I was accepted into the Freshman Correction program for Computer Science. I would end up staying local the first year most likely a community college and then going to Maryland for the Spring.
The thing is the cost. I was accepted into a local private college, Hofstra University that isn’t known for CS and their graduates make 60k a year starting. But I would be debt free because the COA is 15k.
If I were to go to Maryland, I would have a much better paying job anywhere from 80-90k but be in 60-70k in debt…
My question is, is Maryland really worth it? Thanks for your help guys!
As a student you can borrow:
Student Federal Direct Loan
Dependent/Independent
freshman 5,500/9,500
sophomore 6,500/10,500
jr 7,500/12,500
sr 7,500/12,500
Loan cap for undergrad 32,000/50,000
UMD has a very good CS reputation and as is typical at big research institution they have a lot of depth and breath in a CS curriculum and likely a recruiting target school for a great deal of hires. I don’t know anything about the program at Hofstra. Are you instate? Did you apply to UMD-BC? That is really a heavy debt load for an undergrad student. What if you want to or have to switch majors? Are you parents putting in 15k so you can go to Hofstra?
There is NO WAY for you to accurately predict YOUR starting salary. Keep that in mind when you are making your matriculation decision.
ETA…you are OOS for MD, as you live in NY.
Did you apply to the SUNY campuses you were considering? What is wrong with those?
Try a SUNY, as said above, specifically Bing, Buff or SB.
Hofstra isn’t amazing. However, i don’t think UMD is worth the debt.
@jdschooled5 Yeah I did apply to two SUNY schools, Stony Brook and Farmingdale. Got wait listed at Stony Brook and accepted at Farmingdale but its essentially a community college.
@BrownParent , my parents are willing to pay 15k a year max. And I don’t think I will switch majors. I already have some experience in CS and really like it. I applied to UMD CP. And Hofstra doesn’t have a strong CS program at all. They are more known for business than anything.
@thumper1 , those figures were from Marylands website. And yes I understand that CS is largely dependent on your individual performance. 
You can’t trust those salary numbers. A company that hires a Hofstra grad is going to pay the same salary to the UM grad.
Who is going to cosign those loan? What are your parents saying?
You don’t have to borrow that much for CS. That is too much debt.
Did you only apply to 3 schools??? You should have applied to more SUNYs.
Bing’s not a sure admit for many kids these days (especially in a popular major). At this point, IMO, it’s either Hofstra or start at a CC or take a gap year or apply for spring admission (and I’d definitely apply to Stony Brook as well as Bing + throw in a few more NYS publics).
First of all, you don’t go into that much debt all at once. Try the Maryland option freshman year. If you do well, borrow more for sophomore year. If you do well…
If you don’t excel or don’t think you will be able to pay back future loans, change course and transfer. Actually, even if you do well, you should have no problem transferring to Stony Brook which also has great CS.
Basically, I’m suggesting that you give a top program a chance and see how YOU fare. Then it will be much easier to assess the value of each incremental loan. Of course, this will be your profession. You should aim to excel - none of this “C for degrees” business.
The OP can’t borrow the money needed to pay for the spring semester at U of MD on his or her own. Someone else will need to co-sign the extra loans. Unless the OP’s parents are up for co-signing, U of MD is not an option.
The realistic options on the table are Hofstra, a local CC for a full year or two before transferring to a SUNY, Farmingdale, or a gap year. It really is that simple.
what is Farmington? Is it a CC? Would it be easy to transfer from it to Bing?
Farmingdale is a SUNY school located on Long Island. It used to be a two year school but is now a four year school. I would imagine that if you do well you can easily transfer to Binghamton. SUNY Farmingdale has dorms.
Can you transfer into Stony Brook for CS? Check and make sure they allow that.
You could potentially also transfer to Stony Brook after your sophomore year at Maryland should you decide that you just don’t want to keep borrowing money. If you choose option1, you don’t need to make that decision now.
My concern, especially on the east coast, is that community college computer science programs are not as rigorous as the courses at the top universities, so even if you could transfer, you are behind the curve and it might require staying longer anyway.
I’m not sure where you are getting the figures for income but I am sure they are unreliable, especially if they are based on NICHE’s data. There are too many problems with the income data to delineate here but schools that have a higher percent of engineer majors (and maybe business school majors) are going to list higher incomes for graduates. Also, schools that have more city dwellers as graduates, esp in expensive cities like NY will have higher numbers. Hofstra probably graduates a lot of English and Psychology majors-their starting income will be lower. Then the sites that compare engineer majors to engineer majors rely on self reported income on sites like NIche that don’t verify either the income or the graduate status of the respondent. I’m not suggesting Hofstra or Maryland. Just that you make decisions based on actual accurate information.
CC don’t tend to offer much CS material anyway. Even in the Illinois Engineering Pathway that can get kids from certain IL CC’s in to UIUC Engineering, kids take mostly the science and math courses that COE requires at the CC and take the vast bulk of the CS courses at UIUC if they are a CS major.
That’s a problem I have with the plan of starting at UMD, BTW; unless you can skip some classes, you may not be able to take many CS classes and may just be taking on debt to take distros your freshman year there.
If you don’t want Hofstra, I think it’s a gap year, applying for spring admission, or a CC.