@2sunny
Ah. What I meant by ‘GPA is worthless in college’ is that there is no noticeable difference between a 3.0 and a 4.0 for industry (except in certain schools in very very certain subfields such as being a software developer in Morgan Stanley)
But yes, a 3.0 is ‘generally’ the filter for interviews. However, this filter is not really endorsed as the local companies and co-op department gives the student an interview after the resumes are received and passed.
And as resumes rarely include GPA (it’s highly discouraged even if it’s extremely high), firms generally don’t know the student’s gpa during the interview. In fact it is because of this I have evidenced a couple 2.6~2.9 gpa students get offers from Google and Amazon.
That stated, yes, there are many firms that do have in the requirements ‘3.0 or above’, but I do believe at least for the big firms that such is not the case (at least with companies like Microsoft). Now if you are talking about places like Palantir, that’s a completely different issue as it is not the ‘norm’ in the software industry.
GPA is honestly not looked at in the software industry even for the first job.
Companies claim much of the time about gpa cut offs and all but to be quite frank, at least in the software industry, the cut off more or less doesn’t exist (or isn’t really practiced).
Most of the GPA cut off places tended to be banking related software side, extremely small and selective companies such as Palantir, companies that are recruiting from outside the USA, and indeed some more-local companies.
But other than that, GPA doesn’t affect much in one’s career in the software industry. It is more used to filter for graduate schools.
That stated, I am assuming that your student is somewhat serious in his or her study and would be getting ‘at least’ a 3.0
With that concluded, those that have filtering for GPA through cut off is either a 3.0 or a 3.5
Hence ideally a GPA of 3.6 or higher is preferred but the thing is that most companies just won’t even bother to check the GPA (and hence somewhat ‘worthless’ in the industry).
Oh ya, and generally grad school is somewhat funded in the STEM fields.
And the full ride does truthfully sound like a favorable option right now (if the elite schools just cost too much even after financial aid)
That stated, last time I did check, Princeton Univ had phenomenal financial aid system that rivaled Harvard. And Harvard last time I checked only required like around $12.5k a year after tuition, housing, etc. if the parents made about $150k a year in a family of 4. Maybe I am wrong but at least such was the case back when I was applying to colleges. Maybe things changed but I sure hope it wasn’t that great of change.
I think your situation is somewhat similar to this: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/1307790-trustee-scholarship-at-bu-vs-mit-without-fa-p1.html
You can read from these too and have some insights.