<p>100k is my cap. Graduating and paying off 250k is much harder and longer, and much more grueling, whereas 100k is like 2-4 years of work.</p>
<p>No way.</p>
<p>In the median case there is no way your career earnings will justify a $250,000 investment in your degree, especially $250,000 for an undergrad degree.</p>
<p>You can get a much better return on investment by starting your own business or investing that $250,000.</p>
<p>Even for reasonably priced degrees the average ROI is only 12-13% these days I believe.</p>
<p>Well, we sent our S to a OOS private U which cost us about $150K after significant merit awards. No regrets in not pushing him to attend instate public flagship where he could have completed for < half that price but likely would have taken additional years due to limited classes and with no merit. He graduated to a job in his field he enjoys. Glad we didn’t have debt. After you factor in the years S would have been unable to hold full time job because he was still waiting to get into courses at instate U, think he may have come out ahead financially.<br>
Much more in the way of recruitment at U where S attended. He had 3 solid offers by Feb of SR year, all related to his engineering degree.</p>
<p>If you won’t pay $250k for an engineering degree, what degree would you pay that much for? Or are you saying that it’s only worthwhile to attend your in-state U (or merit which is rare)?</p>
<p>Obviously, there are many, many families and students who have paid this and more for their degrees at a wide range of Us for many different degrees.</p>
<p>“If you won’t pay $250k for an engineering degree, what degree would you pay that much for?”</p>
<p>Maybe a Stanford or Harvard MBA, or a Yale law degree. And let me stress the word, “Maybe”.</p>
<p>You’d be paying for the connections you make more than anything.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t even pay that for an MBA (and I am planning on getting my MBA). $250,000 for two years of school? Nope. I’ll wait for someone to pay me to go! XD</p>
<p>No. 250K is not worth any BS/BA degree from any school. I would consider a cost premium of and additional 10-15K for a top 3 school but certainly not more than that.</p>
<p>There are many very good engineering programs at great schools at more reasonable price points.</p>
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<p>An MBA will only set you back about $160k.</p>
<p>But good luck getting in from State U. These schools admit mostly students from elite private schools and a handful from State Us. Part of the $250k spent on a BS provides options value.</p>
<p>I see a lot of state schools on this list:</p>
<p>[Undergraduate</a> Institutions - MBA - Harvard Business School](<a href=“http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/admission-requirements/Pages/undergraduate-institutions.aspx]Undergraduate”>Undergraduate Institutions - MBA - Harvard Business School)</p>
<p>The datset you need is not representative schools but the numbers from each school. I’ve seen that list and there are fewer pubic State U kids. Also, there a ton more grads from the State Us so again as a percentage your odds are poorer.</p>
<p>Quite honestly, I would not. I’m pretty satisfied with where I went for undergrad. I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything else.</p>
<p>If my son were showing promise of being a world-changer and the best of the best, then, absolutely, I would mortgage the house and send him to work with the brightest minds available. If the realistic goals are more along the lines of a BS and a job in industry, then no, it’s not worth it.</p>
<p>It’s a bit like parents sending their national champion daughters to live with Bela Karolyi. Not ideal if the goal is to win Districts.</p>
<p>No; my state flagship (University of Washington) is so good for my chosen field (CS) that it didn’t make any sense for me to go elsewhere and pay a ton of money (never mind the fact that I was originally trying to do bioengineering). I’ve had the opportunity to do some really great internships at top companies. I definitely don’t feel like I’m missing out from a career perspective. From a college experience perspective, maybe a little bit, but I’m generally satisfied.</p>
<p>No way. $250,000 is way too much for a degree in engineering. Get a degree from the cheapest in-state university you can attend, do well, get internship or co-op experience, and put the $250,000 in a CD or something and buy a house when you graduate.</p>
<p>The difference in starting salary between a job from Podunk U. and MIT, for the same student, might be $25,000 per annum, maybe, if you’re lucky. It will take 10 years for you to catch up, and by then your experience will be worth more than your schooling anyway. If you stay at jobs for 5 years - not a terribly bad tenure nowadays - that’s two new jobs along the way. There’s no easier way to get a promotion or raise than to get some experience and then put yourself back on the market.</p>
<p>You should consider carefully whether $250,000 is worth spending on a nice house that you like that you could inhabit for the rest of your life, or that you might be able to sell for a profit in the future. Spending that much on an investment that, at best, won’t do much better than much cheaper options is a luxury. Only you can decide what you want to spend money on, but $250,000 for school is filet mignon from a cow that only ever ate Skittles.</p>
<p>I’d spend 250,000 if I had it and I was going to a great school, but I couldn’t even afford a 25,000 per year college without a lot of help.</p>
<p>
Oh, shucks! Let me quickly transfer to UF so I have a chance at getting my MBA.</p>
<p>
That’s probably high for an engineering job. The big catch to the it doesn’t matter where you go to engineering school argument is this … the majority of MIT engineers do not go into engineering after they graduate. Lots go into consulting, finance, and grad schools … and at rates way higher than students from other schools.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong … I believe it’s the student not the school that creates the success. I also believe that the State School route has less slack for any screw ups … to get into the top grad schools or consulting/wall street out of an solid school a student will need great boards and something very near a 4.0 … while a MIT/Stanford/Caltech student may getaway with many more Bs on their transcript. </p>
<p>I’m not a big fan of viewing college for my kids as a ROI decision … I want to know which school they think will provide the best educational experience for them … if it is MIT or UChicago that great … and if it’s UVM that’s great also. For different students different environments have different pros and cons … and the best fit for my kid does not necessarily correlate with cost at all.</p>
<p>Pay levels in entry level engineering jobs may not vary much between graduates of different schools, after accounting for regional differences. But recruiting attractiveness may differ, in that non-local employers may travel to visit mainly the larger and better known (for engineering) schools; they may not think that smaller or lesser known schools to be worth the effort to travel to. So students at such schools may have to be more aggressive about finding and applying to non-local employers.</p>