I was accepted to all of these schools for a major in either electrical or electrical and computer engineering. Carnegie Mellon offered me no money, so the price is $63,000. WPI and RPI both offered me a little bit of merit money which brought the cost down to $50,000 per year. And Umass since I’m in state, and have earned a John and Abigail Adams scholarship would cost about $23, 000 per year, and a lot less in travel since I live 40 min away. The money is both a non issue and an issue. My father has a college fund for me, so I will be debt free from whichever school I choose, (and I don’t qualify for Financial aid). He has told me though that any money left in the fund after I graduate can go towards grad school or buying a house, or starting a business. I really have no concept of what each school would mean for my long term earnings, or whether grad school would be a good investment. I know I’m pretty lucky to have all these choices, but I just want others opinions who might be more informed than me.
I went to RPI for grad school and, unlike casual visitors, came to love Troy and the Capital district. The campus is big enough that you won’t get bored in 4 years, and the internship program looked great when I toured with my kid a couple of years ago. That said, I think that UMass, Amherst I presume, has a lot going for it. Cost; proximity to family; strong, alternative majors; and diverse student body all seem appealing to me. I would save the cash unless you are really in love with one of the other 3.
If you do well as an undergrad, you are likely to be offered funding as a RA or TA in graduate school in engineering or another STEM field. Unless you are planning on going to medical school, you would not need much of the college fund for grad school. I would use the college fund now and go to Carnegie Mellon.
@CheddarcheeseMN, PhD programs tend to be funded, but masters (and MBA/JD/MD) programs tend not to be.
Plus, $160K is a lot of money that could go towards a house or business. Even $52K is a lot of money. My suspicion is that for EE/ECE, your prospects coming out of RPI won’t be much different than if you came out of CMU. Possibly true for UMass as well, but that’s a very different environment. Where do you fit?
Being almost 7 years out of college myself, I think I would’ve appreciated a large amount of money to buy a home, go to graduate school, or both. If you have enough money in the college fund to pay for CMU outright, then you’d be saving $160,000 in actual cold hard cash to use however you like after college. Master’s students usually do have to pay for a master’s themselves and $160,000 is enough to cover even a master’s at a place like MIT or Caltech - and the thing is, if you want to get a graduate degree anyway, where you went to undergrad will matter less.
I agree that it would be about fit moreso than anything - CMU is a comprehensive university that leans towards tech and science; RPI and WPI are both tech institutes and UMass is a more comprehensive liberal arts university with everything. It’s a well-respected public, too. So if you felt like you would be unhappy at UMass but happier at one of the other three, then I’d take one of them.
However…I don’t think outcomes at CMU will be worth $160K more than outcomes at UMass-Amherst. You might investigate what kinds of internships and job opportunities engineering students have at both - ask career services.
Honestly for me, the choice would be between Carnegie Mellon and UMass. In my personal opinion saving the $52K wouldn’t be enough for me to choose RPI over CMU (although ironically they’re the closest together in quality, and it really would depend on your preferences). So it would really be about how badly I wanted that $160K. When I was 17, I would’ve chosen Carnegie Mellon and not looked back. But having the benefit of hindsight? $160,000 would’ve been really, really nice to have while I was doing my PhD - as a cushion to the low stipend, to pay for moving costs, to supplement for conference travel, etc. And/or it would be nice to have when embarking upon a career - again, as a cushion, and/or to use part of it as a down payment for a house.
The reason you did not get any aid is because your family has prepared for it, a rather mistake, it could have been
rearranged.
If money is not an issue, I think you should go for CMU or RPI, if you want to be closer to home, go to WPI.
Umass? That is only for low admission stats students or kids from a family that need money desperately.
The quality of teaching and the students you meet and socialize with do make a difference, as for the money, you should set a goal to make more for yourself and not to think too much of what your dad could give you.
I agree with others that down the road, many years after you graduate, if you averaged yourself and end up like all the people who just hold a regular job(many of us do), maybe money does play a more important role for your decision making, but you are a 18 year old, go for a school with difficult courses and challenge yourself, don’t live a life like 40 or 50 year old.
CMU makes a point of the high salaries the students earn at graduation, because it does cost a lot. My DD is finishing her 2nd year in CIT and will be making $28/hr at her summer internship. Plus free lunches and subsidized transportation. That university pulls in the recruiters.