Hi I was admitted to both and am unsure. The only question is money; UCLA is about 10k more, but is it worth the prestige (and opportunities of California)? Maryland gave me no scholarship money, because I didn’t apply early (kinda salty about that). Which one do you think I should attend?
Thanks in advance!
are you OOS for UM
what is your home state
where else were you accepted
@mom2collegekids I live in NJ, OOS for both. And I can really only choose between the two, as I deposited at MAryland but was accepted off the waitlist for UCLA
What are your parents saying about cost? How do they feel about paying $55k per year for UCLA? They’re also paying OOS for your sister at UMaryland?
It’s a shame that with your very high SAT that you weren’t given merit at some school.
@mom2collegekids well the extra 10k would be on my part, as I would have to take out the loans myself. But my parents would have to cosign them. I am wondering if, on my part, it is a good investment. My parents are paying 30k for myself and my sister; the rest is on our part.
If you had asked before the deadline, I would have said Rutgers that comes in below budget. Parent cosigned loans are usually not a good idea, since they can cause financial problems for both you and them.
As it is, choose the one with lesser parent cosigned loans.
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well the extra 10k would be on my part, as I would have to take out the loans myself. But my parents would have to cosign them. I am wondering if, on my part, it is a good investment. My parents are paying 30k for myself and my sister; the rest is on our part.
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UCLA is about $55k per year. Don’t know if that includes cross-country travel costs.
Your parents will pay $30k? So you will be borrowing $20-25k per year? Crazy
I think you should take a gap year and apply to schools that will give you awards for your very high SAT. I wonder what Purdue would give you if you applied by the merit deadline (which is around early Nov).
Another low cost option is to start at a community college and transfer to Rutgers.
This student has something like a 2350 SAT. I don’t think a CC is the right route. If he did a gap year, there are schools that would give him big merit.
I wonder if UDayton would still award him big merit? Anyone know? @“Erin’s Dad” do you know?
CC->Rutgers (in state) would be significantly below the parental budget of $30,000 per year. Rutgers is about that much, but CC is probably $10,000 to $15,000 per year including the relatively expensive tuition at NJ CCs plus books and costs of living at home and commuting to the CC. http://njtransfer.org/ can help determine if a NJ CC is academically suitable.
A gap year would delay by a year entry to the work force as a college graduate in exchange for a year in the work force as a high school graduate. The difference in pay level would likely eat up a significant part of the savings of finding even a full ride after a gap year. For the gap year option to be attractive for this student, there likely needs to be some other compelling reason (e.g. finding a job related to his/her interests and help move forward in his/her academic and professional goals, rather than just a job to bide his/her time until starting college a year later).
^ While I agree with the issue of “delayed employment,” I really don’t think this 2300+ SAT student would even consider starting at a CC. He’s in some sort of competition with his sister who had lower stats, and she went right to a 4 year.
He could apply now to UAH, get a huge scholarship, attend for 2 years and then transfer to where he wants. He could find out if UDayton would still award their large merit for his stats. Miss State Univ would likely still award a huge merit scholarship. So, would UAB, but it doesn’t sound like he’s health-career oriented.
Maybe others could chime in and list some schools with eng/g/CS that would award large merit to this student right now.
If the OP is in some sort of prestige competition with an older sister (currently at UMCP), then it is unlikely that UAH, UAB, Dayton, or Mississippi State will be prestige-competitive.
UMCP out-of-state cost is about $46,000. Since the sister got a $5,000 scholarship, it may have been at the outer limits for her ($11,000 beyond the $30,000 parent contribution, which means federal loan and lots of work hours). If the OP did not get any scholarship, then UMCP is probably out of realistic financial reach.
I’m from Maryland but now live in Los Angeles. UMD has a great CS program but UCLA is one of the top programs in the country. I would go with UCLA not only for the program but for the experience of living on the west coast with internship and friendship (read connections) which are really diverse. Is it worth 10K a year? You’ll probably make that up within the first 2 years of working. Congratulations on getting into 2 great schools.
So you’re saying that the UCLA CS degree would result in a salary $20k per year over the UMD CS degree?
Not a chance, IMO.
My daughter had almost similar situation to the OP. With her 2370 SAT she could go free (with room and board and meals!) to LMU with a Trusty scholarship (comparable perhaps with UM?), but decided to go with UCLA. But with her Regents scholarship at UCLA, we still had to pay 12K/yr more.
(Though afterward she secured a 15k and some lesser private grants…but that was after the fact).
But was the $12,000 for UCLA over budget?
The OP’s situation is that UMDCP was already over budget, and UCLA would have been even more over budget.
The parents will pay for $30k per year. UCLA will be about $55k per year. The $25k per year that the student is supposed to fund/borrow isn’t reasonable.
@ucbalumnus while UDayton, UAH, etc, would not be prestigious for the first two years, they would be highly preferable over a CC.
Probably depends on which CC. http://njtransfer.org indicates that some NJ CCs have better coverage of Rutgers frosh/soph CS courses than others. Of course, it is not guaranteed that Rutgers will see CS courses at UAH/UAB/Dayton/MS-State as equivalent to its own either.
^ Not exactly. But what I could save on one child can go a long way for another!