Cornell vs UVA (Debt vs No Debt)

lonestarvike
Sun, 26 Apr 2015 13:37:31 +0000

My son is at Cornell and my best friend’s daughter is at UVA so some familiarity. We live in TX and my son had to choose between UT and Cornell so we had that similarity. First it sounds like you really want to Cornell but are afraid of the debt which I understand. I can only advise that while $60k looks huge now you need to put into the context of what you hope is a 30 year career, if you are successful that will be relatively insignificant. Other than the fact that CS at Cornell is 3rd in the Nation (LinkedIn) and they are opening the tech campus in NYC which you mentioned and have the Incubator in Ithaca you need to keep in mind the demographics and the overall experience. My son realized that if he went to UT most of the students (90%?) would be from Texas because its a State School like UVA. At Cornell there are students from every state in the US and many foreign countries, your classmates are as an important part of the experience as any classes you will take. Still its your money and debt we are talking about so I respect that, just asking you to consider the decision in context of what you hope is a long successful career.