<p>For example, if you got into NYU, would you pick UMD college park over NYU because it's cheaper?</p>
<p>...I meant, "very good school"</p>
<p>The difference between the two isn't significant enough to make a difference. If we were talking Stanford vs. UMD, it might be worth thinking about. </p>
<p>I'd pick whichever school offers more of whatever I think is most important to me, given that prestige is comparable.</p>
<p>I agree with MOM haha go with the cheaper school.</p>
<p>I don't really think NYU is much more prestigious than Maryland.</p>
<p>would it be dumb to choose carnegie mellon over cornell and uchicago? i know cornell has the ivy-ness (rep, alumni, connections etc.) and uchicago also has this, but i really like pittsburgh and i think carnegie has better job recruiting.</p>
<p>It doesn't have better job recruiting at all. At least not better than Cornell and Chicago. You said it yourself: rep, alumni, and connections. But if you like Pitt better and the scene better, thats a totally different story.</p>
<p>From reading the boards I think there are quite a few kids where this will be happening because of finances. </p>
<p>My son is agonizing over huge debt for schools in top 10 LAC(US News), top 20 LAC etc. He was not interested in Ivy's . . . perhaps a huge mistake given the new FA policies.</p>
<p>i think there's many factors at play, like fin aid, courses available etc. I know someone who got into HYPMS and is highly likely to go to Rice...</p>
<p>beefs- i looked at the post-grad survey of cmu undergrads. the major computational finance (not an engineering or computer science major) ranged from 50k-80k starting salaries. the average was 59k i think. it seems like the cmu kids get very gih paying jobs. also, last year, kaplan's 25 hot schools ranked cmu as "hottest for getting a job"</p>
<p>Well I thought you meant the percentage of grads that have opportunity to get those types of jobs after college. There is definitely more actual recruiting at UChicago than at CMU, and for a bigger number of students.</p>
<p>well CMU is known as a quant school,even their MBA program. And computational finance is a VERY quant program. And quant majors get very high paying starting salaries. I wouldn't be concerned with recruiting as much as some of the other factors. Like if you can see yourself at a particular school, and if there are specific programs that you see yourself doing for 4 years, socially and academically.</p>
<p>I'm going to Northeastern, picking it over Villanova.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt v. Newhouse@Syracuse? So diametrically opposite, I'm baffled...Any input?</p>
<p>This may come off as more harsh than I intend it, but after you get past the top 20-30 colleges in the USNWR rankings (Nat'l Unis as well as LACs), the issue of prestige becomes increasingly less pressing. I personally think that prestige is grossly overweighted and think that the preoccupation with prestige can lead to an unfortunate college choice. Highly successful people regularly succeed from a great breadth of undergraduate institutions, large and small, prestigious and not. I'm not saying that it doesn't matter where you go to college (it can matter enormously, both professionally and personally), but this search for prestige is frequently pointless. Go where you'll be challenged, have new experiences, see new things, etc. and most of all, where you'll be happy. Know yourself, be true to yourself and please don't fall for the pyritic appeal of a college.</p>
<p>"There is definitely more actual recruiting at UChicago than at CMU, and for a bigger number of students."</p>
<p>Where would you get that idea? For what majors?</p>
<p>I'm picking a state school over top 20 privates. Money matters.</p>
<p>So prestige doesn't really matter? I always thought it did, but maybe I was wrong.</p>