<p>Last month I sent in my $650 deposit for BU at the College of Engineering. My financial aid package wasn't all that great.
13k Grant
~2.5k Federal loans
That means my parents would have to pay 30k+ a year </p>
<p>Last week I recieved an email from the director of CUNY Honors at City College saying that I am off their waitlist and is being admitted. If you do not know already, CUNY honors offers free tuition, $7500 a year grant, free laptop, and they gave me an extra $5000 merit award as well.</p>
<p>Now I am split between where I should go. If money was not a problem, I would probably go for BU because it offers a great college experience and its academics are pretty decent. At CUNY Honors, I'd probably be commuting from and to class and there isn't really any "college experience". However, $120,000+ in addition to interest compared to practically $0 and the extra grant+scholarship cannot be easily overlooked. Graduating from BU I will already be in a deep hole financially, plus the financial burden on my family. Graduating from CUNY Honors can allow me to start clean. It would help a lot to pay for grad school as well.</p>
<p>CUNY Honors is a new school (first graduating class 2005) and does not really have that name notoriety as BU does already. If I went to CUNY Honors would I get the same opportunities after college in terms of employment or grad school admission as BU?</p>
<p>I don't have much time to decide either, I have until the 22nd. Till then I'll go visit them and ask tons of questions.</p>
<p>Thanks to anyone for your input! It is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Can your parents pay 30,000 or close to it a year? I realize it is a struggle but if they can swing it (or most of it) I would say stay with BU.
If they would take out all loans then go with CUNY.
But first go and visit...you may love/hate one or the other...</p>
<p>What I probably have to do is split the cost between my parents and me. So its probably 15k student loans and then 15k from my parents' savings or a small loan.</p>
<p>Nah man, go to CUNY Honors. It's notoriety is definitely growing. And by the time you graduate, it will be even BETTER. Plus, it's respect is great in NYC; that's all you need for jobs, and so forth.</p>
<p>"CUNY Honors is a new school (first graduating class 2005) and does not really have that name notoriety as BU does already."</p>
<p>"Nah man, go to CUNY Honors. It's notoriety is definitely growing. And by the time you graduate, it will be even BETTER. Plus, it's respect is great in NYC; that's all you need for jobs, and so forth."</p>
<p>Notoriety means famous in a negative sense. Just for future reference.</p>
<p>I think CUNY honors. Maybe i should have applied to CUNY honors so i could get that laptop. But no worries I'll be pretty close to CUNY anyways.
I personalyl think BU is overrated. Don't go there. BU is not known for engineering especially. Go to CUNY honors btw last year's intel winner turned down harvard and yale for CUNY honors. Top that!!</p>
<p>i got off the cuny honors waitlist too and i also got into bu. i'm going to neither but cuny honors only takes like 80 kids out of 800 applications. bu isn't a really big 'college experience' either. trust me, i went for the summer program. it's not a very cozy campus- you'll just be away from home.</p>
<p>go for CUNY Honors you'll be getting paid to go to college and then be able to go through grad school with little financial strain. </p>
<p>Also, if you're planning on attending grad school i've heard from my teachers that it's your graduate school and not your under graduate school that will matter. Even if you decide to just do whatever with your under grad degree it's like the other dude said, the CUNY Honors program likely carries a lot of weight in NYC and NYC has all the jobs you need, right?</p>
<p>im goin to CUNY honors college, city college, and got that same $5,000 merit award..</p>
<p>id say choose CUNY Honors, their name is growing, and BU is very
overrated..</p>
<p>i chose that over two name schools: NYU and BC..</p>
<p>i chose CUNY over NYU because i heard many regret going after the four years are over, not to mention the debt..also, i didn't get a good vibe when i went to visit NYU, but i liked city college..worst comes to worse, ill transfer..</p>
<p>didn't consider BC beacause my sister went there, i hated it when i visited there, not my type of school..</p>
<p>CUNY is a really good deal, especially if you plan to going to a graduate school..u will not have nearly as much debt..</p>
<p>I think CUNY honors. Maybe i should have applied to CUNY honors so i could get that laptop. But no worries I'll be pretty close to CUNY anyways.</p>
<p>I personalyl think BU is overrated. Don't go there. BU is not known for engineering especially. Go to CUNY honors btw last year's intel winner turned down harvard and yale for CUNY honors. Top that!!</p>
<p>Actually, BU has a very good engineering school. Yesterday, in fact, I talked to a family friend of mine who is a junior at BU Engineering and he loves it. That said, dont go to BU if you cannot pay for it.</p>
<p>go to CUNY honors. unless you absolutely don't want to, and want to go to BU, the loans will not be worth it. cuny honors is a great education and nyc is amaazzingg (okay, i'm biased, i live here). this will be the same in boston, but the opportunities for jobs and internships is fantastic- without the financial worries.</p>
<p>I'd definitely say CUNY honors. BU isn't THAT much of a "college experience", if you know what I mean... the campus is practically nonexistant, and I've lived in MA for seventeen years of my life... it's not really as prestigious as you think it is. And when you're going for job applications, it's NOT about the prestige/how famous your undergrad school was.</p>
<p>If you're getting 150k A YEAR to go to COLLEGE, well then, why the hell not? That's more then a lottttt of occupations make these days. And once you're out, you have all that extra money you saved from going to BU instead to spare on other things!</p>
<p>Well tomorrow I am going to take a day off and go visit City College and see how its like for the CUNY Honors kids there. Unfortunately classes ended today so I won't be able to sit in on one. As long as I can talk to a couple of honors kids that'll be fine. Time to ask tons of questions.</p>