<p>With this kind of difference, money should not be a factor in consideration. $80K for four years, you can cover partly by working on campus and your parents can absorb the rest.</p>
<p>What you really need to focus on, is that what you want to with your life. </p>
<ol>
<li>Are you interested in top level science research? This would be my only reason to go to Princeton, if I were in your shoes;</li>
<li>How competitive are you? You may end up in the middle of the pack in Princeton, but top notch in the other two schools, and the latter would be a more desirable position career-wise 4 years from now;</li>
<li>If I want to a safe career and comfortable life, Purdue’s deal sounds sweet to me;</li>
<li>As far as the academics goes, in any schools, one can make it as rigorous as it can be. That’s not the issue. The issue is that who are around you, and who you can discuss your ideas with. </li>
</ol>
<p>In 1962, a first year graduate student in Cambridge University, Brian Josephson made some calculation, and his supervisor, Sir A.B. Pippard guided him through the physics research. This became known as Josephson junction, and won him the Nobel prize in 1973. In the same year, a 4th year undergraduate student of the University of Science and Technology of China, Wu Hangsheng did a similar calculation, and nobody knew what to do with it. Many years later, the best use that Prof Wu found, was to make it an exam problem.</p>
<p>Please let us know what you ultimately decide.</p>
<p>Further, if you decide on Princeton and do not like it, you can always transfer to USC, provided you get at least a 3.0.</p>
<p>USC would much rather welcome a former Princetonian then somebody from a cc. I have no idea about the quality of Purdue and cannot opine as to you its benefits. I’ve heard, however, it is good for engineering.</p>
You might be underestimating your USC costs a bit. The USC COA this year was $59,000+, so a Trustee scholarship of approximately $44,000 would leave costs of ~$15,000. You would need a Mork or Stamps scholarship to bring the COA down to $10,000/year.</p>
<p>@alamemom, I think you’re right. COA is 59k, tuition pays for 44k, so my COA is closer to 16k. However, I’ve won one scholarship that pays 2.5k a year. I also heard that USC Trustee students get to participate in “Merit Research” through which they can make 3k a year (and I definitely plan on doing that). I just added those figures into the COA, but yes, the original COA is over 15k.</p>
<p>I am interested in doing computer science/computational neuroscience research at Princeton. I also plan on pursuing graduate studies as well. However, I don’t see myself pursuing research as a career (I can’t imagine myself spending the rest of my life sitting only in a lab, I guess). Right now, I see myself working in industry and eventually starting a company of my own. That seems like a much more exciting path for me. </p>
<p>Is it really more desirable from a career standpoint to graduate as a Beering Scholar from Purdue, than an average student from Princeton? I myself don’t know the answer to this question.</p>
<p>Also, some people (successful businessmen) have told me that if I’m interested in starting up a company, it’s better to graduate from schools like Princeton or Stanford, because people will be more likely to invest in you when you have that “stamp” on your resume. What do you guys think about this?</p>
<p>In Silicon Valley it’s what you know. People aren’t as impressed with elite universities as those on the east coast seemed to be when I worked there. I don’t know much about Princeton, but one of the advantages of Stanford over USC or Purdue is you have venture capitalists with offices just off campus, and lots of professors can introduce you to venture capitalists or angel investors. There’s a huge entrepreneurial vibe at Stanford. </p>
<p>Being familiar with both USC and Stanford, I’d say USC students expect to get very good jobs, while Stanford students expect to start companies. Assuming Purdue is like the Big 10 university I attended my freshman year, both USC and Stanford would offer you better career opportunities.</p>
<p>Have you visited the schools? Have you had a chance to get to know the students at each school? Are there external factors (location, weather, architecture, food, social circles, ECs on campus, etc) that are at all important for you?</p>
<p>My son turned down full rides at UT Dallas, Vanderbilt, and an almost full ride at Caltech (would have been about $1300 a year) as well as fantastic aid at Princeton (also admitted SCEA last year and would have been maybe $2-3k a year after outside scholarship) in order to attend MIT.</p>
<p>I don’t think MIT offers more opportunity on the surface but the student population, his many friendships, his dorm, his deep involvement in Campus Crusade for Christ, and the location of MIT as well as being a STEM school (he’s planning a double major in math and management) were absolutely deciding factors in MIT. This year’s out of pocket costs were very low (apx. $2650), but they will go up each year. Still, it is, by far, the best fit for him out of the 10 schools to which he applied and was accepted.</p>
<p>If you have the luxury, find the school that’s the best fit as far as you can tell. All three of your schools sound just great! Congratulations on having this dilema. :-)</p>
<p>I believe, if you have the time and money, you should visit each campus so you can experience the different vibes of each schools. Choose the campus you see yourself going for the next 4 or so years. Congrats and good luck!</p>
<p>I find it amusing in a pathetic sort of way that Bruins have descended on the USC board to discourage this kid from attending our university. I hope this young man does attend USC because he will fit in and be accepted into the Trojan Family with open arms. I’m not sure he will be as well received either at Princeton or Purdue. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that he will be happier at USC.</p>
<p>And, to the OP: you will enjoy yourself in the California sunshine, proudly wear your cardinal and gold, and might even meet your soulmate in the process! One final thought: you will not regret your decision if you become a USC Trojan!</p>
<p>^ Couldn’t have said better myself! What I find very appealing to USC is the whole Trojan family vibe. I’m looking forward to becoming a Trojan either as a undergrad or grad! I hope I hear the best of the good news in 3 more weeks! :D</p>
<p>I think Princeton makes the most sense. It’s Princeton. And this is coming from a person who wouldn’t apply ED to the ivies cause she loves USC so much</p>
<p>Where do you see yourself starting up that company and living after college? Princeton may have the most cachet on the East Coast. USC on the West Coast, and Purdue in the middle. Just a thought.</p>
<p>USC has cachet in California. Once you leave the state, it’s known more as a football school. </p>
<p>As for Purdue, I grew up next door in Ohio, and Purdue didn’t have any kind of cachet. It wasn’t until a several years ago that I learned Purdue had a reputation as a good engineering school, but most people aren’t going to know that.</p>
<p>Well USC has a very solid reputation on the East Coast and in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, thousands of students at USC are from Washington State, Texas, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, which is indicative of how far USC’s reputation and alumni extend. And USC enrolls the most East Coast prep school students of any school on the West Coast, perhaps, given its size, exceeding Stanford. </p>
<p>More importantly and convincingly,that the original poster has applied to and is seriously considering USC supports these facts and belies the old fashioned, fuddy duddy and largely uninformed stereotype of USC being only a football school.</p>
<p>Not true. The OP said he was interested in something computer science-related, and my answer was geared toward that. I’ve been doing this CS stuff since 1983. I can’t think of any hiring manager I’ve known, including me, who would bring someone in or reject them because Purdue was on their resume.</p>
<p>Having an undergraduate degree from Princeton (or Stanford, MIT, CMU, Caltech) would get someone’s attention, and there’s a decent chance you’d be brought in for an interview on that basis alone. Graduating from USC (or UC Berkeley, UCLA) would be a plus, but that alone wouldn’t be any guarantee of being brought in for an interview.</p>
<p>In most high-tech companies, resumes get sent directly to hiring managers, who are the people you would be directly reporting to if you were to be hired. Those managers are more concerned with whether you have the skills to do the job than where you went to school.</p>
What I find very appealing to USC is the whole Trojan family vibe. I’m looking forward to becoming a Trojan either as a undergrad or grad! I hope I hear the best of the good news in 3 more weeks! :D</p>