UNC Full Ride or Stanford?

I recently was accepted into Stanford RD and am now heavily reconsidering whether or not I should accept Stanford or a full merit ride offer from The University of North Carolina under their scholars program. Financially, UNC takes the cake for obvious reasons. However, after speaking to some I’ve been told Stanford could offer a wider range of resources and opportunities unbeknownst to UNC as well as better career prospects. However, my family’s EFC is very high and I would have to pay full price at Stanford, which inevitably means loans. I’m reaching out here because essentially what I am asking is, is Stanford worth the opprortunity cost of me turning down my offer from UNC as well as paying full price to attend? For reference, my intended major and track is Public Health and Policy as well as Business. I’m very conflicted here as I’ve heard one conflicted message after the other.

Congratulations on your amazing offers and acceptances! I know you are having the same conflicting thoughts about Brown.

This is a very personal decision and one that can’t be answered definitively here. How much money in loans would your parents be taking out? $20,000? $150,000? Can they pay these loans if suddenly they are unable to work… without impacting their retirement? What will your career/starting salary be? There are many factors to consider.

Stanford is obviously an amazing school if your family can swing it without hardship. But… I promise you that taking the full ride to UNC is nothing to sneeze at… and will offer you top notch opportunities. Their school of PH is one of the best.

Good luck with this decision… I know how stressful it is for you.

UNC is the wiser choice. Use your parents’ money & your borrowing ability for graduate school.

@Publisher I agree with you, but wanted to present all sides … :-?

OP: Regardless of your decision, you are likely to suffer “buyer’s remorse”. That indicates that both of your offers are incredibly attractive & noteworthy accomplishments. Congratulations ! But a significant part of life is about choices, and, with a well thought out plan, your buyer’s remorse can be minimized.

Is this the Morehead-Cain program? I’ll assume it is.

This is actually a simple question analytically. If you are certain to go to grad or professional school, go to UNC. Your grades and accomplishments in college will get you to the place you need to be, and as a MC scholar you will get tremendous support.

If you don’t intend to go to grad or professional school, then go to Stanford. The signal effects of prestige are real and large in the corporate world, and should not be underestimated.

In either case, forget about paying full freight at Brown.

You will have a good educational experience at either school. Congratulations on such wonderful options, and best of luck!

BTW, I know a student who turned down Harvard to go to UNC as a Morehead Scholar, but did not intend to go on to further education. He regretted the choice he made, even a few years out.

How important is your choice of major? Stanford doesn’t offer either a Public Health or a Business major.

@SatchelSF I am not a Morehead Cain scholar; I am a Carolina Scholar which offers a full ride scholarship, but is not the same as Morehead Cain of course

@Pastpower - Well, that makes it a tougher choice, I guess, but I do think the analysis I posted is still basically valid. I would explore to what extent Carolina Scholars are supported - I would imagine greatly because from what I just read on the UNC website it sounds like you are part a very elite group!

For grad and professional school, UNC will not stop you from acceptance at any program. I think I’d lean UNC if I were you, but having spent some time on Stanford’s campus over the past few decades (including as a prospective professional school student), I would find it hard to turn down the lifestyle knowing what I know now. If you are not living in NorCal now, I’d advise you to steer clear of visiting if you want to retain some rationality in your decisionmaking process!

Best of luck, and congrats again on your choices.

If by business you mean tech, I would pick Stanford. Although, it would be perfectly reasonable to pick a UNC fully.

I knew quite a few Robertson scholars at Carolina, most of whom had turned down HYPS or similar schools. All of them loved Carolina. For that matter, I know very few people who attended Carolina without scholarships who didn’t absolutely love it. The plural of anecdote is not evidence, admittedly!

UNC and nearby Duke are two of the best places to study public policy, and there is cross-registration between the two. Additionally, Carolina has a very good undergrad business program on top of its top-notch school of public health (second only to Hopkins, per USNWR - for what that’s worth). A full ride with all of the advising, networking, and other perks that comes with it is hard to pass up unless your family is flush with cash and can’t see yourself anywhere but Stanford, I think.

