<p>Working Engineers and Computer Scientists, </p>
<p>Considering cash only, no merit aid, no needs based aid, just your hard earned cash, would you pay $250,000 for a BS in Engineering, even from one of the giants like MIT or Stanford, if you could attend your flagship state school ranked 75 or better in USNWR? Why or why not?</p>
<p>M</p>
<p>Depends on the following factors:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Can you afford the $250k? If you or your family have a significant amount of cash saved, that will of course influence your decision.</p></li>
<li><p>What are your career aspirations? For what you want to do, do you gain anything from being around peers who are high caliber as opposed to average?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>No qualifications, just would you spend $250K. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.</p>
<p>If you feel like being being around high caliber peers is worth $250 and only found by spending $250K, argue that point. You might get some push back from alums from the likes of UIUC, GT, Purdue, UCB, Michigan, etc., but that will be their point to make.</p>
<p>M</p>
<p>If I had it to spend without hurting other members of the family, absolutely yes. If I don’t have it, it’s not even an issue. Would I borrow it? If I had the means to repay it. Would I advise an 18 year old to borrow it with parent who aren’t going to be able to help much if any? Nope.</p>
<p>I never make decisions in a vacuum. I recently bought a nice watch that cost me $160 instead of one that would cost me $20. If I didn’t have the money, I wouldn’t have considered getting the better one, and would opt for the cheaper one instead.</p>
<p>The schools you listed are more top-10 than top-75. Based on the premise set in your OP, I think a more correct comparison would be University of Connecticut vs. MIT. If entrepreneurship is your goal, you’ll certainly have a greater chance of making the right connections at MIT or Stanford.</p>
<p>There are a lot of full freight students (families), so yes. There are also families that are paying 35K+/yr for K-12 education too.</p>
<p>I would never drop 250K on a bachelor’s degree in anything from any school.</p>
<p>The state-flagships are always good choices.</p>
<p>I don’t think $250K is worth it for any college. My main reason why I am against spending money on college prestige is because personally, I do not think the software engineering industry is fair to the high academic-achieving graduate. Now, true…CS grads from top schools can get high-finance jobs on Wall Street but that is few and not even engineering. An CS student from the 100th ranked school can obtain high-demand skills and catch up (in salary) to the grads from top schools by the 2nd or 3rd employer in their career.</p>
<p>Now if there were something in place where employers only allowed former grads of top schools to gain expertise in the latest technology…or only the companies that hired only top-school grads could try out the latest technologies…or even industry certifications were open only to top school grads, then I would change my tune with spending a lot for college.</p>
<p>…but it is not that way</p>
<p>All these companies are doing is giving top school grads about $5,000-$10,000 more of a starting salary. That’s it?..after getting A’s all through high-school, graduating from Georgia Tech and my cubicle is still next to the 2.5 GPA state-school grad who is working on the same project and has access to the same opportunities as myself?</p>
<p>Nah</p>
<p>Do you mean spend $250K as opposed to paying full freight (say, 100K) at your state flagship, or compared to a full ride at your flagship? Is the cost differential 150K or 250K?</p>
<p>If you’re going to work as an engineer for a company (as opposed to being a part of a start-up), it’s highly unlikely that spending $250k will be worth it.</p>
<p>Are you considering this trade-off or is this a hypothetical question?</p>
<p>This is easier enough to calculate. Assuming you spend $60K for four years and then had a starting salary of $75,000 with annual increase of say 7% and a 25% net tax rate you would have an NPV of over $300,000 after 10 years and a payback period of 4 years post-graduation. A state school would cost $20-$25K so assuming you got $10K higher salary from the private school your NPV would be $130k or so higher after 10 years but would be almost the same after 20 years. </p>
<p>What you have to decide is: whether the private school is strong enough in the field that it will command a better starting salary? Whether your pay will advance faster or slower depending on your background? Will more opportunities arise (top grad schools) from attending the private school?</p>
<p>This is all before financial aid which changes the numbers for non-cash customers. If you get into MIT or Stanford - GO. For other private schools - run the numbers and figure out what your willing to pay fot the private school experience.</p>
<p>Why would you just be looking at the starting salary? There are people who go to college for the sake of getting the best education. How would you measure contact/network you may get from college? What about if you were to go to a college and couldn’t get a job?</p>
<p>Candles, the scenario is full freight at either. For argument’s sake we’ll say $99,000 for your in state. We’re talkin’ Mizzou, San Diego State, Colorado State, Utah, Iowa, Oregon, Clemson, Pitt, Arizona. Or $250,000 anywhere else.</p>
<p>M</p>
<p>LakeClouds, it is both considering the trade-off and a hypothetical. It is a question MANY families face. These are families with high EFCs who will get no financial aid, but not so wealthy that flopping down a quarter of a million won’t come without some compromise, some bigger than others, less money into the 401K, loans, driving an older car, fewer vacations, you name it. Every family has their particulars. Families that can pay with no pain and no compromise are fairly uncommon. I’m just trying to stimulate a discussion.</p>
<p>M</p>
<p>I might scrape up to $20K/year extra to go to Stanford or MIT, but no way would I pay $250K out of pocket for a degree from one of those schools.</p>
<p>I’s like placing a big bet in Las Vegas. It could pay off more than a tiny bet, but you’ll probably just end up losing money.</p>
<p>Paying 250K for an Engineering degree is stupid, I don’t care if it is from MIT, Stanford or Caltech. A monthly payment on a 250 K loan over 20 years at a very good interest rate(5%) is like $1650/month for 20 years!</p>
<p>Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. </p>
<p>That’s what I would say of someone paid $250,000 for a BS engineering degree. It’s a bachelors not a masters or doctorate. </p>
<p>In my area, it doesn’t matter if you have a fancy pants degree from MIT or whoever. They’ll shrug and say, “OK, what’s your GPA.” You won’t get a leg up. State flagship, hands down, wins the race.</p>
<p>Absolutely not.
For undergraduate go to your state school if it is accredited and SAVE YOUR MONEY FOR THE GRADUATE SCHOOL.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>San Diego State is not the flagship. A California resident who can get into MIT or Stanford can likely also get into any state university of his/her choice, including Berkeley and Cal Poly SLO.</p>
<p>Realistically, the comparison schools for the no-financial-aid student with high enough stats to have a reasonable chance at MIT and Stanford would be:</p>
<ul>
<li>$60,000 to $140,000 for in-state public universities.</li>
<li>$120,000 to $160,000 for lower cost higher reputation out-of-state public universities (i.e. the Minnesota, Stony Brook, Cal Poly SLO, Virginia Tech, NCSU type of schools)</li>
<li>$0 to $85,000 for lower cost out-of-state public universities (i.e. Alabama with the automatic full tuition plus scholarship; South Dakota Mines; automatic full rides at Louisiana Tech, Prairie View A&M, Howard; competitive full rides at Georgia Tech, NCSU, and perhaps in-state public universities)</li>
</ul>
<p>ucbalum, Point taken on the Flagship. Strike that and just insert any school $100k or less that has engineering with a reasonable reputation. I randomly defined that as USNWR ranking of 75 or better. Would you pay $150,000 MORE for ANY other school? Why or why not?</p>
<p>M</p>