<p>I am currently a senior at Braintree high school and have applied to all my colleges. I got deffered from WPI and Rutgers New Brunswick, and I got accepted to UMASS Lowell, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Penn State University Park and UCONN for engineering. I haven't heard from Boston University of Northeastern yet. I am torn between going to UMASS Lowell Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Penn State, and UCONN. Anyone's opinion on where to go is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>what do the net price calculators tell you about what your parents are going to have to put up for each school? you cannot make a decision without a pretty exact idea of costs. What will be your particular engineering major, do you think, and does each school have that particular major?</p>
<p>Penn State. It is more well known and has a better alumni pool that UCONN or Maritime Academy. Part of attending a college is the alumni group you will become a part of after your graduation. If you go to Penn State, the friends you make and professors you meet will be more connected to individuals with influence and power. Basically, the higher quality of student body and professor, the more and better internships/coops/jobs you are exposed to. Give Harvard all the crap in the work (trust me, most Princetonians and other top-notch university students do), but one of the main reasons people attend Harvard is the illustrious alumni group they become apart of after 4 years. This gives them enormous influence to enter whatever field they choose FAR ahead of their equal aged college graduates. </p>
<p>That being said, however, you need to evaluate whether or not you want to go to into the military. If your answer to the above question is a yes, then you need to get yourself in gear and head for the Maritime Academy. There you will learn, then serve in Iraq or another US military zone for a term and then return to the US. Most of your connections will be through the military and you will, subsequently, be able to obtain a government job with greater ease that someone without a military education and service record. Obviously, government jobs aren’t the greatest nor the most flexible, but they are stable and are almost guaranteed for anyone with military experience.</p>
<p>Cdrake, I suggest reading up on the Massachusetts Maritime Academy since you seem to believe that it’s a military academy which it most definitely is not. </p>
<p>Mass Maritime is a remarkably different school than most of your other choices, particularly PSU and BU, both of which are not known for good aid. Can you afford all of the schools in question without taking on significant debt? Do you prefer an urban, suburban, or rural environment?</p>
<p>Can you list the cost for each school, after any scholarship but before any loan? (actual numbers)</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t know what exactly I want to do specifically with engineering. All I know is I love doing physics and calculus. As for cost, PSU is like 39000 a year with room and board, UCONN is around 41000 a year with room and board, Mass Maritime is around 17000 a year with room and board, and UMASS Lowell is around 22000 a year with room and board. No matter where I decide to go, I don’t plan on commuting. I’m currently on the hunt for scholarships. Also, I would prefer a suburban/rural environment but that’s at the bottom of my priority list. </p>
<p>The great majority of financial aid comes from the schools themselves, with outside scholarships only having a marginal effect and only on the first year (and sometimes the outside scholarships just diminish your loan, but don’t affect EFC or how much your family’s expected to pay). In short, those numbers are probably what you’re going to be dealing with unless you’re still awaiting financial aid packages.
What do your parents think?
UMass Maritime is a great school, with a guaranteed career path, but it’s not a traditional college. So if you choose it, great but visit first. If you like it, it’s a great choice. If the fit’s not right, choose another school.
UMass Lowell for engineering would be perfectly fine, and it’s certainly not worth it paying double for UConn or (nearly) Penn State. If your parents have 40k X4 in a college fund then I’d take Penn State over UConn because of the alumni network but it’s an awful lot of money for a career that’s performance-based, not prestige-based (ie., your ability to get a job will depend entirely on your grades, work ethics, and internships, not on the school you go to.)</p>