Given your interests (e.g. public policy or business/econ), I would go with Stanford as long as your family can support your Stanford education to some extent. There is a reason why you did not get financial aid from Stanford…your family did not qualify. Here are my key reasons…(1) Stanford has amazing institutions…Hoover Institution, Haas Center for Public Policy, and offers Public Policy major; Just take a look at the opportunities offered under their Cardinal Services initiative (https://haas.stanford.edu/); The service opportunities are limitless; (2) Majority of freshmen change major at least once after going to college; Stanford can provide a better flexibility and opportunities, if your interests change; (3) Life is about seizing the opportunities, and taking calculated risks. If you can, go to Stanford’s Admit Weekend and check it out.

If you go with Stanford, how much in debt would you be after 4 years?

How much will your parents be paying each year if you went to S? How much would they be borrowing each year? And would they be paying that loan back

How much would you, the student, be expected to borrow each year if you went to S?

What do your parents want to do? If you are full pay and they want to send you to Stanford, and you want to go to Stanford, then case closed. Go to Stanford. We don’t know the details of their finances and likely you don’t know it all either - maybe loans aren’t a big deal cause grandparents are sitting on money or they have real estate, etc. Or maybe doing this is all they ever wanted to do for their children and means the world to them. So listen to what your parents want to do. And do it without guilt. Their financial choices are their own, they are grown ups.

It is mature of you to ask questions. but regardless, don’t let strangers on the internet make you feel bad about a choice - their situation is not yours. This is you and your parent’s decision.

How many years would you estimate it will take you or your parents to pay off $250,000 in college loan debt? Or would it be less debt? Do you have a college fund worth half of the total due over four years? That was a rhetorical question so don’t answer. The amount of debt taken on matters though, in terms of making a decision about the risk/reward and potential of return on investment.

One huge plus for Stanford is that Secretary Condoleeza Rice is still there and is involved in both the business school and public policy, although business is not an UG major at Stanford. Can’t find a better mentor than Secretary Rice!

Not saying that Condoleeza Rice isn’t a potential draw, but I highly doubt she’s mentoring undergraduates at Stanford.

The important question: What do your parents say? Are you from a wealthy enough family (or a frugal enough family) that paying for Stanford wouldn’t really be much of a burden on your family’s finances? That makes a big difference.

Stanford is an excellent university with vast resources and opportunities. But so is Carolina. Carolina’s got great strengths in public health and business at the undergrad level as well as a variety of other things, if you change your mind. Of course, Stanford does too. I’m not sure that Stanford universally provides better career prospects than Carolina, across all fields and options. (Even if they do…is it $250K+ worth of better career prospects?) That, of course, would depend entirely on what you wanted to do and what you did at each university once you got there. The important part is you could be fantastically successful coming from either one.

If money is even a little bit of a concern, then I think UNC’s the right choice here - it’s a fantastic school and you don’t have to stress or worry about money.

If money’s no object, then it’s really just about which one you like better, IMO.

And to me, that’s the question here. Your post is full of the things that other people have told you about UNC and Stanford. What do YOU think? Do you have a preference? There are no wrong answers here!

@juillet, Secretary Rice has had recent UG research interns at Stanford, particularly student athletes, but if persistent, I think she would also be open to non athletes. Secretary Rice is also from the South (Alabama) and might give some deference to a motivated student from the Carolinas with passion for public policy. No harm in trying to reach out to her once on campus.

Wow. You have a tough choice. But full ride is tough to pass up. How much would mom/dad have to borrow for Stanford? How much are they willing to pay each year? If you ask them, they may surprise you if they have the savings and are willing to pay for Stanford. If not, you have an amazing option as your “backup plan”, (says tongue in cheek).

Stanford is perhaps the finest all around university on earth. Saying that, it is not worth 250K more to attend over UNC. No school is, unless money is not a concern.