May 1st is approaching, our choice has come down to the two. Our financial situation is decent, but not high enough to not blink at the high price tag for Emory.
The kid is very understanding and would be fine with either, but we want to make sure we make an informed decision. The major is most likely Econ/Business.
Your input is greatly appreciated!
Econ and business are different - but I’d find it hard to believe that Emory is worth $240K more for anything - even if Wall Street were the goal. I mean, that’s a quarter of a million dollars.
Not a hard choice to me - especially given that it sounds like it could impact your financial stability.
Great admit - it’s a need aware school - so they’d love your full pay in their coffers - but how would you recoup that delta?
Here are the career outcomes of each. Yes, Emory’s (on paper) seem better if finance type roles are the goal although we don’t know the knowledge rate - but $240K is - hmmmm - a lot of money for zero assurance.
BBA Employment Success | Emory University Goizueta Business School
Thanks for you honest take! My thinking is kind of along the same line. The AI’s impact on the recent job market (mostly negative) makes us even more hesitant to commit 100k per year.
Just to provide my bias, I was a math major in university, took a small number of classes in economics and in AI, and then ended up getting a master’s degree in an applied-math heavy area.
It is hard to know what impact AI will have on the job market. My best guess is that this will take out some low end jobs, but also make some very knowledgeable people quite valuable. Someone needs to understand what the AI is doing, and make sure that it has not gone very wrong. I think that this might very well benefit someone who has a decent background in math, and also understands something about how AI and machine learning actually work, and also understand very well the field that they specialize in such as economics.
All of which to me suggests that a master’s degree is not out of the question by any means.
I might also mention that when I was getting my master’s I took one single course that was not a math course. It was econometrics. Even as a math major, I needed to brush up on linear algebra to fully understand and to well in the econometrics course.
To me this suggests that it might not be a bad idea to think of a master’s as a possibility and budget for 5 or 6 years of university.
Also, Rutgers is a very good university. I have known many Rutgers graduates and they have all made Rutgers look very good. The first three Rutgers graduates that I knew were graduate students at Stanford (along with me in a master’s program). Admittedly this was a while ago.
And to me the uncertainty of all of this would make me reluctant to take on debt.
I would go with Rutgers, save some money in case you end up helping with the cost of a master’s degree, and see whether the student is happy taking some math and perhaps at least one course in AI or ML along with their degree in economics or business.
But predicting the future is inherently risky.
As parents who sent both of our kids to our state flagships, we’ve definitely gone back and forth on the whole prestige vs. cost question. For us, it really came down to what we were comfortable paying. We just didn’t want to stretch our finances or feel like we were “mortgaging the house” for college. So we were pretty upfront with our daughters and told them that we’d cover up to the in-state COA, and anything beyond that would be on them. It actually made school list a lot shorter and took some of the pressure out of the decision.
For something like Econ/Business, there are so many paths to success, and a lot depends on what the student does while they’re there, internships, networking, grades, more than just the school name.
Honestly, sounds like your kid has a great mindset already, which is half the battle. I don’t think there’s a wrong choice between the two, but the decision will be just what feels right financially and personally for your family.
This.
Congratulations to your kid on two great admits!
I agree with the fact that this is a very personal decision, for both your kid and your family. But here are some questions that might be helpful to think about:
For econ and/or business, has your kid been accepted to the appropriate college within the university to study those fields?
Are there any criteria or gatekeeping measures that they would be required to meet to proceed in the desired major? If so, what are the chances of them meeting those measures?
If your kid changed their mind about the major(s), what area(s) would they lean toward? Are those fields offered at each school? Is there any gatekeeping to switch majors into those other fields and, if so, how likely would your kid be to meet those requirements (or is it holistic)?
Is your family on a path to a financially secure retirement regardless of which school is selected? If there was a sudden illness, or job loss, or some other factor that cut short your family’s working years, would the delta between Emory and Rutgers impact your financial security?
So for some families, this sort of difference is comfortably affordable and therefore potentially justifiable just for the possible differences in the four-year experience. Some families might also have serious concerns about a kid thriving at a large public (although of course they could be pursuing more affordable options along suitable lines, such as by chasing merit at private LACs and research universities with more merit available than Emory).
