OP, I want to make sure I’m understanding this correctly.
You’re not sure what you want to major in, but you’re inclined towards something with technology/CS.
You will be allowed to major in CS at ASU.
You will be allowed to switch majors into any field you’re interested in at ASU.
You will be unable to major in CS at UIUC.
It will be extremely difficult to major in Computer Engineering at UIUC.
You do not want to study a CS+ extra field at UIUC.
For the matter of what you want to study, ASU seems like the obvious winner here.
If you go to UIUC you will probably have at least $100k in loans. If you go to ASU you will probably graduate debt-free. Here is the College Scorecard data on Computer Science and Computer Engineering from ASU and UIUC.
UIUC’s CS salary is the highest. But you won’t be allowed to major in CS, so it doesn’t matter what the salary is.
UIUC’s Comp. Eng. salary is second highest (although it will be extremely difficult to get this as a major).
If you get UIUC’s CE major AND you graduate in four years, then maybe you’d be earning an average of $15k more/year. When you think about how many years you would need to earn at least that much more extra to pay off $100k (plus the interest that will begin accruing immediately for non-federal loans), you’re talking probably at least a decade. And all of that is premised on the SLIM possibility of getting CE as a major. What happens if you don’t get CE?
Frankly, I don’t see an upside to UIUC for you. To me this is a very clear choice: ASU all the way. Go Sun Devils!
ps, you still get the ‘prestige points’ of being able to say you were accepted to UIUC. Based on a lot of experience of college admissions & HS students, I can tell you that in roughly 8 weeks that will matter to you ~75% less to you than it does right now, and that by August it will matter to you 95% less than it does right now.
I can also tell you that when you graduate debt-free with a good job offer in 4 years time, you will have to practice not gloating when you meet peers who can’t do stuff (afford a new car, buy an apt/house, take a fun holiday, etc) because they have college debt to pay and you don’t.
OP- 100K in debt is jaw dropping for a BS. If you were to tell me that for 100K you’d be getting a BS AND an MBA I’d tell you it’s still a lot of money (but we could model out how it MIGHT make sense). But I cannot see a scenario where it works for just a bachelor’s degree.
Do you have no other options than these two? Seems to me you’ve got the college you want but can’t afford, and the college you can afford but don’t want.
I have a question about the Payscale. People say that where you graduate doesn’t really matter especially in the CS field. But looking at your graphs, it really matters.
In this case, what city you work seems more relevant than which school you graduate, correct?
Am I missing anything?
That’s because cost of living is profundly different depending on where you live (recently I saw a video where they explained that you could have a house in Lincoln, Nebraska, for 168K - the same house would cost over 1 million in the Sillicon Valley.)
