DD has admits to these three Bio Medical Engineering programs. She does have Med School aspirations.
USC - no aid - cost 300 k for the 4 years.
UW Madison - around 120k for the 4 years
UMN Twin Cities (in state)- around 110k for the 4 years. The U received a 42M NIH grant recently which will launch some new research / startups.
UWM and UMN have a 1 year MS when you come in from the BS BME program. The MS should put her in a better position for the job market if she wanted to stay in BME.
In my mind the options are clear but would like a second opinion. Are the Trojan network and any better entry level job in BME she might get worth the extra cost? At the end of 4 years - no MS, no money left for Med School. Clearly a rational vs emotional tussle here. She loves the thought of being a student at USC. I feel bad throwing cold water on those aspirations considering the longer road beyond UG.
Making my question simpler. Is USC BME so remarkably better in terms of ROI than a BME from UW Madison to justify a nearly $180k difference?
@mnparent2000, this question is more about personal family finances and rational decision making than anyone on this forum can help with, I’m afraid. Conventional wisdom holds that it’s much wiser to save hundreds of thousands of dollars for med school, or for other siblings’ college, or for parents’ retirement plans, or even to buy a house (!) someday than to pay it to UG, no matter how fabulous the experience (USC is fab) and how great the networking (USC’s is terrific for post-grad career starting–but for those going on to med school, not really an issue). OTOH, many families who can afford the cost choose to pay top dollar for UG for their kid. In your DD’s case, she has admissions from two good public schools and they will give her a very different life for four years than a private in SoCal.
@madbean Response very much appreciated. Agreed. Other than the private versus public experience, in terms of being prepared for the job market or going on to Med School, I’m not seeing too much of a disadvantage with the public schools. We could use the saved money either for DDs future plans or our retirement, etc. An easy decision from my perspective. We will see how the discussions go with DD in convincing her she’s not being shortchanged on the education/training part. Thanks again for the response.