I have been accepted to both Swarthmore College and the University of Michigan as a transfer student, however at Michigan I would be able to potentially graduate in two years whereas at Swarthmore it might be 2.5 to 3 years.
Swarthmore is about $3,000 more per year than Michigan for me even though I am an Out of State student at Michigan.
At Michigan, I would be in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts where I would plan to major in data science.
At Swarthmore, I would plan to study economics and educational studies.
Swarthmore tends to attract consistently intellectual – and often brilliant – students, @calmlywaiting. You may want to consider whether this would be an environment you would want to pass on, particularly since you applied to the school for a reason obviously. I understand that there are various aspects of your choices that will be important to your final decision, however, and, to be clear, I’m not saying that UM wouldn’t represent a nice opportunity as well.
More importantly, can you afford full tuition at either school? Also Michigan is extremely picky on transfer credits. Look on their site to see what transfers
What was your unweighted GPA and Act or Sat score?
Don’t you have another post on this? Is your financial aid package at either school affordable without hefty loans? Have you visited UM and Swarthmore? What do you want to study more? Econ and data science are very different.
More information - can you afford to pay the tuition at one of your preferred schools? What year are you currently in? How many more semesters before you compete your degrees?
Both are good, so it really comes down to your own resources, needs, and preferences.
Michigan is less expensive and would allow you to graduate sooner.
If data science is your preferred major (?), but only Michigan offers it, what would be your argument for choosing Swarthmore instead?
I would think data science (or CS) is a more marketable major than econ + educational studies, if your intention is to enter the job market right after college. Swarthmore seems to be especially good at motivating/preparing students for doctoral programs, in case that is something you might want. But either school could work for either goal (especially if you build appropriate research projects or internships into your program).
Btw, I’m not sure why you were asked your GPA and standardized scoring above. You have received offers from these schools, whatever you have earned has obviously been sufficient!
Are Michigan and Swarthmore affordable without your parents taking on significant loans? Have you visited these schools? Which path sounds more interesting to you?
Well, I’d think you would mostly want to pursue an education at this stage, not degrees in and of themselves. In this context, the prospect of accelerated degrees at a discount seems to be an unfortunate temptation.
It is completely a financial issue. If your parents are willing and able to pay for you, fine. If you and parents are borrowing a large amount to do this, not so fine. If you are in the middle of those extremes, you. And parents need to weigh the situation as to whether the cost is worth it. For a family in good financial situation, and parents all on board, it’s fine. If it’s going to cause some real life issues like , threaten their retirement, have to borrow against the house, etc , that’s a whole other story.
You have 2 threads asking about this. Nobody can give you sound advice unless you answer the questions about the financial piece. Are both schools affordable without huge loans?
It is manageable, but my family certainly isn’t able to pay it off like a breeze. My parents are able to contribute $30k for me. I’m planning to borrow $10k from my older brother (many years older than me) who is a doctor in NYC. The rest I plan to take out loans, however since I can graduate in two years at Michigan and am going into data science, I should easily be able to pay it off as the starting salary is six figures for a data scientist.
If worst comes to worst my father is willing to sell one of our three rental properties which would easily cover my cost of attendance.
I feel that I would like Michigan more, however Swarthmore is only undergrad so if I pass on Swarthmore I would not be able to go there for grad school as they don’t have any graduate programs, whereas if I go to Swarthmore for undergrad then I could go to Michigan for grad school. However, I do not believe I will be able to directly go to grad school after graduating with my bachelor’s degree, due to the high costs associated with my undergraduate education.
I have visited both schools and they are both great just different (small liberal arts college vs. large public research university). I feel that Michigan might be a better fit for me, but then again the large size can be intimidating.
Ultimately though, I really do not like my current institution and truly want to leave.
Thanks for reading this guys I appreciate your help!
Just read that 88% if data scientist have a masters degree. Most start between $50, 000 and up depending. You most likely would still need to get a masters to make that kind of money but maybe not.
So you would have to take into account the costs of graduate school also right?