<p>I am a prospective transfer student who finished all the Gen. Ed. and 2 year science courses (math, chemistry, physics, etc.) so I would only have 2, realistically 3 years to go until I get my undergraduate degree. I have applied to USCs petroleum engineering program and have to evaluate the total cost of school versus the potential earnings I will make after graduation. Is it true that the engineering students receive more aid and merit scholarships than those in the non-science degrees? Has there ever been cases where students who attended USC left with less debt than say someone who graduated from a UC? Any advice or comments would be appreciated.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for everyone but I’ll have 47k in loans by the time i’m done (15k out of pocket, so about 62k total). USC is a private University, though, so it’s more expensive. (I want to say when I was looking into it, I saw 50k a year, but don’t quote me on it, since it’s been a while!)</p>
<p>What university do you attend?</p>
<p>I personally wouldn’t place too much faith in engineers getting any more aid than average even from a private like usc.</p>
<p>I believe the general rule of thumb is to take on no more debt than what you expect your first year’s salary will be. I think 60k starting is a conservative number for petroleum engineers these days.</p>
<p>My daughter graduated from USC with no debt, because she had NMF scholarship. But all her friends had debt and are still paying. But I think your major has potential of high earnings and you should be able to pay it back.</p>
<p>56k here, 65k starting salary</p>
<p>In my school, the schools of engineering may have more money, but the scholarships are also way more competitive than the other schools.</p>
<p>Do try to minimized the loans, especially if high interest. I think that Stafford (about $24K? over 4 years) is doable, but even that will be a burden. Leave a buffer because Engineering often takes more than 8 semesters. </p>
<p>I bumped my old 2010 thread -
<a href=“Loan payback examples ? - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/897652-loan-payback-examples.html</a></p>
<p>This was helpful when we were considering loans… sorry, I don’t recall the interest rate (but thread has links to calculators) </p>
<p>**** STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED BALLPARK ESTIMATE *****
$5500/year for 4 yrs ==>
$300/month payments after graduation
(assumiing 10 years to repay)</p>
<hr>
<p>What program are you applying for? I’m pretty sure USC does not have an undergraduate petroleum engineering degree.</p>
<p>It is Mechanical engineering with an “emphasis” on petroleum engineering. I am instead going to UT-Austin for Petroleum engineering. COA for an OOS student is ~$40k</p>
<p>jesus 40k per year? SO you will be pretty much paying the same for law school? That’s way to much. I pay like 10k a year to go to school…</p>
<p>My COA for my OOS tuition is around $40k a year as well. However, if you put in my gross co-op salary and scholarships, I’ve already paid off over half the sticker price. Plus I think my college and education is great. </p>
<p>For me (and my parents), $40k a year is worth it. Pus UT-Austin has MASSIVE ties to Petroleum industry, so nice choice!</p>
<p>What is the cost to attend USC? Have you looked up who recruits at USC?</p>
<p>@sapere31 Kudos to you but this is a buyers market and my education is an investment. I considered ROI and academic environment is very important to me. Also, I would like to circumvent graduate school unless an employer will pay for me to go. Petroleum engineering will allow me to enter the workforce immediately after graduation. That will be harder to do with a regular mechanical engineering degree even if its from a UC. Unfortunately, my parents went to college and are middle class so I wont have financial aid. UCLA COA is $33k, Berkeley is $32k, USC is $60k, CSUN is a dump for “engineering” students who do the absolute minimum to get by in there classes and severely lacks in intellect(COA for CSUN is $22k). UT Austin will provide me an immense intellectual environment for me to grow in while offering a unique degree with great internship opportunities to help shave off of that $40k COA.
I read that you go to SDSMT. ROI is great at that school but it definitely is not pushing the frontiers of engineering. Its clear that we want different things out of our education and have different means of going about it. </p>
<p>@noleguy33 COA of USC is $60k. I do not think recruiting is very strong at USC. Its very hard to get information on the matter so I would be skeptical of the internship opportunities from that university. </p>
<p>…No reason to go after someones school because they feel that 40k is a lot. </p>
<p>My comment did come off as condescending. I should have specified that I am looking into research universities. </p>
<p>Yeah, but a major like PetEng has a lot of people switch once they get in it. GeoSciences sounds a lot better on paper then it really is. Truth is you will probably just be doing data analysis and plotting. The people who ‘push’ the frontiers are the mechanical engineers because they design all the cool equipment (fracking, etc.(actually fracking was designed by a petroleum engineer in the 50s but the modern design is definitely heavily partnered within the two majors)). So, your argument can go both way @Redeyejedi. You should probably take a few geoscience courses before you hop in it. I am sure you will realize it is not what you thought (as I did).</p>
<p>And my school also has a lot of research going on… Our geology/mining department has over 5 different projects going on this summer. A lot of schools have big research projects that go on. Truth is, at a gigantic school like UT there will be only 15 spots open for about 600+ students (including graduate students) and do you really think they will pick up an undergrad? You have to think about that a little more.</p>
<p>Have you looked into New Mexico Tech? I’ve met a few of their students and they seemingly have some good undergraduate research going on. </p>