. I was completely set on attending SLU. Last week I was pretty shocked when I was told I received the scholarship from OSU, and I had no idea what to do. At first, in my mind, it was trying to decide between my “dream” school and the “right/smart” school… I was so torn.
After about a day went by, I started thinking more about it. The program at OSU provided so many positives in my mind. The following really stand out to me:
- Having the opportunity to be a distinguished member of such an honorable group of students
- Receiving faculty mentors that work with you very individually to foster growth, learning, and research opportunities
- Making an automatic group of friends and peers who share similar values, goals, and ambitions in life
- With an education that is completely paid for, studying abroad and other similar opportunities are made to be much more possible
- The sustainable project that the group of Eminence Fellows work on together throughout all four years will be a great way to learn leadership, teamwork, as well as make a name for yourself early on in your educational career
All in all, the opportunities slowly made OSU seem right for me. Being a part of the Eminence Fellows is something that will FOREVER be a part of not only your resume, but your life, and surely help you to stand out when applying to law school. Keep us posted on what you decide to do:)
Do your parents have any money saved up for your college fund? Personally, I think $80k for four years at UofC is extremely reasonable, but law school is expensive, so there’s that. Also, most people who are prospective Econ majors end up majoring in something else because of the rigor, so keep that in mind. All in all, it looks like you might have to take on some debt, but I wouldn’t let that deter you from attending UofC.
Also, @NROTCgrad, the career prep here is very good. You will without a doubt have better law school opportunities from here than from OSU. At OSU, you need to be a complete star to have a shot at the top law programs, which can be hard to do if your peers aren’t at the same level. At UofC, that’s not the case.
Heres my advice to you. Think farther ahead. Does it matter to you which specific law schools you will attend?Yale Law perhaps? Ohio State Law or Georgetown law maybe? If yes, list them down and look at their 1y, 2y and 3y profiles. How many came from OSU (+fellowship) and UChicago (+major)?
While prior performance is not a good predictor of success, its is a damn good one.
@Pickles85 I was in a similar situation too! It’s good to know that there are others out there that are in the same boat, because I felt so bad about hesitating to accept Eminence when it’s such a great offer. This thread makes me feel a lot better. I had originally fallen in love with a different school, but I would be paying around $20,000 each year there. After receiving the Eminence offer, I was completely stuck and felt overwhelmed. After seriously looking at the doors that Eminence will open for me, though, as well as all the wonderful people I’ll get to work with, I think that OSU is the right place for me. Hope to see you on campus next year! Congratulations on your Eminence offer!