Assuming that isn’t your family and you don’t have that specific concern, I think Rutgers is simply too good of a research university to make it possible for Emory to have a strong case with such a large gap in cost. Particularly since of course in fields like Econ and Business, you can sooner or later get further graduate or professional degrees if you think that is necessary to advance your career.
Not precisely on point, but I am beginning to wonder whether or not some college admissions officers are compensated by commission.
In plain-speak language: Just how rich are you ?
Without more information, Rutgers-N.B. appears to be the safer & wiser option. I share your concerns regarding the possible effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on the job market, therefore, it would be wise to maintain financial flexibility.
They are salespeople, perhaps there are team bonuses, but it wouldn’t surprise if this happened.
In the end, no doubt they take the job for the right reason but likely quickly learn the business aspect of higher ed.
Thank for your insight. I feel like AI is going to with us not matter what. Students need to be prepared.
On a separate note Rutgers is definitely a decent public university with a larger than usual campus and large student body. Going to Rutgers likely gives us a lot more flexibility.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Yes, it’s that “prestige” thing that makes the decision not as easy as it should be. And the Wall Street (high finance/IB) happens to give the school name more weight than arguably any other industries, based on what I’ve I heard, especially when it comes to new graduates.
I think my kid is still exploring at this stage as to what he wants to do in the future. Thankfully, both he should not have problems changing majors in both schools, as he would enroll in one of the more popular schools at Rutgers if he chooses Rutgers. Students don’t have to declare their majors until the sophomore year at Emory.
I’ll be blunt.
You aren’t asking about Princeton full freight (arguably prestigious in the prestige conscious fields) vs. Rutgers. You are asking about Emory.
You have two fine choices, and frankly, I don’t see either of them easing out the other in the prestige game. Your kid will have opportunities to excel and stretch in both places.
If it were me- and the old-timers on CC usually consider me to be the ultimate “Prestige-$%^&” I’d be committing to Rutgers. There are opportunities for an Econ student to team up with faculty at the Eagleton Institute; there are dozens of inter-disciplinary centers which study labor, tax, voting inequality, the impact on the costs of childcare on the corporate community, does minimum wage legislation hurt or help low income people.
I’ve told this story before- but I was tasked with hiring a statistician for an internal think tank-like unit at my company. The hiring managers specified PhD in one of about 10 different disciplines (Valuation, Black-Scholes models, I won’t bore you with the rest).
We ended up hiring a BS in Applied Math from Rutgers who blew everyone away. He had specific domain knowledge in a bunch of different econ and finance areas; he was a crack statistician who was skilled at explaining VERY technical stuff to non-technical audiences (like members of the press, politicians). He had pretty much just approached every professor he found working on something he thought was cool and asked “Hey, need help with anything?”
So there are several morals of the story. Biggest is that grit trumps everything else, which you already know. But second is that a kid who isn’t exactly sure what to study (business and finance are not the same-it’s kind of like going to a neuroscientist for talk therapy around your anxiety disorder) is going to benefit from being a state flagship with tons and tons of cool stuff happening.
Emory is great. But it does not punch above its weight prestige wise- I think employers have a pretty accurate view of what it does well and the kind of preparation a kid will get for a variety of careers.
Good luck.
I’d agree Emory is the better choice in your first box - but your 2nd statement on flexibility makes that a big investment for someone who may end up with no interest.
If you can fully afford it and not blink, then choose the preferred.
But if the money will alter your life in some way or make you blink as you noted - you can still do it - but in 10 years from now, the outcome might be identical.
That’s the question here - especially for a student who isn’t fully committed or decided. And by the way - there are kids from many schools that work at the I Banks. Run a linked in search for Rutgers and you’ll find plenty.
Rutgers-N.B. places well on Wall Street–especially so from the special-programs in the business school designed for students seeking Wall Street internships.
Rutgers Road To Wall Street program is one of the special programs.
In general, I note the vast majority of people who end up with successful careers in finance are not in fact going to go to one the most famous few investment banks right out of college. Including because of course there are lots of finance jobs not at investment banks at all.
So while I understand a lot of kids coming out of HS are focused on just a few possible post-college paths, in the real world there are way more opportunities than just those.
This kind of honest opinion is exactly why I chose to seek input here. I’ll make sure to show your post to my son. Thank you!