I have to pay 40K per year more for MIT. It is doable without loans, but still difficult. Everyone tells me that I am crazy for giving up MIT for UCSD. I got into UCB for L&S, but I don’t really want to attend.What should I do?
Did you get direct admission to the CS major at UCSD? It is competitive admission to get into the CS major at UCSD if you are not directly admitted, and there have been some postings claiming that very high GPAs are needed.
UCB L&S CS requires a 3.3 GPA in its prerequisite courses to declare the major.
@ucbalumnus Yes. I have direct admission to CSE at UCSD.
It’s easy for others to say that when they’re not paying.
I might pay a premium of $15,000 year to go to MIT, but for CS where you went to school isn’t that big of a deal. I’ve had co-workers from MIT and UCSD and Stanford and Berkeley sitting in the same little cubicles that I sat in, doing the same mundane work that I did.
@CA2020 How much debt do you think you will be in if you get your degree at MIT vs if you get your degree at UCSD?
It is hard to see how MIT is worth the price premium you state when you have direct admission to UCSD CSE and presumably intend to go into computing employment or CS graduate study.
And even if where you went to school were important for CS, UCSD’s program is hard to beat.
Whoa. MIT is better, but not $160,000 better. If you’re academically talented enough to get into MIT, you should be able to take advantage of the opportunities at UCSD.
I like to give advice that is against popular opinion, so please allow me to do that here.
Money can always be made. Debt can be paid off. Happens all the time.
Admission to arguably the world’s best technical education happens once (ok maybe twice) in a lifetime.
I remember graduating from college and looking at the TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS IN DEBT! I had when I left, wondering how I would ever pay it off?
The debt is long paid off of course, and laughable now. Thank goodness I took those loans. By the time you are my age, $160K will seem like $10K. (OK, maybe $30K? lol) The fact you don’t have to take debt to do it makes it a no-brainer.
You are one of the elite and uniquely gifted. Go be with your people and never look back. Highly unlikely you will regret that decision, but entirely possible you’ll regret the other.
Everyone is stupid. MIT is an excellent school and if the cost to you is close, it would be an easy choice.
The difference is career income between grads from both schools would never make up the extra 160K.
How is OP any more likely to regret attending UCSD than to regret attending MIT? Both have excellent CS programs, both have a lot of very bright students (even if the bottom of the class is definitely stronger at MIT), and many students enjoy their experience at either school.
Plenty of “elite and uniquely gifted” students choose a different school for financial reasons; UCSD is a wonderful school that has many students who are “elite and uniquely gifted.”
Because he indicates if the costs were the same he would choose MIT, meaning to me he would prefer it, and therefore possibly have regret.
If he viewed them as equal or preferred UCSD, there wouldn’t even be a thread.
And this is no slight against UCSD, a fine school – but you know that much of the world considers an MIT degree a cut above? I am not saying it is justified, but it is so.
@CA2020 Assuming you want to go to MIT and the only thing that’s holding you back is the cost:
- Each person values money differently, so none of us can tell you whether it's "worth" the cost or not. Obviously graduating with significant debt may present a hardship later. But with a degree in CS from MIT, providing you work hard, you're likely to be making 100K+ a year. So unless things go south, you will be able to repay your debt. So the question is, are you willing to give up a % of you salary for some years (maybe put off buying that house for a few years or sacrificing some other things), in order to attend MIT? If not, then go to UCSD. If so, then go to MIT. You either get what you want now but have a harder time later, or you give up what you want for an easier time later. You'll get a fine education at UCSD, though MIT offers opportunities that UCSD does not.
Just like some people would rather save up and spend $100K to buy a Porsche while others would prefer to spend $25K on a Civic and use the $75K for something else. Either gets you from point A to point B, but the experience is different.
Can’t make the decision about whether it is worth the extra but you are going in to a field where you will be able to pay off loans relatively quickly. You have been invited to attend the best CS program on the planet. Or, you could go to an excellent program (top 20 in US). The opportunities MIT students have are unparalleled And I would bet that, given identical credentials going in, the one attending MIT would end up with an advantage because of the entrepreneurial climate, the collaborations across students, IAP (January term), and the MIT network. I’d normally not suggest the more expensive option, at least not necessarily but in Computer Science I think MIT is far ahead of UCSD-although UCSD is excellent.
MIT
@Postmodern, what was the average starting salary for CS majors and college grads when you graduated?
One other consideration – what do you think of general education requirements? MIT has relatively heavy general education requirements; see http://catalog.mit.edu/mit/undergraduate-education/general-institute-requirements/ . UCSD’s general education requirements vary by residential college: http://provost.ucsd.edu/colleges/compare.html .
Also, semester (MIT) versus quarter (UCSD) system may be a consideration.
I do not recall, nor am I sure why that matters. I do know that a programmer with skills in a desirable OS (like Android programming right now) can easily command $100K-ish and go up fast after that. Programmers are in such demand, if you have good skills you don’t need to have gone to college AT ALL. Many guys on my team are self-taught.
However – and I cannot state this enough – it has nothing to do with how much you earn vs. how much you can make.
What matters is letting a relatively small amount of money stop you from following your dream. OP clearly would prefer to choose MIT. My advice remains follow your dream, because you can’t turn back the clock.
I wouldn’t call $160K relatively small. OP will be earning maybe not $90k, but $70K with UCSD CS degree for the fraction of the cost of MIT. UCSD is still ranked pretty high. If it was ranked in 100+ I would recommend going to MIT and fulfill your dream now. But with UCSD BS OP can go to elite graduate program or put down payment on his first house. Most of the people will go to graduate school anyway so “brand” of undergraduate school especially for engineering doesn’t matter anymore.
Indeed, @Postmodern, $160K may be small to you, but not to most people.
And I’m wondering if your example is flawed. If, for instance, the starting salary was $20K a year when you graduated, then $10K then is comparable to $40K in loans now, which most people would consider reasonable for a CS major.
The tech bubble may burst and interest compounds while it’s almost impossible to discharge student loan debt under current rules.
I’ve lived on $90K before (I’m sure you have too), and even while being fairly frugal and single in a high-cost city, after taxes and living expenses, you have, what? 20K left over? That’s a lot of years of payment to retire your student loans rather than saving in a rainy day fund (the tech industry had big swings up and down) or to go towards retirement or a house. That’s a lot of years of compounding working against you rather than for you.
And sure, you may hit it rich at MIT, but what if you don’t?