Hi all, My daughter got into University of Washington and also Georgia tech for Mechanical engineering major. She is confused as to which one to choose as we don’t have any set criteria to make the decision. Any professional advice on this would be helpful with certain important points put forward explaining why that college would be better choice? Thanks in advance.
Cost and debt at each?
At Washington, did she get “Direct to College” of Engineering admission? Note that there is still a secondary admission process to specific majors: https://www.engr.washington.edu/admission/directtocollege/faq .
They are both very good programs. GT would be hard to justify on a pure ROI basis IF she has direct admit to major at U Dub. If not, that’s a pretty big risk to assume. Dedicating a year and then not getting her major of choice would be a huge bummer!
Well, one is hyper-selective with no guarantee, and the other one is triple the tuition. It doesn’t sound like either one are especially great options. Are there any other options available, like WSU?
Yes, she got into COE. We are ok to cover her cost where she would be a good fit. GT would be approx 100K more for 4 years in all. But we are not sure if its a much better choice. Thanks for your input.
It’s certainly not a $100K better choice on a opportunity cost basis. $100k invested at 7% over 40 years nets out to $1.5M. That’s how much MORE she’d have to make with a GT degree than a UW degree to break even. That’s assuming you don’t need to be leveraged to make up the difference. It does of course assume historical post-inflation stock market returns which may not happen. Any way you slice it and dice it though, a differential of $100K between ANY two schools is a lot, let alone two as well regarded as those. She will have different opportunities at each, but good ones at both. According to LinkedIn, the top 5 employers of GT grads are: Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and Intel. The UW top 5 are: Microsoft, Boeing, Amazon, Google, Amazon Web Services and Facebook.
No reason to go to Georgia Tech if U-Dub is the other option.
Has it become easier to get into Mechanical Eng at UW once you are already in the CoE via Direct Admit? Curious to hear (and hopeful) whether securing your Eng major of choice is easier now with Direct Admit.
OP’s child would have made a choice long ago and OP had not been on CC since April. Closing thread